Facebook's messaging service has seen significantly more downloads than Facebook's main app since 2012, reports Quartz.
Messenger has collected 646.6 million downloads, according to data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower, while the Facebook app had 568 million downloads in the same period.
Messenger has been available as a standalone app since late 2011. Last year, Facebook announced it will be forcing mobile users to download the separate app and not allowing them to chat through the main Facebook app any more.
Messenger has grown in popularity despite the Internet community getting up in arms last year over the permissions the app requires.
Installing the app meant giving Facebook permission to access several key aspects of users' handsets. Android devices, for example, give the app the right to access users' location, contacts, edit, read, receive and send SMS messages. It also can "directly call phone numbers" and read call logs as well as take pictures and videos, and record audio.
Facebook announced late last month that it has enabled users without an account to sign up for its Messenger app with a phone number, in a move to broaden the app's reach and make it a standalone platform.
Facebook has also opened up Messenger to developers, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he wanted to connect users directly with retailers, restaurants and other businesses.
Other new features added to the service in recent months, include games and video calling. In the US, Messenger users are able to use the platform to send money to each other.
The 2015 Student Tech Survey, conducted earlier this year by World Wide Worx and Student Brands, surveyed over 2 300 students across South Africa on their social media habits.
The survey showed 92% of respondents use Facebook-owned WhatsApp for instant messaging, followed by Facebook Messenger with 55%.
Facebook plans to grow Messenger into its own platform, more than just a messaging app, while WhatsApp will remain a pure messaging service. Echoing the philosophy, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton famously wrote on a Post-it note next to his desk: "No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!"
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