Chat apps used by consumers for a wide range of brand engagement purposes, especially strong outside the U.S., according to new Mitto survey

Mitto, a leading provider of global omnichannel communications solutions, announced it now supports application-to-person (A2P) messaging via all major chat apps, extending brands’ ability to engage with customers on their preferred channels.

Mitto’s extended A2P support for all major chat apps coincides with new research from the company, which reveals insights into consumer preferences and use of chat apps across five countries: the U.S., China, India, Brazil and Nigeria. The findings from 600 respondents in each country show increased consumer use of messaging platforms and apps for both personal use and to engage with brands, which are seeking new channels to effectively interact with their customers where they are and in ways that fit seamlessly into their lifestyle.

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Mitto’s research found that over 80% of consumers in China, Brazil, India and Nigeria use chat apps for brand engagement, significantly higher than in the U.S. (51%), highlighting for U.S. brands the importance of using chat apps to effectively reach consumers abroad. Mitto found strong parallels globally among the chat apps consumers report using the most for personal use and for brand engagement, suggesting chat apps are used interchangeably for both purposes. The research also found the most popular chat apps used to engage with brands outside the U.S. were WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. In the U.S, however, Facebook Messenger ranks as the most popular chat app for brand engagement, followed by WhatsApp and Discord.

Which of the following chat apps do you use regularly to engage with brands?

“Mitto’s expanded A2P business messaging support for chat apps will give our clients the ability to connect with global consumers where they’re already at: on their phones, on their preferred chat apps,” said Sandro Stupar, Director of Product Management at Mitto. “Across the world, consumers are demanding more from the brands with which they engage, and this extends into how and where they communicate. At Mitto, we work with our customers to identify how to best reach their target customers and we ensure quality delivery over the best channel. Chat apps represent massive opportunities for brands to organically drive positive customer experiences.”

With billions of users worldwide, chat apps present critical and robust engagement channels for brands to reach their customers. Mitto’s A2P business messaging support for chat apps give global brands new ways to deliver reliable, rich and high-quality communications with their customers that can drive loyalty and engagement, particularly set against the backdrop of our new contactless world. Since the start of COVID-19, Mitto’s research found a rise in the use of chat apps for brand engagement among consumers in all five countries surveyed, however the rise has been most prominent in India (73%), Nigeria (71%), China (66%) and Brazil (61%). In the U.S. only 32% of consumers report using chat apps more since the pandemic began.

With Mitto business messages, brands seeking to engage their customers via chat apps can send content-rich messages of up 3,000 characters, depending on the specific app — compared to 160 with SMS — that include images, videos, expressive content, interactive buttons and links, and live message status updates, all in a native and brand-safe environment. This rich communication channel, combined with Mitto’s intelligent, AI-powered A2P traffic routing for fast, reliable delivery every time, gives brands personalized and high-impact ways to engage a global audience with simple and seamless integration. Mitto customers receive actionable insight into how users interact with their chat app messages, including whether the message has been viewed by the recipient.

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According to Mitto’s research, consumers engage with brands on chat apps across a range of industries:

What industry do you most often engage with on chat apps?

When asked what types of messages they’d like to receive more from brands on chat apps, consumers were especially opinionated on promotions/sales, satisfaction surveys and order updates:

What types of messages would you like to receive more of from brands on chat apps?

Mitto’s support for chat apps comes as the company has rapidly expanded its offerings and capabilities over the past two quarters. Last month, Mitto extended direct connectivity to the top three MNOs in Japan — where the company now delivers secure routing of A2P SMS into 90% of the country — and in June Mitto added Verified SMS by Google to strengthen trust between brands and their customers. In addition to chat app support, the company offers a full suite of CPaaS APIs including SMS, RCS, voice, 2FA and mobile intelligence anywhere in the world.

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