Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp saw record spike in usage on New Year’s Eve

According to the figures released by Facebook, WhatsApp witnessed a 50 percent increase in audio and video calling on NYE 2020 as compared to the same day last year. Over 1.4 billion voice and video calls were made globally, the most ever calls in a single day on the instant messaging platform.

Facebook-owned apps -Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp- saw record surges in usage on New Year's Eve 2020 as compared to the previous year, the social media giant said.

"In 2020, people turned to technology to stay in touch and get things done in the face of social distancing and stay-at-home mandates, and video calling became arguably the most in-demand feature. At Facebook, we saw surges in video chatting all year across Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp, and last night was no exception. New Year's Eve is a historically busy night for our services, but this year set new records," Facebook wrote in a blog post.

According to the figures released by Facebook, WhatsApp witnessed a 50 percent increase in audio and video calling on NYE 2020 as compared to the same day last year. Over 1.4 billion voice and video calls were made globally, the most ever calls in a single day on the instant messaging platform.

NYE 2020 was the biggest day ever for Messenger group video calls (calls with three or more participants) in the US, with nearly 2X more group video calls on the day as compared to the average day. On Messenger, the top AR effect in the US was "2020 Fireworks.&

Further, more than 55 million live broadcasts took place across Facebook and Instagram globally on New Year's Eve 2020.

Commenting on how the Facebook-owned services managed to maintain stability amidst spikes in usage, Caitlin Banford, technical program manager at Facebook, said, "Behind the scenes, Facebook Engineering came together to drive unprecedented efficiency improvements and make our infrastructure more resilient. This work includes load testing, disaster recovery testing and shuffling capacity. 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."