More and more of us are using messenger apps for phone calls

Messenger apps such as WhatsApp can be used to make phone calls over the Internet as well as to send text messages. — dpa

Some things take too long to explain in writing – it's just easier to call. And nowadays, according to a survey conducted by German IT association Bitkom, one in two users of messenger apps such as Signal, Threema and WhatsApp will use the internal phone functions of these applications to make that call.

The survey asked 1,212 people over the age of 14 about the way they use messenger applications. Seventy-eight per cent of young people under 20 said they used the apps for both chatting and talking to friends, whereas only 43% of users over 65 said the same.

Using messenger apps for phone calls means the conversations are transmitted via the Internet, so they consume a large amount of your monthly data allowance – unless you're using a WiFi connection.

Messenger apps such as WhatsApp, Threema, Wire and Signal all transmit messages and calls with end-to-end encryption. – dpa