Did you really think that “Whatsapp” is the only major player in free messaging apps? This article would change your mind. In Asia “WhatsApp ” is not even in the top 5 most used messaging apps. Let’s talk about those popular messaging apps for smartphones, tablets and PCs.
LINE:
This application was created and launched in 2011 by Japanese engineers working at NHN Japan. This application is not just limited to mobile devices. Line also exists as the desktop/PC app.
Other than texting line also supports good quality Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). My personal experience is that if both the parties are on a network that is above 2G it gives a really good voice quality.
This app was able to achieve success in just one and a half years of its launch. It was able to attract more than hundred million within that period. It has an amazing collection of stickers which adds value to its usage as a text alternative.
Kakao Talk:
This application was launched before LINE was launched. It was released to the android market on march 18th 2010. This application too has the desktop version which was launched on April 2013. Mr. Kim Beom Soo is the founder of the company. He was the former CEO of NHN.
They recently saw some loss in its huge Japanese user base due to its recent government interactions. Most of the users from this app seems to have moved to the app named telegram which provides an encrypted network to send the chat messages.
This application provides some awesome features like group chat of 5 members and group calling as well. This is not supported by “Line”.
WeChat:
One common thing that we have seen in the chat market is that only those applications developed by the Asians seem to be on the top here. WeChat is developed by Chinese developers and was successfully released in the year 2011. This application created by a company in china named Tencent.
This application does not have a desktop version as of now. I just wish it come out someday.
Viber:
The application was started by a group of four visionaries by keeping in mind the idea to beat the world famous Skype. Well it is still a long way from beating Skype. It does provide all the functionalities that is provided by the VoIP giant Skype. 900 million USD is the amount that was paid by Rakuten when it acquired Viber. The number of users it has currently is more than 90 million.
Nimbuzz:
I feel really sorry for this app which is the one that started the earliest of all the above mentioned ones. It was launched in the year 2008. It also had a unique feature of having the integrations with all the social chatting systems you could imagine that time. It used to have more than 100 million users. Unfortunately it’s still seeing a lot of decline in its user base. It was started by a Dutch company which then found it to be really helpful to settle in India.