50 million people in Germany use messaging apps

Anyone who has a smartphone always uses messaging services like WhatsApp, Signal or Threema. Meanwhile, 9 out of 10 (88 percent) of smartphone users have a similar app in use – this corresponds to about 50 million people in Germany, according to a recent Bitkom survey.

Among people between 16 and 29 years old (100 percent) and 30 to 49 years old (96 percent) nearly all, 50 to 64 years old, the figure is 88 percent and even among elderly people over the age of 65. A year old they use almost half (45 percent) they have one or more messengers.

According to the Bitkom account, this year, it is expected that around 290 billion correspondence will be received in Germany. WhatsApp dominates here. For example, in another Bitkom survey in which parents of school-age children were asked, about 25 percent stated that teachers contact and report to them via WhatsApp. Other messengers are only used in 4 percent of cases.

“Messenger is now the most used method of communication. It is critical that communication takes place via messaging software in a completely trustworthy and secure environment. The current debate over the terms of use for WhatsApp has caused a lot of uncertainty here,” says Bernhard Rolleder, Bitkom’s general manager. .

Moreover: “We are currently seeing that the debate around data protection, which often relies on purely theoretical risks, tends to lead to more uncertainty which leads to further clarification,” Rollider said. “Clear clarifications by both service providers and data protection authorities will really help users.”