Even though the likes of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger continue to be hugely popular, particularly in the west, they are nonetheless facing growing competition from other social networking apps, while in eastern markets – where app loyalty is much more fickle – they may find it more difficult to establish and maintain a large following.

These are some of the key findings of a new study by adjust, an analytics company, aimed at identifying the world’s “best social networking apps”.

“Our analysis showed that while a core set of social networking apps remain consistently at the top of the charts in western markets, app stores in the eastern markets, such as China, Japan and India, are more subject to volatility and change in rankings and ratings of social networking apps, indicating an evolving social networking app ecosystem,” said Christian Henschel, CEO and co-founder of adjust.

“Additionally, we’re seeing many new emerging social networking apps – like Repost for Instagram and Kik – rise up the charts to challenge the long-time leaders, such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.”

The adjust study analysed 217,549 social networking and communication apps across 155 Apple App Store countries and 157 Google Play storefront countries, focusing on a combination of the app store rank with the average of all ratings for the app given by customers. Data was sourced on 22 September and 6 October.

Highlights from adjust’s analysis include Repost for Instagram – as well as Kik – hit the top three in iOS rankings in the US and Sweden. Lovoo, a dating app, made the top three in iOS rankings in Germany and Italy.

And while Pinterest, Instagram, WhatsApp Messenger and Badoo perform the best on Google Play – both in terms of number of ranked positions and rating – the highest-rated social communication app of the analysed countries globally is fqrouter2, which allows users to access restricted sites like YouTube and Twitter in China.