Indians sent more than over 20 billion WhatsApp messages on New Year’s Eve

People sent a record-breaking 75 billion messages on WhatsApp on New Year’s Eve.

WhatsApp and Facebook set a new record on New Year’s Eve. (REUTERS)

People sent a record-breaking 75 billion messages on WhatsApp, including over 13 billion images and 5 billion videos. In India alone, the 200 million monthly active users on WhatsApp sent over 20 billion messages on New Year's Eve, said Facebook.

More than 10 million people around the world went live on Facebook to share their New Years Eve moments with their communities. "The night topped last year's live broadcast activity, with people sharing 47 per cent more live videos than last year," Erin Connolly, Product Manager at Facebook, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.

According to VentureBeat, WhatsApp's new record represents the most messages sent in a single day in the chat app's history. The previous record was set in 2016, also on New Year's Eve, with 63 billion messages sent.

The 75 billion number included 13 billion images and five billion videos. WhatsApp registered these numbers despite the fact that users in India and other parts of the world went into a frenzy after the messaging platform went down at midnight on New Year. It was restored in two hours.

According to downdetector.co.uk, it received 2,012 reports that WhatsApp was not working at its peak. The record was also set despite WhatsApp discontinuing support for Blackberry OS and Windows Phone services on December 31.

For the New Year's Eve, Facebook had launched several live features, like live Augmented Reality (AR) effects and party hats. "We saw more than three times as many broadcasts with a friend on New Year's Eve compared to an average day in December, making it the biggest day so far for Live With," Facebook said.