Not to be outdone, WhatsApp today announced literally during Alphabet's earnings call minutes after it was announced Gmail had 1 billion MAUs that it, too, has joined the billion user club.

Unlike Gmail, the Facebook-owned communication service got there substantially quicker relative to its Play Store app: WhatsApp registered 1 billion installs on the Play Store in March last year, meaning it converted those installs into a billion MAUs in just 11 months. WhatsApp, of course, has also not been around nearly as long as Gmail, which makes it an even more impressive feat. Not to mention that here in the US most people have no freaking clue what WhatsApp is. ("What's WhatsApp?" "What's what app?" "No, what's WhatsApp." etc.)

WhatsApp announced back in September that it hit the 900 million user mark, meaning it took around 5 months to add another hundred million to that total. The fact that the service went completely free on all platforms two weeks ago probably helped in terms of reaching this milestone, though most long-time users haven't been charged for the service in ages, as our own Rita El Khoury can attest to. For more, hit up WhatsApp's blog.

Source: WhatsApp Blog