communication
Messenger services: WhatsApp remains clearly ahead
Most users in Germany use WhatsApp for chat messages. Photo: Fabian Sommer/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Communication via messenger and video services has increased during the pandemic. Most continue to use products from the meta group such as WhatsApp or Instagram. When it comes to classic phone calls, however, people prefer the familiar.
WhatsApp remains by far the most used online communication service in Germany. According to a representative survey commissioned by the Federal Network Agency, 93 percent of all users use the service belonging to the Meta Group (formerly Facebook).
The survey in August 2021 showed a slight decrease compared to a survey in 2019: At that time, the WhatsApp quota was still 96 percent.
Meta services were also in second and third place, also with declines. Facebook Messenger came to 39 percent (2019: 42 percent) and Instagram Direct Messages to 25 percent (2019: 30 percent). Microsoft’s Skype/Skype for Business increased slightly to 20 percent (2019: 18 percent). Overall, around 88 percent of those surveyed regularly used online communication services. In 2019 it was 83 percent.
Many use multiple apps
The messenger services Signal with 9 percentage points (to 13 percent), Discord with 8 percentage points (to 8 percent) and Telegram with 6 percentage points (to 16 percent) recorded larger increases. The video conferencing services Zoom (18 percent usage share) and Microsoft Teams (14 percent) achieved even stronger growth. In 2019, both services would not have played a recognizable role from a consumer perspective. “Their rapidly increasing importance can be explained above all by the pandemic and the changed demand for video telephony,” it said.
The parallel use of several services has continued to increase, said the President of the Federal Network Agency, Jochen Homann, according to the announcement. “Almost three quarters of all users are now using what is known as multi-homing.” On average, a user uses three services.
The study found that since the first corona measures were introduced in March 2020, the use of communication services has increased noticeably overall. 39 percent of all respondents stated that they had communicated more frequently since then. The use of classic telephony is still much more popular than Internet telephony. 52 percent of all respondents made daily calls via mobile phones and 39 percent via their landline. On the other hand, only 22 percent of those surveyed used online communication services for Internet telephony on a daily basis.