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Germans are using their mobile phones less and less for making phone calls. While there were 163 billion outgoing mobile call minutes in Germany in 2021, this figure fell to just 145 billion by 2024, according to the Federal Network Agency in response to a dpa inquiry.

The decline is even more pronounced for landline calls, and it began earlier. In 2020, there were 104 billion minutes of calls. By 2024, this annual figure had fallen by almost half to just 57 billion minutes of calls made over traditional landline telephones.

The number of conversations via messaging services such as WhatsApp, Signal, and Threema, as well as other internet services, is increasing sharply. While there were 121 billion minutes of audio conversations in 2022, this figure rose to 197 billion last year. Video calls are also experiencing a steep rise, from 143 billion in 2022 to 184 billion in 2024.

Everyday communication is often no longer about conversations, but rather about chat messages, also known as instant messages – whether texts, photos, voice messages, videos, or emojis. According to data, 902 billion such instant messages were sent in Germany last year, 11 billion more than the previous year.