While everyone else was having a less than festive New Year’s Eve, WhatsApp was booming. Given that most people around the world were advised to stay home and avoid massive social gatherings due to the second wave of COVID-19, folks couldn’t really see the loved ones they wanted to in order to celebrate the ending of a pretty terrible year. Most folks turned to other forms of communication to stay in touch with friends and family, WhatsApp being one such medium. Obviously. And the service has a very good New Year’s Eve indeed.

WhatsApp is already one of the most popular instant messaging apps in the world so it makes sense that users made full use of its suite of features. According to the Facebook-owned app, 1.4 billion WhatsApp calls were made as the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve. This has set the record for most WhatsApp calls made in a single day. Not surprising, but impressive nonetheless.

WhatsApp rang in the New Year properly

While WhatsApp was the king of the instant messaging apps on 1 January 2021, that doesn’t mean the competition didn’t hit a massive spike too. Facebook Messenger (the other instant messaging app owned by Facebook) saw its largest ever boom of group video calls on New Year’s Eve. Instagram Live also saw 55 million broadcasts go out across the world. Say what you want about social media, but it really does connect people in times of turmoil.

Facebook confirmed that it was prepared for the spike, putting measures in place to ensure that calls ran smoothly. From the sounds of things, the folks tasked with keeping the nuts and bolts tight and the whole ship running did their jobs with aplomb.

While 2020 sucked for most people, WhatsApp had a pretty great year. The app introduced a range of cool new features, including an overhauled storage management system, self-destructing messages and an enhanced wallpaper suite. Let’s see how the app improves in 2021.

(Source: Engadget)