WhatsApp says New Year’s is easily its busiest day of the year, with people sending more messages and making more calls than on any other day.
On a normal day, WhatsApp handles more than 100 billion messages and 2 billion calls. That number jumps even higher during the 24 hours when people around the world ring in the New Year. The company says it sees everything from video calls between families in different countries to group chats coordinating parties and plans.
To help people celebrate, WhatsApp has rolled out a few New Year-themed features that will stick around through the holiday. There’s a new 2026 sticker pack, festive video call effects like fireworks and confetti, and animated confetti reactions when you react to messages with the confetti emoji.
For the first time, WhatsApp has also added animated stickers to Status updates, including a special 2026 layout.
WhatsApp also shared a few ideas for organizing New Year’s plans in group chats. The app lets users create and pin events so details don’t get lost, run polls to decide food or activities, share live location so friends can find the party or get home safely, and send voice or video notes to capture moments for friends who couldn’t make it.
The company says New Year’s is a good reminder of how people use WhatsApp to stay connected, whether they’re messaging from New York, New Delhi, Buenos Aires, or Jakarta.
Over the years, WhatsApp’s message volume on New Year’s Eve has served as a striking indicator of its explosive growth as the world’s leading messaging platform. In 2012, users sent a then-record 18 billion messages during the holiday period, which climbed to 63 billion by 2016 and 75 billion in 2017, before surpassing 100 billion in 2019—the highest single-day total publicly reported. After 2020, WhatsApp stopped announcing specific New Year’s Eve records, instead highlighting that the app now handles over 100 billion messages on an average day.
“We’re grateful to be part of how you connect with the people you love—privately, and securely,” concluded Meta-owned WhatsApp on Monday.
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