The end of the text message? Mobile chat apps overtake SMS for the first time Chat apps like Whataspp cost mobile networks £16.1bn last year Instant messages set to outweigh texts two-to-one by 2014 Sites such as Facebook and Twitter also under threat The amount of messages being sent using chat apps, including Whatsapp, Apple's iMessage, and BlackBerry Messenger, has overtaken text messages for the first time ever. A study by Informa, commissioned by the Financial Times, found that almost 19 billion instant messages were sent using chat apps in 2012, compared to 17.6 billion SMS texts. And separate research, from Ovum, found that mobile networks lost out on $25bn (£16.1bn) from texting in revenue last year, because of this rise in chat apps, with this figure expected to rise to $34bn (£21.9bn) in 2013. Instant messaging using chat apps, such as Whatsapp and Apple's iMessage is now more popular than sending texts. Last year 19 billion instant messages were sent, compared to 17.6 million texts Combining elements of text messaging and social networking, the apps allow photos, music and video to be easily shared. Waterloo, Ontario-based Kik has racked up 40 million users since launching in 2010. Silicon Valley entrants in the race include Whatsapp, funded by Sequoia Capital, and MessageMe, launched earlier this month by a group of viral game makers. MessageMe has received seed-stage funding from True Ventures and First Round Capital, among others, and claimed 1 million downloads in its first week. Meanwhile, Asian companies are producing some of the fastest-growing apps in history. Tencent's WeChat boasts 400 million users - far more than Twitter, by way of comparison - while LINE and KakaoTalk claim 120 million and 80 million users, respectively Informa is even predicting that by 2014, instant messages will outweigh text messages almost two-to-one with Informa analyst Pamela Clark-Dickson adding that some operators were already 'seeing a decline.' Whatsapp's popularity, in particular was highlighted last week, when Nokia unveiled the first phone to have a Whatsapp button built-in. Informa found that there were 3.5 billion people using SMS in 2012, compared to only 586.3 million users of the six main chat apps - WhatsApp, BlackBerry Messenger, Viber, Nimbuzz, Apple's iMessage and KakaoTalk. These services have a combined 586.3 million users. Yet, the average chat app users sent 32.6 messages a day, whereas SMS users sent just five a day. The research also didn't take into account services such as Facebook Messenger for Android. That said, Informa is quick to claim that SMS isn't going to be wiped out just yet. Dickson-Clark adds there is 'a lot of life still in SMS' because every phone can use SMS, but chat apps are reserved to smartphones. She also claims that SMS can be sent any time, when you have a network connection. Alternatively, chat apps rely on you having a mobile data connection, or Wi-Fi. Nokia's Asha 210, the first phone to have a Whatsapp button built-in A recent study of 5,000 US teens by PiperJaffray in April found that chat apps were also having an impact on social network sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. The findings showed that 10% fewer named Facebook as their 'most important' site compared to a year ago, while there was an increase in the popularity and importance of sites and apps such as Kik, Vine, and Snapchat.