⚡ Instant Messaging Apps in the United Arab Emirates

Instant messaging apps allow users to communicate in real time via text, voice, and video, often with group chats, file sharing, and end-to-end encryption.

The United Arab Emirates is a Western Asian country with a population of over 10 million people.

According to our statistics, instant messaging apps are detected on 31.9% of websites from the United Arab Emirates.

Statistics based on 10K+ analyzed websites. About this data

⭐ Most Popular in 2026

The following chart shows the top instant messaging apps on websites in the United Arab Emirates in 2026, based on market share.

The most popular is WhatsApp, which dominates the market with an overwhelming 86.7% share.
It is followed by Telegram with 11.6% and Snapchat with 5.3%.

WhatsApp 86.7%
Telegram 11.6%
Snapchat 5.3%
Messenger 1.7%
Microsoft Teams 1.3%
Discord 1.2%
WeChat 0.2%
Viber 0.2%
Zoom 0.2%
Webex 0.06%
RingCentral 0.06%
QQ 0.03%
Lark 0.03%
Line 0.03%
Max 0.03%

🚀 Highlights

Here is a list of the top apps that are more popular in the United Arab Emirates than worldwide.
Differences between global and country rankings are shown in parentheses.

3. Snapchat ^(-9)
5. Microsoft Teams ^(-10)
9. Zoom ^(-4)
10. Webex ^(-10)
11. RingCentral ^(-7)
13. Lark ^(-6)
17. Signal ^(-6)

✨ Best Instant Messaging Apps

Below is a more detailed list of 17 instant messaging apps used on sites from the United Arab Emirates, ranked by their market share.

Rank	Name	Market share
1	WhatsApp Menlo Park, California, United States A cross-platform instant messaging and Voice over IP service owned by Meta that enables private messaging, media sharing, and internet-based voice and video communication. Free$$$	86.7%
2	Telegram Dubai, United Arab Emirates A cloud-based messaging app for mobile and desktop platforms focused on security, speed, and privacy. Free$$$	11.6%
3	Snapchat Santa Monica, California, United States A messaging and social networking app that lets users send photos and videos ("Snaps") that disappear after being viewed by default. Free	5.3%
4	Messenger Menlo Park, California, United States An instant messaging service developed by Meta, available on Android, iOS, and web platforms. Free	1.7%
5	Microsoft Teams Redmond, Washington, United States A proprietary business collaboration platform built for hybrid work, offering chat, video conferencing, file storage, and application integration. Free$9.99+/month	1.3%
6	Discord San Francisco, California, United States An instant messaging and VoIP social platform that allows users to communicate via text chat, voice, and video. Free$2.99+	1.2%
7	WeChat Shenzhen, China A Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app that has evolved into a super-app combining communication, commerce, and everyday services. Free	0.2%
8	Viber Tokyo, Japan A free, cross-platform instant messaging and calling application owned by Rakuten. Free$$$	0.2%
9	Zoom San Jose, California, United States A cloud-based communications platform that enables video meetings, audio conferencing, phone calls, and team chat across devices. Free$15.99+/user/month	0.2%
10	Webex San Jose, California, United States A cloud-based video conferencing and collaboration solution that enables users to hold online meetings, video calls, webinars, and team conversations with integrated chat and collaboration features. Free$14.50+/user/month	0.06%
11	RingCentral Belmont, California, United States A business communications platform that includes contact center and AI-powered phone, video, event management, and automation solutions. $20+/user/month	0.06%
12	QQ Shenzhen, China A Chinese instant messaging software platform. Free	0.03%
13	Lark Haidian, Beijing, China An enterprise collaboration platform developed by ByteDance that integrates instant messaging, document collaboration, video conferencing, and calendar management. Free$7.20+/user/month	0.03%
14	Line Tokyo, Japan A Japanese instant messaging and social networking app often described as a super-app because it integrates services such as a digital wallet, news feed, digital comics, media streaming, and shopping. Free	0.03%
15	Max Moscow, Russia A Russian instant messaging platform integrated into the country's national digital ecosystem. Free	0.03%
16	Slack San Francisco, California, United States A cloud-based team communication platform for businesses, currently owned by Salesforce. Free$8.75+/month	0.03%
17	Signal Mountain View, California, United States An open-source, privacy-focused messaging app for instant messaging, voice calls, and video calls. FreeOpen source	0.03%

👉 See Also

🌎 Instant Messaging in other countries
- Iraq
- Kuwait
- Oman

🗃️ About This Data

We evaluate the popularity of technologies based on the number of websites where we detect their usage.
Technologies without a detectable web footprint, and those we do not track, are not reflected in the calculated market share.
This report is based on the analysis of 10,045 websites from the United Arab Emirates.
We currently track the presence of 28 instant messaging apps across the web.
Of these, 17 were detected on websites from the United Arab Emirates.
Statistics were last calculated on September 19, 2026.
For more details, see our methodology and disclaimer.