Facebook Messenger recorded 17 billion real-time video chats-two times as many video chat sessions in 2017 compared to 2016, according to a blog post by Sean Kelly, Product Management Director, Messenger.

Kelly wrote: “The art of conversation has evolved, and we’re no longer limited by just text. Just think about it, now you can group video chat with masks, choose from thousands of emojis or GIFs to add more colour to your messages, and immediately capture and share photos, even when you’re already in a conversation.”

Kelly said that the experience is the same whether a user is on Android or iOS and the company introduced a few Augmented Reality features like masks, filters, and reactions in June to make video chats more fun and expressive.

The post further revealed that people shared over 500 billion emojis in 2017, or nearly 1.7 billion every day. GIFs were a popular choice too, with 18 billion GIFs shared in this year.

“Visual messaging is now our new universal language, making our conversations more joyful, impactful, and let’s face it, a whole lot more fun,” Kelly added.

“On average, there are over seven billion conversations taking place on Messenger every day in 2017. At the same time, on average, 260 million new conversation threads were started every day in 2017,” Facebook said.

Also, in 2017, 2.5 million new groups were created on Messenger every day and the average group chat includes 10 people.

The most popular custom emoji was the red heart and the most popular custom chat colour was red. New Years, Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day were three of the top five most active days for chats on Messenger.

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