Mobile chat apps overtake SMS for the first time

Mike Gallagher

Apr 29, 2013 - 10:41

0 1.8k

Mobile chat apps overtake SMS for the first time

Instant messaging using chat apps, such as Whatsapp and Apple's iMessage is now more popular than sending texts. Last year 19 billion instant messages were sent, compared to 17.6 million texts

The amount of messages being sent using chat apps, including Whatsapp, Apple's iMessage, and BlackBerry Messenger, has overtaken text messages for the first time ever.

A study by Informa, commissioned by the Financial Times, found that almost 19 billion instant messages were sent using chat apps in 2012, compared to 17.6 billion SMS texts.

And separate research, from Ovum, found that mobile networks lost out on $25bn from texting in revenue last year, because of this rise in chat apps, with this figure expected to rise to $34bn in 2013.

Informa is even predicting that by 2014, instant messages will outweigh text messages almost two-to-one with Informa analyst Pamela Clark-Dickson adding that some operators were already 'seeing a decline.'

Whatsapp's popularity, in particular was highlighted last week, when Nokia unveiled the first phone to have a Whatsapp button built-in.

Informa found that there were 3.5 billion people using SMS in 2012, compared to only 586.3 million users of the six main chat apps - WhatsApp, BlackBerry Messenger, Viber, Nimbuzz, Apple's iMessage and KakaoTalk.

These services have a combined 586.3 million users.

Yet, the average chat app users sent 32.6 messages a day, whereas SMS users sent just five a day.

The research also didn't take into account services such as Facebook Messenger for Android.

That said, Informa is quick to claim that SMS isn't going to be wiped out just yet.

Dickson-Clark adds there is 'a lot of life still in SMS' because every phone can use SMS, but chat apps are reserved to smartphones.

She also claims that SMS can be sent any time, when you have a network connection.

Alteatively, chat apps rely on you having a mobile data connection, or Wi-Fi.

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Nokia's Asha 210, the first phone to have a Whatsapp button built-in

A recent study of 5,000 US teens by PiperJaffray in April found that chat apps were also having an impact on social network sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.

The findings showed that 10% fewer named Facebook as their 'most important' site compared to a year ago, while there was an increase in the popularity and importance of sites and apps such as Kik, Vine, and Snapchat.