As many people looked to keep in touch with their close ones virtually during a socially distanced New Year’s Eve, WhatsApp recorded its busiest day ever for calls.
On the last day of 2020, Facebook said more than 1.4 billion voice and video calls were made on WhatsApp around the world – more than any other day in history.
The company said WhatsApp calls were up 50% compared to New Years’s Eve in 2019. It was also revealed that there were 55 million live broadcasts on Facebook and Instagram throughout the day.
Facebook’s busiest day for calls come after a very busy year for the company, with all of its apps experiencing spikes in traffic in 2020 as more people relied on technology to stay in touch with their loved ones due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Facebook’s technical program manager – Caitlin Banford – said: “This year, New Year’s Eve looked a lot different, and we had engineering teams across Facebook’s apps, ready to support any issue, so the world could ring in 2021.”