In 2021, mobile users in the United States sent roughly 2 trillion SMS or MMS messages. Following a sharp drop off in 2012, the number of SMS and MMS messages sent in the U.S. has generally increased over the past several years to another peak in 2020, during the COVID pandemic, at 2.2 trillion SMS or MMS messages.

This statistic shows mobile messaging volumes in the U.S. for selected years between 2004 and 2014. In 2010, approximately 2,109 billion messages were sent in total, up from 56 billion in 2004.

U.S. mobile messaging volumes - additional information

A total of around 2.2 trillion text messages were sent in the United States in 2012, marking an almost tenfold increase on the figure from 2006. A further 74 million MMS messages were sent in the country in 2012, an increase from 3 million in 2006. In 2013, the United States was the country with the highest average number of text messages sent per month and per mobile connection. Over 460 messages were sent monthly per mobile connection in the United States, in comparison to 188 in the United Kingdom and 122 in Germany.

The most active age group for sending and receiving text messages in the United States were those aged 18 to 29, as 97 percent of respondents said that they did use mobile messaging in 2013. By comparison, only 35 percent of those aged 65 and older said that they used their mobile phone for text messaging in 2013.

Rather than using a mobile phone’s integrated text messaging service, many users are opting for third party apps to communicate. As of January 2015, mobile messaging service WhatsApp had around 700 million monthly active users, marking double the amount of users it had in October 2013. Within the U.S. market, iOS and Android users spent a total of 680 million minutes on WhatsApp in February 2013, with those aged between 25 and 34 years most likely to use the service in 2014.

During a 2022 survey carried out among consumers from the United States, 47 percent of responding millennials stated they liked being contacted by brands via text messages. The same was true for 44 percent of respondents from Generation Z.

The number of SMS sent in Poland in 2023 decreased by 1.4 percent compared to the previous year. The downward trend has continued since 2012. In 2023, a total of 37.8 billion SMS were sent, which is 500 million less than in the previous year. Statistically, the source said each Pole sent 84 text messages in a month.

This statistic shows the frequency of sending or receiving text messages in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2019, by gender. Of the female respondents, 57 percent used their mobile phone to send or receive text several times a day. Text messaging and instant messaging is a way to communicate without actually speaking to another person. This makes communication more thought out and detailed than in a voice call.

During a December 2023 survey carried out among business owners and marketing managers in the United States, 31 percent of respondents stated that they started using text marketing because it offered high open and click-through rates. One in three said the cost-effectivity of text marketing was their primary motivation for investing in that channel.

The number of text messages sent in Hungary fluctuated over the observed period. The lowest number was recorded in the second quarter of 2020 when approximately 259 million text messages were sent in the country. In the second quarter of 2023, Hungarians sent approximately 263 million SMS.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, 566 million SMS text messages were sent in the Netherlands. The number of messages sent fluctuated in 2022 and 2023, having dipped as low as 522 million in the first quarter of 2023.

In 2023, the volume of sent SMS and MMS messages in the United Kingdom (UK) amounted to over 31 billion messages, a decrease compared to the previous year when it amounted to 36.44 billion messages sent.

During a December 2023 survey carried out in the United States, 48 percent of responding consumers stated that they were most likely to opt into text messages from retail and ecommerce entities; 36 percent said they would opt into text marketing from healthcare providers.

In Portugal, the number of SMS sent decreased from almost 10.8 billion, in 2021, to 10.6 billion, in 2022, a number that represents an average of approximately 2.3 SMS sent daily, per mobile phone with effective use. This decreasing trend has been registered since 2020 when the number of SMS sent lowered from 15 billion registered in 2019 to 11 billion, and it continued during the year 2023, when 9.4 billion SMS were sent.

In 2022, the number of text messages sent in China amounted to 1.25 trillion. Despite the increasing popularity of WeChat, the number of text messages delivered had been increasing since 2018.

This statistic shows how many text messages people sent per day on average in Sweden in 2018. According to the survey, the majority of the respondents (52 percent) sent between zero and five text messages per day. 22 percent send between six and ten text messages per day. Nine percent of the respondents sent more than 25 text messages per day.

This statistic displays the total number of text messages sent in Serbia from 2011 to 2015. The number of SMS has seen a decrease since 2013. It dropped from 10.76 billion messages in 2013 to 8.69 billion messages in 2015. Factors such as instant messaging services or VOIP services could have been part of this cause.

Poles immensely enjoy commercial text messaging (SMS). In 2019, almost 83 percent of Polish people stated that they would want to receive SMS containing commercial information.

The number of text messages sent from mobile phones in New Zealand in the 2023 financial year totaled 6.7 billion. The number of texts sent has decreased steadily since 2013, possibly due to consumers opting to send messages via online channels.

In 2019, retail offers and other promotions were the favorite type of commercial information content for Poles to receive over text messaging (SMS).

As of February 2025, two billion users were accessing the WhatsApp messenger on a monthly basis. The app’s reach in usage penetration is particularly strong in markets outside the United States, and it is one of the most popular mobile social apps worldwide. WeChat amassed over 1.38 billion users, and Facebook Messenger amassed around 947 million users worldwide. Instant messaging is a type of online chat which offers real-time text transmission via internet. Since the appearance of the smartphone and the subsequent explosion of mobile apps, low-cost or free chat and social messaging apps have proven themselves as a cheap alternative to operator-based text messaging via SMS. Many messenger apps offer features such as group chats, the exchange of graphics, video and even audio messages as well as stickers or emoticons.

The SMS traffic in Romania has decreased considerably over the observed period. In 2023, there were approximately 3.6 billion SMS texts sent in Romania, representing a decrease of approximately 73 percent compared to the SMS traffic registered in 2018.

In 2019, Polish people most enjoyed receiving promotional information through text messaging (SMS) about fashion offers. Grocery shopping promotions came second (38.5 percent).