WhatsApp Sets Single Day Record With 1.4 Billion Voice, Video Calls on New Year’s Eve

There were more than 55 million live broadcasts across Facebook and Instagram globally on New Year’s Eve 2020.

By Tanishka Sodhi | Updated: 4 January 2021 12:56 IST

WhatsApp Sets Single Day Record With 1.4 Billion Voice, Video Calls on New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve marked the biggest day ever for Messenger group video calls in the US

Highlights

WhatsApp calling on NYE increased over 50 percent compared to last year
Messenger saw nearly 2X more group calls on NYE compared to any other day
New Year’s Eve has always resulted in big spikes for Facebook’s platforms

WhatsApp users across the world made over 1.4 billion voice and video calls on New Year's Eve 2020, making it the most ever calls in a single day on the platform, according to Facebook. While New Year's Eve has always resulted in big spikes in usage across Facebook's platforms, the COVID-19 pandemic let to new records. WhatsApp calling on New Year's Eve increased over 50 percent compared to the same day last year, as per the social media giant. Facebook's other services, Instagram and Messenger, also experienced big surges in usage on New Year's Eve 2020.

The festive night also marked the biggest day ever for Messenger group video calls (with 3+ people) in the US, as per a blog post by Facebook. There were nearly twice as many group calls on New Year's Eve compared to an average day for the service. The top AR effect used in Messenger in the US was “2020 Fireworks”.

Facebook said that while New Year's Eve is historically a busy night for its services, this year set new records, as people turned to technology to stay in touch in a socially distanced manner. Live broadcasts also shot up on New Year's Eve, with more than 55 million live broadcasts across Facebook and Instagram globally on New Year's Eve 2020.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

Facebook platforms such as Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp had been seeing a surge in video chatting all year round, said the company. Facebook Engineering worked to drive “unprecedented efficiency improvements” and made the company's platform more resilient, says the social media giant. The team worked on load testing, disaster recovery testing, and shuffling capacity, even on New Year's Eve.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp has reportedly started rolling out voice and video calls to select desktop users that will enable them to make WhatsApp calls directly from their computers.

New Year 2021: Our Gadgets Wishlist, From iPhone 12 to PlayStation 5

Is HomePod mini the best smart speaker under Rs. 10,000? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.