Facebook Messenger crosses the 5 billion download mark on the Google Play Store

Messenger has finally joined the main Facebook app and WhatsApp, which crossed the five billion app install mark in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

Facebook Messenger has now amassed five billion installations on the Play Store. (Shutterstock)

One of the best measures of the popularity of an app on either Google's Play Store is the number of installations that the app has amassed over time. Many apps are yet to pass the 10 million mark or the 100 million mark, a handful of Google and Facebook apps have amassed a whopping five billion downloads. Facebook's Messenger app has now joined that exclusive club with five billion installations recorded on the Play Store.

The updated “Installs” counter on the Google Play store was spotted by Android Police, after Messenger finally joined the main Facebook app and WhatsApp, which crossed the five billion app install mark in 2019 and 2020 respectively. No other company apart from Google has managed to cross the mark.. yet.

Reaching five billion installations is undoubtedly an impressive achievement for the Messaging app, bringing Messenger on par with some of Google's apps like YouTube and Gmail. It must be noted that Facebook apps are also preloaded on some Android devices by default as well as available on alternative app stores. When you consider the number of times that Messenger has been downloaded on iOS, the total install count could be higher than even YouTube or Gmail.  

We have also recently reported that Facebook has no plans to introduce the new encrypted backend for its inter-service messaging system that will allow users to talk to each other on Messenger, Instagram DMs and WhatsApp across services. The company says that it is likely to arrive only in early 2022, which means it could be another year until fully end-to-end encrypted messaging could arrive on Facebook's services.