It’s been four years since Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) launched its Messenger app, and after all these years, the company has finally managed to achieve over 1 billion monthly active users on the platform; according to Facebook’s official blog post. Facebook has been working seamlessly over its Messenger platform, especially since the F8 Developer conference took place back in April this year.
“We’re grateful for all the people who are sending billions of messages every day, and we hope to send 1 billion thank yous in the form of a new floating balloon gift that everyone can use to celebrate. Just send a balloon emoji to your friends to add a touch of whimsy and delight to any conversation,” said Facebook.
Both the Facebook-owned IM apps – Messenger and WhatsApp are equally important to the company. While WhatsApp mainly focuses on interpersonal conversations, Messenger has an even wider scope with the help of bots, services, and brands integration. Nonetheless, Messenger can also be used as a medium for interpersonal chat conversations.
According to the company’s research, the reason why people mainly use Messenger is to keep in touch with people and businesses that matter the most, and it involves making necessary plans, sending payments, playing games, sharing jokes, etc.
Facebook also added a new emoji in order to celebrate Messenger’s new milestone of reaching 1 billion active users. Facebook believes that a new floating balloon emoji will act as a gift that anyone can send to their contacts over chat just to celebrate the moment.
“We know that every message is important to you — no matter what you want to say — and our team is committed to building experiences you love and to making all the interactions in your life easier no matter who you are communicating with. Thank you for using Messenger and being part of our one-billion-strong community,” Facebook added.
Starting this year, Messenger added support for chat bots, intended to assist users discover data or seek an answer to questions. According to Facebook, over 18,000 bots are currently operational on Messenger.