Facebook have announced that 500m people use Messenger every month.
The social network split the service from their main app earlier in the year, a move which caused some annoyance amongst users.
But five months later, former PayPal President David Marcus, who was hired by Mark Zuckerberg’s company, announced the milestone on his Facebook page, saying:
“There is still a lot for us to do and we’re looking forward to bringing more innovation and updates to you in the coming months.”
For comparison, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has 600m users, making a total of 1.1bn users of their messaging apps.
Regarding their hiring of Marcus, Zuckerberg said in their second quarter earnings call that payments and Messenger would eventually “overlap” in the future.
This year, Facebook’s Creative Labs have also released Snapchat-style Slingshot, news-based feed Paper and Rooms, a reimagining of chatrooms.