The instant messaging platform Facebook Messenger was hugely popular in 2015. Facebook has revealed that, near the year’s end, Messenger reached a monthly active user base of over 800 million.
This impressive statistic was disclosed today by David Marcus, the social network’s Vice President of Messaging Products, in an article on the newsroom section of the Facebook website. However, the number should not overly surprise as, only last month, research firm Nielsen ranked Messenger the third most popular mobile app in the US for at least most of 2015.
Facebook appears determined to further build upon the success of Messenger. Yesterday, we reported that Facebook was permitting some developers to make their own chat bots for the service – while, in a phone interview yesterday, Marcus told Reuters: “One of the things we have to work on this year is this perception or mindset that Messenger is only to speak with your Facebook friends”.
In his newsroom post today, Marcus even suggested that phone numbers could soon fall out of use, as Messenger includes many crucial functions previously limited to phones.
