WhatsApp has overtaken traditional mobile phone texts for the first time as users send 30 billion messages every . The app allows people to send instant messages and photographs via the internet rather without incurring charges from their network provider . Its growing popularity saw people send 30 billion WhatsApp messages a day last year , compared to 20 billion SMS text messages , according to research by The Economist . WhatsApp has overtaken traditional mobile phone texts for the first time as users sent 30 billion messages every day . Messaging apps have exploded in popularity over the last few years thanks to the growth of smartphones and 3G and 4G allowing fast internet connection . But the move is predicted to hit telecoms firms hard . Research company Ovum found that the decline in the use of traditional text messages in favour of messaging apps was estimated to cost mobile network providers $ 54billion by 2016 . WhatsApp has more than 450 million monthly users and claims it is currently registering one million new users a day . Last month , WhatsApp , which was only founded in 2009 , was bought by Facebook for $ 19 billion- the most ever paid for a venture-capital-backed company . It was the social networking giant 's biggest acquisition to date . In a statement announcing the deal , Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg described WhatsApp 's services as 'incredibly valuable ' . WhatsApp has more than 450 million monthly users and claims it is currently registering one million new users a day . It makes money by charging users a subscription fee of $ 1 per year , although it offers a free model as well .
WhatsApp users sent 30bn messages last year compared to 20bn texts . It is the first time an instant-messaging app has overtaken traditional SMS . The move is estimated to cost mobile network providers $ 54billion by 2016 .