WhatsApp’s US iOS Base Soars 39% as Users Break Free from Apple

WhatsApp is finally cracking America’s toughest nut — the iPhone crowd. Meta’sMETA

messaging giant saw iOS monthly active users jump 39% last quarter, and Mark Zuckerberg says WhatsApp crossed 100M monthly US users last year. The shift marks a seismic change for a country that’s long resisted the app that dominates everywhere else.

• WhatsApp allows over 1K group members, making it the go-to for coordinating everything from weddings to sports teams to professional peer groups.
• The app recorded peak US downloads exceeding 2M from Apple’sAAPL
  App Store in both May and July this year, signaling accelerating momentum among iOS devotees.

The monetization tightrope: WhatsApp’s growth now comes with strings attached as Meta rolls out ads in a separate tab and boosts Meta AI’s visibility. WhatsApp’s Zafir Khan highlights features like disappearing messages and strong group chats, even on weak connections. And while an AI startup co-founder says WhatsApp is “so much more functional than iMessage,” especially for search, he admits iMessage’s network effects are still too strong for most people to abandon.