Getting your app up to one billion monthly active users is quite the accomplishment. The 1 billion club is pretty exclusive these days, featuring a short list of the likes of WhatsApp and Facebook. The most recent member of the club is Facebook’s Messenger app.
The statistic was made official as of Wednesday, getting Messenger into that rather exclusive list. Along with an announcement about the occasion, Facebook made a special infographic and video commemorating the occasion and showing some of the trends and milestones that have gotten the service to where it is today.
Alongside noting that users have sent 22 million GIFs and played 250 million games of soccer, users of the Facebook Messenger mobile app may notice an Easter Egg. The balloon emoji is only a single balloon, versatile enough to be used to symbolize a party or celebration, or to sarcastically brush off a busted party or something that’s not really worth celebrating.
A few of those uses will be pushed aside for a little while to make way for an all-out celebration in recognition of the app garnering over a billion daily users. Now, sending a balloon emoji will net you a mini-party on your screen. A good number of balloons will float up and fly across your chat window, giving you a little taste of that billion user party vibe that Messenger is enjoying this week.
There was no word on where exactly the Easter Egg is available, or how long it will be up and running. Only mobile users can see it, and only when they send a balloon emoji. Users on desktop can send emoji through various means, such as the soft keyboard for Windows users running Windows 8 or above, but sending or receiving the balloon emoji won’t do anything special.
Mobile users will see it when they send off a balloon, but the other person will just see the regular old balloon emoji, making those non-party uses still technically fair game, but they likely won’t feel right with a ton of balloons dancing across your screen.
In any case, popping up a balloon emoji will turn your phone into party central for a few seconds until further notice, with no word as yet for when the party will wind down.
