Brazil: usage of selected mobile messaging apps 2019-2020

In July 2020, nearly all (99 percent of) smartphone owners surveyed in Brazil said they had WhatsApp installed on their mobile devices. Approximately 81 percent of respondents stated using Instagram as a messaging tool, while 79 percent said they used Facebook Messenger's app. In addition, Telegram gained that year in popularity, with 35 percent of smartphone users surveyed being on the app.

A land of talkers

Instant messaging in Brazil is key. Sending instant messages is the leading internet activity, with more than nine out of ten users surveyed stating that they go online to do so. Additionally, the percentage of users who said they used the internet for messaging has risen since 2017. The COVID-19 outbreak has accentuated the trend: the online messaging usage time increased by 26 percent in Brazil, above the 22 percent global growth rate.

High usage rate, high usage frequency

The most installed instant messaging apps are also the ones smartphone owners in Brazil use more often. For instance, 93 percent of WhatsApp users surveyed said they use it every day. The same was true for 37 percent of respondents who had installed the Facebook Messenger app and 29 percent of those with a Telegram account. On the other hand, 13 percent of respondents who had Facebook Messenger installed on their smartphones stated that they never or almost never used it, whereas 16 percent of Telegram users said they never or almost never used the Durov brothers’ app.