Meta says WhatsApp now has more than 100M MAUs in the US and that more than 50% of WhatsApp users in the country have an iPhone; WhatsApp has 2B+ MAUs globally
Watch Out iMessage Sheena Vasani / The Verge : WhatsApp now has 100 million monthly users in the US GSMArena.com : WhatsApp reaches 100 million monthly users in the US Mahmoud Itani / Android Authority : Americans are embracing WhatsApp, but that's before RCS debuts on iPhones Rajesh Pandey / Cult of Mac : WhatsApp surpasses 100 million monthly active users in the US John-Anthony Disotto / iMore : With 50 million WhatsApp users now rocking iPhones, can we stop talking about green bubbles? PYMNTS.com : WhatsApp Reaches 100 Million Users in US CNBC : Meta's head of WhatsApp Will Cathcart on platform reaching 100 million U.S. users WABetaInfo : WhatsApp achieves 100 million users in the United States, reinforcing its market dominance Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac : WhatsApp reaches 100 million monthly users in the US, but there's a new challenge ahead Alicia Clanton / Bloomberg : WhatsApp Gaining Ground in US, Now Has 100 Million Monthly Users Threads: Julia Boorstin / @juliaboorstin : In a rare and exclusive interview #WhatsApp head Will Cathcart explains the importance of the messaging platform hitting 100M US users and how their new #ai tools will drive growth. @mwi.invest : Huge milestone. WhatsApp is greatly underrated by investors. Remember, @zuck said this in November 2022: “We talk a lot about the very long-term opportunities like the metaverse, but the reality is that business messaging is probably going to be the next major pillar of our business as we work to monetize WhatsApp and Messenger more.” link to interview: https://www.youtube.com/... X: Rihard Jarc / @rihardjarc : WA hitting 100M MAUs in the U.S. is a big milestone, given how hard the U.S. market was dominated by $AAPL's iMessage. $META said DAUs and total number of messages send by US users is growing double digits YoY. Ben Bajarin / @benbajarin : I am unhappily, but necesarily, in a dozen WA groups for social clubs, sports teams, etc. My inner cirlce is in iMessage my outer circle is in WA and I'd bet that is common among many US smartphone users.
Context & Ripple Effects
WhatsApp’s U.S. position had already been strengthening: daily business use in the country rose sharply in 2022 and 2023, even as its global scale was built through years of rapid user growth, including a 100 million-user gain in four months in 2015.
The new U.S. audience figure matters because it shows WhatsApp has meaningful reach among iPhone owners, not only as a cross-border or Android-centric messaging service. That broadens Meta’s addressable U.S. messaging base and makes its business-usage momentum more consequential.
First-order effects
- Meta gains a clearer scale benchmark for WhatsApp in the U.S., with more than half of that audience using iPhones.
- WhatsApp can market itself to U.S. businesses and users as a service with substantial reach across both major mobile ecosystems, rather than as a niche alternative to iMessage.
Second-order effects
- The larger iPhone cohort raises the competitive importance of product quality and interoperability for iMessage and WhatsApp, since more U.S. conversations can plausibly span both services.
- Businesses already increasing their daily WhatsApp activity have a stronger reason to maintain the channel, potentially reinforcing Meta’s effort to make messaging a business-facing product surface.
Third-order effects
- If U.S. adoption and business use continue to compound, messaging competition may shift from winning app installs to controlling the customer-conversation layer where businesses communicate with users.
- The key uncertainty is engagement: a large monthly audience does not by itself establish that WhatsApp is displacing default messaging behavior or becoming a durable U.S. business channel.
The trend: This is one data point in the expansion of global messaging platforms into U.S. consumer and business communications, including on iPhone.