Normally adding 200 million users in 8 months to a product that already has a billion would reduce the average engagement, but most apps don’t have Facebook..<\/b>
Normally adding 200 million users in 8 months to a product that already has a billion would reduce the average engagement, but most apps don\u2019t have Facebook Messenger\u2019s network effect. Now with 1.2 billion monthly active users , \u201cwe increased engagement massively in terms of number of messages sent per active user. We had double-digit growth percentage-wise\u201d Facebook\u2019s head of Messenger David Marcus tells me.
Despite its bots not living up to the hype, Messenger had another banner year. It grew just a bit slower, since last time it got from 800 million to 1 billion users in just six months. Its daily US iOS App Annie download rank is up from a year ago, though a little down from a high point in June. But Marcus says the chat app is transcending being where people \u201cfind their Facebook friends they don\u2019t have a phone number for.\u201d For some it\u2019s become \u201ca primary communications channel.\u201d
According to Sensor Tower, worldwide iOS and Android downloads of Facebook Messenger grew 5.66% from 145.3 million in Q1 2016 to 153.5M in Q1 2017.
Now Messenger is working to become more than just the most popular SMS replacement in the Western world.
One approach is copying what\u2019s working elsewhere. Marcus says the app\u2019s Snapchat Stories clone Messenger Day is off to a good start. \u201cUsage with teens is much higher\u201d than some might have expected, \u201cwhich is cool\u201d Marcus says. \u201cWe\u2019ve built a product that teens use on Messenger!\u201d It\u2019s very distributed. It\u2019s going reasonably well. The participation rate is very good compared to our best Stories product\u201d he notes, alluding to Instagram Stories.
Messenger Day has a big opportunity since its host app has twice as many people on it as 600 million-user Instagram. Yet at least amongst writers at TechCrunch, Messenger Day hasn\u2019t quite taken off. Maybe we\u2019re just old.
Messenger also added a Snapchat-esque camera with funky animated selfie masks and illustrated filters, as Facebook latches onto the visual communication trend. In video, it launched copied Houseparty\u2019s split-screen group video chat. \u201cGroup video calling is becoming a big thing with teens especially with masks and effects because it\u2019s live\u201d Marcus notes.
Meanwhile, Messenger is branching out beyond traditional person-to-person communication. Games have given people something to do while waiting for message replies, or a reason to start a conversation with a high score challenge. And now its opening up its artificial intelligence assistant M to provide users with suggestions of Messenger utility features they could use like location sharing, payments, stickers, reminders, and ride hailing.
Now the question is how Messenger can make money via ads, not taking a cut of payments , without interrupting the experience. Marcus says structural changes to the app coming at F8 should provide it with new opportunities in this realm. It\u2019s tested sponsored messages from companies you\u2019ve already talked to, and a carousel of ads in the inbox. And it\u2019s driving revenue back on Facebook with News Feed ads that start a Messenger conversation with a product sales rep or bot when clicked.
Yet even if Messenger doesn\u2019t start churning out cash, it\u2019s contributing massively to Facebook\u2019s success by locking people into its ecosystem. At a time when chat has emerged as the center of the mobile universe, and Facebook\u2019s biggest competitor Snapchat is rooted in private communication, Messenger has fortified the blue app kingdom.<\/p>\n