Facebook is the first third-party app to surpass 1 billion installs

Facebook-Android

Facebook today became the first third-party Android app (not build by Google) to surpass 1 billion installs from Google Play. It’s even more popular than a number of Google’s own apps, including Hangouts, Google Search, and even Chrome.

Given that Facebook is the biggest social network in the world with almost 1.3 billion active users every month, you may think its popularity on Android is less than surprising. But it’s actually incredibly difficult for an app — even one as big as Facebook — to reach 1 billion installs, which is why it’s taken the network so long to reach this landmark.

In comparison, Twitter, one of Facebook’s closest rivals in the social networking space, has between 100 million and 500 million installs, according to Google Play, and Instagram fits into the same bracket. Vine, despite its popularity on both Twitter and Facebook, has less than 50 million downloads.

The number of ratings Facebook has acquired on Google Play is also incredibly impressive. It now has more than 20 million, and what’s more, more than half of those are five-star ratings.

The only other Android apps to surpass 1 billion downloads are YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, and Google Play services, which is installed on every Android device that has access to Google Play. Some of those with over 500 million downloads include WhatsApp, Google+, Facebook Messenger, and Street View for Google Maps.