Since the internet first arrived in the mid-’90s, there have been lots of messaging apps. AOL, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, and the various Google incarnations, to name just a few. Then things got ramped up a notch with Skype introducing VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), which finally allowed you to ditch landline phones for good and do your international calling for a fraction of the cost.
These days, you now have audio and video messaging apps such as Skype, Zoom, Signal, and Telegram. But as far as worldwide dominance goes, nothing is able to remotely touch the Facebook-owned WhatsApp. It has two billion active users worldwide, and one hundred million messages are sent every day. To put it into context, the population of the United States is 334 million, so you’re talking about six United States populations actively using WhatsApp. So if you’re not on it yet, you’re late to the party.