Facebook Messenger celebrates 1 bn monthly active users

Facebook's messaging app, Messenger, has surpassed 1 billion monthly active users. The Next Web pointed out, that was a growth of 200 million users since January, and roughly suggests that 1 out of every 7 members of the population was logging onto Facebook Messenger each month to text with friends and family.

Thanking users in the announcement of the milestone, yesterday on Facebook, the Facebook Messenger team mentioned that the company would be celebrating by debuting the launch of new animated balloons into the chat app.

Any user could try it out by sending someone a traditional balloon emoji within Facebook Messenger to activate the new animation.

''On behalf of the entire Messenger team, we'd like to thank the more than 1 billion people who are now using Messenger every month. People use Messenger to connect with the people and businesses they care most about. They make plans, share dreams, send payments, tell jokes, play games, let their loved ones know they're thinking of them and much, much more. We know that every message is important to you - no matter what you want to say - and we're grateful that you choose to communicate using Messenger.''

According to the company, Messenger enjoyed a 10-per cent global market share of VoIP calls and over 17 billion photos were being sent on Messenger each month.

The company had recently rolled out end-to-end encryption on the platform with a feature called Secret Conversations. Users can set a timer to control the length of time each message remained visible, giving the Messenger a way to better compete with Snapchat.

The company also provided some fun facts about the app. Users sent 360 million Valentines via Messenger and 300 million flower stickers on Mother's Day and 250 million games of soccer had been played in the app.

Users had also played 1.2 billion games of Basketball, the equivalent of 975,000 NBA seasons.