No sooner had WhatsApp reached one milestone than it's ready to surpass another. Today, the service has announced that it's serving 2 billion monthly users worldwide, doubling its 2016 reach.

Even though the number seems beyond impressive — we're looking at nearly one quarter of the world's population after all — it still seems reasonable given the service's ubiquity and growth. Almost everyone I know between the ages of 10 and 70 is on WhatsApp, and thousands of companies and small businesses have adopted it too. In my neck of the woods, it's the default way everyone communicates.

In its official announcement, the team behind WhatsApp used the opportunity to reiterate the service's focus on privacy and security... perhaps hoping everyone forgets it's owned by Facebook.

Source: WhatsApp