As 60 million Italians face a coronavirus country-wide lockdown, many daily interactions among family, friends and colleagues have moved to messaging platforms such as Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp and Microsoft’s Corp Skype. Users in Italy are placing 20% more calls and sending 20% more messages on WhatsApp compared to a year ago, the company told Reuters.

A spokeswoman for Microsoft did not provide statistics for Skype, but said the company had recorded a 100% growth in usage of its messaging application Teams in Italy. It is not just an explosion of funny memes in groups, or idle chit-chat between bored people stuck at home.