Messaging Trends 2026

The omnichannel 
revolution in stats

When we started in 2006, message volumes were measured in millions, use cases were simple and the idea of a brand having a conversation with a customer over mobile was still a concept.

In the years that followed, we focused on what mattered most: reach, reliability, and routing. We built direct connections with carriers across the globe and expanded our network. The infrastructure we built during that period became the foundation that everything since has been built on.

Then 2016 arrived.

The vast majority of traffic on our platform was from customers who only used a single channel with us, mostly SMS. They may have used other channels with different providers but on our platform, SMS was king.

Spotlight on 2016

Stranger Things premiered on Netflix

Pokemon Go exploded, with 28.5 million daily US users within two weeks

Leonardo Di Caprio finally won an Oscar

And on our platform, in 2016, the scene was being set for a revolution in business communication, when SMS ruled and most customers relied on it as their only channel to reach their audience.

149 bn

total interactions on our platform in 2016

110 bn

were from customers that only used one channel

73% total traffic

39 bn

interactions from 2+ channel customers

27% total traffic

As we predicted the direction that the industry would move in terms of adopting the communication channels that customers preferred to use, we continued to add new channels to our platform including Voice & Video, email, and OTT apps like WhatsApp, Viber, Messenger and many more. 

Channel Added to our platform
SMS 2006 (Day 1)
Voice & Video 2014
Viber 2016
Messanger 2017
WhatsApp 2018
RCS 2018
Email 2019
Instagram 2021
MMS 2021
Apple Messages 2021

At this point we need to differentiate between multichannel, which is the use of multiple channels that are not necessarily coordinated and optimized to work together, and true omnichannel where all the channels in use are synced and managed centrally.

Brands began to realize the value of being able to consolidate all the channels they used on a single platform. Lower overall cost, easier to manage multiple channels, and crucially the ability to control communication across multiple channels to ensure a consistent customer experience. While some enterprise customers invested in progressing towards true omnichannel maturity, it was complicated and difficult for many smaller brands to follow the same path. 

Then came the release of our Messages API that integrates multiple messaging channels into one interface so developers sending messages via our platform could use one API and a single endpoint for all of the channels they wanted to incorporate, rather than a separate API for each one. This is when true omnichannel usage really took off, and we have been proud to be key enablers of the revolution.

Looking at the same stats for 2025 we can see how far B2C communication has changed in under 10 years.

2025

628 billion

total interactions on our platform

One-channel customers

15 bn

interactions were from customers using one channel

2.3% total traffic

2+ channel customers

613 bn

interactions were from customers using multiple channels

97.7% total traffic

Four-channel customers

156 bn

the highest proportion of interactions on our platform were from brands using four channels

25% total traffic

Talking about 2+ channel customers conceals just how far many brands have gone in adopting different channels for different use cases and different regions.

A lot of brands still use two channels on our platform and get a lot of value from it, but the early adopters, the ones really leveraging the effectiveness of omnichannel are using three, four, five and more channels through us.

To underline this trend, in 2025 the highest proportion of interactions on our platform were from brands using four channels, a staggering 156 billion messages; 25% of all traffic.

More traffic was sent by customers using five channels (20%) than two channels (13%).

Customer channel usage Proportion of overall traffic
4 channels 25%
3 channels 20%
5 channels 20%
2 channels 13%
6 channels 10%

SMS is still a core pillar channel, but it is joined by Voice & Video, email, RCS, and whatever OTT app is most popular in a particular region – from WhatsApp hotspots across LATAM, Europe, and MENA to countries where niche messaging apps are popular like Viber in Philippines (70% penetration), Line in Japan (80% penetration) to Zalo in Vietnam (97% penetration).

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