WhatsApp now has 2 billion users globally

Popular Facebook-owned messaging company, WhatsApp, has marked yet another milestone by reaching over two-billion users – representing over 25 percent of the World’s population.

Founded in 2009, WhatsApp now has over 2 billion users up from 1.5 billion that it had in 2017. This fete puts it only behind Facebook and YouTube as the only other apps too have crossed the 2 billion users mark.

“Private conversations that once were only possible face-to-face can now take place across great distances through instant chats and video calling. There are so many significant and special moments that take place over WhatsApp and we are humbled and honored to reach this milestone.

We know that the more we connect, the more we have to protect. As we conduct more of our lives online, protecting our conversations is more important than ever,” WhatsApp wrote in a blog post.

The WhatsApp team also took the opportunity to reiterate its fight against anti-encryption arguing that encryption was a necessity in modern life and that it would not compromise on security like its end-to-end encryption as this would make people less safe.

“Strong encryption is a necessity in modern life. We will not compromise on security because that would make people less safe. For even more protection, we work with top security experts, employ industry-leading technology to stop misuse as well as provide controls and ways to report issues — without sacrificing privacy.” WhatsApp said.