Share of WhatsApp users in the United Kingdom (UK) 2018, by age group
Falling SMS and MMS numbers
It is no coincidence that as messaging apps such as Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger become more popular, the number of SMS and MMS messages sent has fallen in recent years. People within the UK sent 162 billion SMS and MMS messages during 2012, compared with just 82 billion messages in 2017. Globally, WhatsApp users sent 60 billion messages every day during the fourth quarter of 2017.
Varying popularity across Europe
WhatsApp is an extremely popular messaging app, although it has gained traction in some markets far more successfully than others. In France just 31 percent of the population are estimated to be WhatsApp users, compared with 75 percent of the population in Germany.