WhatsApp , the most popular messaging application in the world, has revealed a new milestone in its history. The app owned by Facebook would have exceeded 2 billion users , as announced by the firm in a post on its official blog.
This is a significant rise, since two years ago it was reported that it had exceeded 1,500 million . The 1 billion figure had been reached in 2016.
In its statement WhatsApp highlights its security , which has been questioned for a long time and affects its care for privacy. Do not forget that your umbrella company has had numerous controversies with this issue during the last two years.
“Every private message that is sent using WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted by default. This acts as a digital lock that cannot be broken and that protects the information you send via WhatsApp , helping to protect you from hackers and criminals. Messages are only stored on your phone, and no one can read your messages or listen to your calls, not even us. Your private conversations remain between you and your recipients ”, they assure.
In addition, from WhatsApp they affirm that “ end-to-end encryption is a necessity in modern life . We are not going to compromise the security of the platform because we do not want people to feel unprotected. For added protection, we work with the best security experts, employ industry-leading technology to stop potential abuse, and offer controls and channels to report issues, without sacrificing privacy. “
With this announcement, WhatsApp would become the second Facebook mobile tool to join the 2 billion club . The social network’s own app already has more than 2,500 million users.
Without knowing the data of active users
According to data from the mobile consulting firm Sensor Tower, WhatsApp was also the second most downloaded mobile application last January , only behind the Chinese social network TikTok. The messaging tool recorded 90.6 million installs during the interval. In this period, the countries that lowered it the most were India, with 35.3% of the total, and Brazil, with 9.4%.
In these cases, the figures must be qualified. When talking about users, this metric is usually equated with the downloads or profiles created in an application. Another very different thing are active users , which can be measured per day (DAUs) or per month (MAUs) and which give a more accurate approximation of the people who regularly use a product or service. That is, they show whether a user has created an account and is already or continues to be committed to a tool. In this case, WhatsApp has not clarified how many active users the messaging app actually has.
In recent months WhatsApp has tried to incorporate some functionalities and options that have been in Telegram for a long time, the mirror where it seems to be looking lately. For example, it has added fingerprint lock and facial recognition to protect chats. They have also incorporated the possibility of being put in groups without our permission and dark mode, to help the phone’s battery last longer.
