Mobile Messaging: A User's Guide
What's The Best Way To Say It?
If you’re still texting, you’re way behind the times. It’s
not enough to be connected across your social networks – to share your photos
on Instagram, your musings on Twitter, your secrets on Whisper – but staying in
touch with your friends now means making the choice between any number of
varied and sometimes bewilderingly similar messaging apps. With Facebook now
forcing mobile users to use a separate Facebook Messenger app to communicate
with their friends, picking which way to tell someone you’re going to be late
has never been more relevant. Here’s a rundown of some of the bigger players.
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| Source: huffingtonpost.com |
The most popular mobile messaging app, WhatsApp was boughtby Facebook in February for $19 billion. With 450 million users worldwide, that
may have been a smart investment. Although WhatsApp is one of the more Spartan
of the messaging apps – it doesn’t have a calling feature, and the layout has
remained fairly utilitarian since its inception – this basic setup seems to be
succeeding in being all things to all people.
Facebook Messenger
The second most popular messaging service (although since
Facebook also owns WhatsApp it’s something of a moot point) and, since being
divorced from the parent app, should really now be considered on its own terms.
Perhaps the nicest feature is the pop-out chat head overlay, which allows you
to swing in and out of conversations while performing other tasks on your
phone. The other advantage, of course, is that since everyone you know already
has Facebook there’s no problem in co-ordination.
Kik
Similar to WhatsApp in layout and functionality, Kik’s
salient feature is privacy: there’s no need to use your number or email
address, only a user name which you create. Although with 130 million people
using the service, you may have some difficulty in finding a unique handle.
Viber
Another one which prizes ease of use over a pile of
features, Viber has a large international user base. The main appeal of this app
is the ease of voice calling. It uses the phone’s data connection or Wi-Fi to
make calls over the internet, including free calls to other Viber users, making
it popular with those who make regular calls abroad. The text messaging aspect
of the app is also solid, plus it has a nice bunch of animated emojis if you’re
into that sort of thing.
The most popular messaging app you've never heard of, WeChat
has around 450 million active monthly users – almost all of them in China. Far
and away the most popular of such services in Asia, WeChat has yet to make its
mark on the Western mobile market. It’s certainly not a lack of options which
holds it back, though. WeChat allows you to do everything from message to call
to send emojis and music to connect with strangers nearby also using the app.
It’s a varied and powerful tool, and well worth keeping an eye on.
Snapchat
Always worth a mention, Snapchat incorporated a messaging
function earlier this year alongside its self-destructing photo service. While
the company refuses to disclose user numbers, it’s worth betting that most people
you know are already enthusiastic users of the app. The text messaging function
is fairly minimalist, and messages disappear once they've been read, but the
ease of reply with either text or photos makes it an attractive option for the
casual user.
Douglas is an English Literature graduate who has written about
everything from music to food to theatre, now a content creator for
Social Media Frontiers. No topic too large or too small. Follow him @DouglasAtSMF.
Mobile Messaging: A User's Guide
Reviewed by Anonymous
on
Tuesday, August 05, 2014
Rating:
Reviewed by Anonymous
on
Tuesday, August 05, 2014
Rating:
Anonymous
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