WhatsApp Used to Send a Record 14 Billion Messages on New Year's Eve in India

Highlights

• 3.1 billion images, 700 million GIFs, and 610 million videos were sent
• WhatsApp recently rolled out the ability to share GIF images
• WhatsApp has more than 160 million monthly active users in India

On New Year's Eve, 14 billion messages were exchanged through WhatsApp in India, 32 percent of which were in some form of media - photos, GIF images, videos, and voice messages, the Facebook-owned instant messaging app said on Friday.

The number of messages shared on the platform on New Year's Eve is even higher than the last record set during Diwali when 8 billion messages were sent in one day, WhatsApp said.

A total of 3.1 billion images, 700 million GIF images, and 610 million videos were sent on WhatsApp on the occasion. WhatsApp has more than 160 million monthly active users in India.

Interestingly, WhatsApp only recently rolled out the ability to share animated GIF images on the platform. WhatsApp for iPhone got the feature back in November, while WhatsApp for Android got the feature in December. Android recently also got the ability to stream shared videos, letting users view videos before they were downloaded.

Last month, a major new feature was reportedly spotted in the WhatsApp for iPhone beta - the ability to revoke and edit sent messages. Several other messaging apps offer similar features, and their addition to WhatsApp will certainly be well-received. Also spotted was the ability to preview shared archive files.

Notably, WhatsApp stopped working on older versions of Android, iOS, and Windows Phone on December 31. Devices running on Android 2.2 or lower, iOS 6 or lower, and Windows Phone 7 are no longer supported by the app.