<p>Smartphone instant messaging applications like iMessage and WhatsApp are more growing in popularity and even far outpacing traditional SMS, according to a new study from Informa.</p><p>In 2012, on average 19.1 billion messages were sent and received each day over the six most popular mobile chat applications, including Blackberry Messenger, Nimbuzz, Apple's iMessage, KakaoTalk, WhatsApp, and Viber. Informa estimates that 17.6 billion SMS messages were sent each day during the same year.</p><p>Texting has become the new way people communicate years ago replacing telephone calls and even email. But more and more people seem unwilling to pay pricey texting plans, so they are opting for free applications that give them unlimited texting plans that allow them to communicate for free with anyone across the world no matter what type of phone they have.</p><p>Informa predicts the chat app messages to double by the end of this year. The number of chat app messages sent each day will rise to 41 billion per day, compared with an average of 19.5 billion SMS messages, the study said.</p><p><a href="http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/money/2013/04/29/messaging-apps-are-now-more-popular-than-texting/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/apr/29/app-messaging-damages-mobile-text-revenues">App messaging damages mobile networks' text revenues</a> (The Guardian)</p><p><a href="http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/29/chat-app-messaging-has-finally-overtaken-sms-heres-why-that-could-be-a-bad-thing/">Chat app messaging has finally overtaken SMS here's why that could be a ...</a> (VentureBeat)</p><p><a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/chat-apps-to-double-sms-traffic-by-end-of-2013/">Chat apps to double SMS text messaging by end of 2013</a> (Digital Trends)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=d7ZneJZfSfcbZKM8dq5CT6Kv3PJqM&ned=us">78 additional articles.</a></p>