Video conferencing app downloads top 62 million as people stay indoors due to Covid-19 pandemic

Video conferencing apps are seeing an exponential growth as millions are people around the world are working remotely due to the Covdid-19 pandemic. According to an AppAnnie report, video conferencing app downloads topped 62 million between March 14 and March 21. It also highlighted that HouseParty, the viral video chat app, has also seen a big surge in downloads during the period.

"As we enter into a new wave of the pandemic, with the US and Europe at the center of rising cases, lockdown and home quarantine measures increase in efforts to flatten the curve. As a result, Europeans and Americans turn to video conferencing apps for work collaboration and keeping in touch with family and friends," said AppAnnie in a report.

According to the tracker, business apps topped 62 million on Play Store and Apple's App Store. Compared to the previous week, the downloads were up by 45%. Compared to the weekly average downloads of business apps in 2019, it went up by a whopping 90%.

Zoom

While legacy apps like Google Hangouts and Microsoft Teams grew, Zoom came out of nowhere to grab a big chunk of downloads. According to AppAnnie, during the week of March 15-21, "ZOOM Cloud Meetings was downloaded 14x more than the weekly average during Q4 2019 in the US, 20x more in the UK, 22x more in France, 17x more in Germany, 27x more in Spain and an impressive 55x more in Italy."

Google's Hangouts saw up to 140x growth in downloads in select markets whereas Teams usage went up by 30x.

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Houseparty

Houseparty has become immensely popular with the Gen Z. The video chat app saw 423x increase in downloads in Italy during March 15-21. In Spain, Houseparty skyrocketed in downloads to 2360x during the week.

"It is an unprecedented time for the world and an incredibly dynamic time for mobile — we are seeing shifts in consumer behavior surface daily across virtually every sector. We will continue to report on the vast impact coronavirus is having on the mobile economy as it charts a new path forward for our mobile habits," said the AppAnnie report.