Google Messages hits a major milestone
The Google Messages app joins other Google first-party apps on a very impressive list.
Google Messages app hits a major milestone | Image by PhoneArena
Time flies. Back in early May 2020, we told you that the Google Messages app had been installed over 1 billion times. You blinked your eyes and all of a sudden you are now in 2026. Google Messages now has more than 10 billion installs. Since May 4th, 2020, Google Messages averaged 4.18 million installs per day. Every hour, the app generated 174,000, or 2,900 per minute and 48 per second. Another way to look at it is that the Google Messages app had one new install every 0.02 seconds.
More than 14 billion RCS messages are sent daily
Google Messages is the default Text, RCS, and Messaging app for most modern Android phones. Those of you who started using an Android phone more than just a few years ago might recall when carriers offered their own messaging apps. As Google started offering Rich Communication Services (RCS) in the Google Messages app, carriers like T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon started to pull their own branded messaging apps from the Play Store.
Apple added RCS support to the iPhone in 2024, greatly improving the quality of images shared during cross-platform chats. It also allows iOS and Android users in a chat group to receive read receipts and typing indicators. And soon, these cross-platform chats will be protected through the use of end-to-end encryption. In the U.S., over 1.1 billion RCS messages are sent via Google Messages every day. Globally, more than 14 billion RCS messages are sent through Google Messages on average each and every day.
The Google Messages app in the Play Store joins the 10 billion installs club. | Image by Google
In the U.S. Google Messages has approximately 110 million Daily Active Users (DAU). Globally, that figure is above 750 million. The number of Monthly Active Users (MAU) in the U.S. is roughly 185 million and globally Google Messages' MAU is over 1.2 billion.
The apps on this list, from the Google Play Store, have been installed on activated Android devices 10 billion or more times
Google has added several new features to its Messages app lately including real-time location sharing. If for some reason you don't have the app installed on your Android phone, you can add it by tapping on this link, which will take you to the Play Store listing for the app.
Google has some other apps it developed that have over 10 billion installs including:
- Google (Search)
- YouTube
- Google Photos
- Google Chrome
- Gmail
- Gboard
- Google Drive
- Google Maps
- Google Meet
- Google TV
- Android Auto
- Speech Recognition & Synthesis
- Android Accessibility Suite
- Android Switch.
Members of the Android 5 billion installs club
Other members of the 5 billion install club include:
- Files by Google
- Google Calendar
- YouTube Music
- Contacts
- Google Play Games
- Google Assistant
- Digital Wellbeing
- Carrier Services
It is important to note that apps that are pre-installed on Android devices get to count as an install every Android phone on which the user has activated a Google account on. In other words, an Android device sitting in its box in a warehouse somewhere does not count as an install for Google Messages. By the way, these figures come from the Play Store. For apps like YouTube, Photos, Drive, Chrome and Gmail that also have iOS variants, the numbers listed in the Play Store and are cited in this article include Android installs only.
The YouTube app is widely believed to be the first Google developed app that Android users interact with to reach 10 billion installs. It makes sense since the streaming video app is so popular. YouTube reached the 10 billion installs mark in July 2021. Five months later, in November 2021, both Google Maps and Google Search hit the mark. The following January, it was Gmail that was added to the list. And the newest member of the list, of course, is Google Messages.
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