The Pandemic Has Had Minimal Impact on US Messaging App Usage

Many digital activities, such as video streaming, have experienced a bump in usage during the pandemic. Yet the pandemic has had little impact on our mobile messaging app forecast. This year, 146.3 million US smartphone users will use mobile messaging apps at least once a month. This equates to just 3.6% growth year-over-year, a slight increase from our previous estimate of 3.1%.

While existing mobile messaging users are increasing their engagement, few new users are signing on. People tend to have well-established ways of sending messages or video calling, such as regular SMS and Apple’s FaceTime, so there is less appeal to using a separate messaging app.

Read More: 

• TikTok partners with Shopify as the video app moves further into social commerce​
• Snap's stellar Q3 results show that advertisers are returning, and user growth is rebounding​
• US social network user base will grow by 3.3% to 212.1 million this year​

eMarketer and Business Insider Intelligence have joined forces to become the leading research company focused on digital transformation. For more insights and key statistics on the biggest trends in today's most disruptive industries, subscribe to Chart of the Day.