According to comScore research, Snapchat is now the third most popular social app among the millennial demographic (18-34 year olds). With 32.9 percent penetration on mobile phones, Snapchat trails only Facebook and Instagram. Jumping from 12.1 percent back in November 2013, the app is now more popular with millennials than Twitter, Pinterest, Vine, Google+ or Tumblr. The shift is important considering that this age group is the most active of mobile social networkers.

“It also puts into perspective why Facebook once valued the company at $3 billion, and why Snapchat had the vision — or hubris, perhaps — to turn that offer down,” reports TechCrunch. The habits of millennials “are setting the stage to be the new ‘default’ for the generations that follow, like Generation Z or Generation Alpha, or whatever we’re calling the born-with-iPad-in-hand kids.”

According to comScore’s findings for June 2014, Snapchat is now at 18 percent among smartphone-using adults.

“More importantly, when you dive deeper into Snapchat’s user demographics, it seems that Snapchat has long since passed critical mass among users ages 18-24, where it now sees around 50 percent penetration,” notes TechCrunch. “Combined with the slightly older 25-34 crowd, Snapchat’s penetration among the broader millennial demographic is at 32.9 percent.”

Today’s messaging apps are much more than mere text messaging replacements, as evidenced by the growing popularity of Whatsapp (which sold to Facebook for $19 billion in February) and others such as LINE, Kakao Talk, Kik, Tango, Viber and WeChat.