Texting apps have become the dominant form of mobile communication around the world. Unlike old-fashioned SMS text messaging included with your cell phone plan, internet-based chat apps offer more features and flexibility at no extra cost. The global user base of popular chat apps now surpasses 3 billion people.
But with new options continually arriving and updates happening all the time, it can be difficult to pick the right texting app for your needs. This guide compares the top contenders on important criteria like security, contacts, features, and utility to help you decide. We‘ll also look at recent developments and use cases that go beyond simple chatting.
The Rise of Texting Apps
Texting apps, also known as chat apps or instant messaging apps, first started gaining popularity in the late 2000s as smartphones with app stores began proliferating. WhatsApp, founded in 2009, led the way in providing an alternative to costly carrier SMS plans by letting users send messages over mobile internet data connections instead.
Other startups like Viber, Telegram, and Signal soon followed, competing largely on security features and global reach. Facebook entered the space in 2014 by acquiring WhatsApp and launching Facebook Messenger. Fast forward to today – texting apps now see over 100 billion messages sent per day.
Driving this growth is the flexibility and feature set offered by internet-based chat apps versus traditional text messaging. Texting apps provide things like:
- Free messaging, voice notes, calling, video chat
- Group messaging for up to thousands of people
- End-to-end encryption for privacy
- Cross-platform availability on mobile, desktop, web
- Ability to message businesses and organizations
- Fun features like stickers, GIFs, profiles, statuses
With global dominance by a handful of apps, texting apps have effectively become their own platform outside the control of carriers – similar to how social networks or email operate. This guide will focus on the top contenders.
What to Look for in a Texting App
With texting apps playing such an integral communication role for over 3 billion people, choosing the right app matters. Here are key criteria to evaluate when picking an app:
1. Security and Privacy
For an app dealing with your personal conversations and media, security is paramount. Leading apps offer end-to-end encryption for messages, voice, video, and files to prevent spying by hackers, regimes, or even the app company itself. Telegram and WhatsApp encryption options vary by chat type – we‘ll cover specifics below.
Backup to a cloud vs device also play into privacy tradeoffs. Apple‘s iMessage system offers better privacy than apps relying on company servers. Review each app‘s security architecture and policies closely across areas like encryption, cloud storage, witness systems to prevent abuse, filtering for threats. No app is 100% bulletproof but some like Signal come closer than others.
2. Contacts and Reach
A messaging app is only useful if people you want to contact actually use it. In some countries nearly everyone is on a single dominant platform like WhatsApp or WeChat. In other regions it fragments across apps more. Review which apps your intended contacts and groups use before deciding.
Consumer apps focused on one-to-one and group messaging have network effects – value grows exponentially with more users. So dominant apps in a country become hard to displace. Exceptions like Telegram and Line dominate in specific large countries like Russia, Japan rather than globally.
3. Features
Beyond basic messaging, texting apps compete on fun and useful features that differentiate their experience:
- Multimedia – Ability to send photos, videos, voice messages, documents
- Groups – Maximum group size for messaging
- Discoverability – Finding new public groups and channels to join based on interests
- Business messaging – API access for businesses to communicate with customers at scale via official brand accounts
- Syncing – Cross-device syncing between mobile, desktop, web apps for seamless transition
- Utility – External app integrations, bots, payment options
Consider which feature set best aligns with how you want to communicate before choosing the app.
4. User Experience
With many functional apps to choose from, design and intuitive operation also grow in importance. Evaluating UX comes down to personal preference but becomes crucial when less tech-savvy people are involved.
Some apps adopt a minimalist approach with clean layouts while others go wild with stickers, themes, endless customization. Neither style is right or wrong. Only whether it fits your tastes and habits. Review app store screenshots and videos to get a feel – often better than descriptions.
The Top 5 Texting Apps Compared
Now that we‘ve covered how to evaluate texting apps generally, let‘s compare the top options on those criteria:
Security – End-to-end encryption for chats. Encryption keys stored on device only. Solid safety but owned by scandal-ridden Meta.
Reach – Over 2 billion users makes WhatsApp the most globally dominant by far. Especially popular across Europe, Americas, India.
Features – Excellent features for messaging, groups, calls, business. Great multimedia support. New Communities option for public groups.
UX – Simple, pared down interface and workflows. Easy to use even for less technical folks. Fast and reliable.
Overall, WhatsApp deserves its leadership position. The only downsides come from parent company Meta‘s reputation and handling of data/ads. Lack of encryption by default for backups is another oft-cited issue. But chances are you already have WhatsApp installed.
Telegram
Security – Uses MTProto encryption but implementation critiqued by experts. Secret Chats offer E2E but not default. Security/privacy split between chat types risks confusion.
Reach – 700 million claimed users globally but much smaller engaged user base than WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Very popular in countries like Iran, Central Asia.
Features – Big differentiator is channels for broadcasts to unlimited subscribers. Also huge group sizes. Supergroups more like decentralized social networks. Sophisticated.
UX – More complex and power user-focused. But highly flexible for different communication styles. API access allows bots, 3rd party clients.
Telegram is great for certain use cases like groups, channels but the average person likely finds WhatsApp simpler. Still, Telegram deserve credit for innovation. And their global user base keeps growing at a healthy clip.
Signal
Security – Strongest security and crypto pedigree. Uses own Signal Protocol widely adopted by WhatsApp and Facebook. E2E encryption for everything by default. Minimizes metadata exposure.
Reach – Only about 40 million users estimated globally. But growing following certain country blackouts of Big Tech apps. Used by activists, journalists.
Features – Focus is on clean, minimalist messaging vs bells & whistles. Still has solid voice/video calls, group chat, multimedia. But smaller limits on things like group sizes reflect encryption tradeoffs.
UX – Very simple, easy to use even for less technical people. Deliberately opinionated to guide users into secure practices by default.
If security is your top concern, Signal leads the pack. The tradeoff comes in having a smaller global network versus WhatsApp. But Signal‘s audience has grown steadily among cybersecurity professionals, enterprises, government agencies in recent years.
Facebook Messenger
Security – No e2e encryption by default outside of Secret Conversations. Terrible privacy protections but taking baby steps. Automatically scans images.
Reach – Unmatched user base of over 1.3 billion since everyone on Facebook has Messenger by default whether they use it or not. Knows no rivals in scale.
Features – Huge feature set from consumer messaging to enterprise scale communication APIs. Instagram integration another perk. But lots feels cluttered.
UX – Frequent interface shuffling doesn‘t help. Feels cluttered and overbearing compared to simplicity of WhatsApp or Signal. But does offer customization range.
Facebook Messenger‘s superpower and curse is leveraging the Facebook social graph. It‘s great to easily message FB friends. But risks associated with broader Facebook ecosystem also apply here unless using Secret Conversations.
iMessage
Security – Uses Apple device encryption so messages are stored locally only, not in a server cloud. Solid safety thanks to hardware integration but no control over Apple systems.
Reach – Preinstalled default texting app for anyone with an iPhone or iPad which is a sizable audience. But only useful communicating between other Apple devices. No Android version.
Features – Has really upped multimedia support in recent years including photo effects, stickers, Tapbacks. More consumer than enterprise focused though.
UX – Very smooth, easy experience for the Apple faithful. Tight hardware/software integration enables advanced features. But quite locked into Apple ecosystem – no cross-device support.
iMessage spans texting app and carrier SMS replacement – an integration not replicated on Android. It brings Apple‘s customary polish to messaging friends across SMS or internet data while maintaining high privacy. But only useful if living fully inside Apple‘s walled garden.
What About SMS?
Traditional carrier SMS text messaging lacks the advanced features, flexibility, and security of modern chat apps. But it still has niche use cases likes basic communication or as a backup if data networks go down.
Apps like Signal (on Android) bridge this gap by acting as your primary SMS app while still enabling Signal Protocol encrypted messaging with supported contacts in the same thread.
How Texting Apps Are Evolving
Beyond secure messaging, texting apps keep adding features expanding their utility like:
Business Messaging
The bot and business profile API access offered by Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, and others enable entirely new customer communication channels for brands. Early adopters have already seen success – 80% of people now prefer messaging a business over calling. Expect business messaging to surpass social media usage shortly.
Commerce Features
Messaging apps act as both communication and transactional platforms particularly in high mobile usage countries across Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Apps like WeChat, Line allow in-app payments or ecommerce. WhatsApp Pay aims to compete using Facebook payment infrastructure. The Tencent investment in Signal seems intended to spur similar functionality.
Digital Wellbeing
Backlash against distraction and unhealthy comparisons has also led texting apps to add digital wellbeing features promoting positive habits. These include enhanced time management and usage monitoring tools to notify or limit overall app usage if desired. Custom notification settings per chat are also popular for better controlling interruptions.
The integration of wellness features into chat apps highlights their permanent, intimate role in people‘s lives. Texting app companies have enough influence to directly shape habits and best practices – either positively or negatively.
Decentralization
Concerns around dependencies on Big Tech companies have renewed interest in decentralized communication protocols. Apps like Signal, Element leverage open standards allowing independent federated networks to seamlessly interconnect. Regulatory changes are also enabling user choice of default messaging apps on mobile devices.
Integrating Texting Apps into Workflows
Texting apps provide compelling communication channels not just for personal use but also business workflows. Using workflow automation tools like Zapier, IFTTT, or Integromat let you integrate messaging capabilities into business software like CRM, email, help desk, and productivity tools.
Common examples include:
- Sending Slack or Teams notifications to staff via WhatsApp or Telegram groups.
- Logging Facebook or Instagram messages as tickets in Zendesk or Kustomer for organized response.
- Enabling customers to initiate orders, updates, cancellations by messaging a Shopify or WooCommerce store owner.
- Automatically following up bookings or inquiries from a Calendly link via customized Messenger sequence.
Customer support, sales and marketing are fast embracing conversational texting apps as engagement hubs. Streamlining notifications and responses using integrations supercharges productivity further.
Text Expander + Google Sheets Integration
TextExpander + Google Sheets Integration
Zapier‘s 1000+ app integrations include all major messaging platforms – enabling creative solutions like above.
Choosing the Best Texting App For You
Texting apps have transformed mobile communication with multi-billion user networks across consumer and business contexts now dependent on chat apps. Picking the right platform comes down to balancing factors like security, contacts, features, and UX design.
In general WhatsApp leads globally thanks to strong security fundamentals combined with intuitive interface familiar to over 2 billion people. Telegram offers more advanced options for power users willing to manage privacy tradeoffs. Facebook Messenger casts the widest net but lags in safety and minimalist design. Signal earns praise from experts focused purely on safeguarding privacy. While Apple‘s iMessage threads the needle for iOS-centric communication flows locked to Apple devices.
Use the criteria in this guide to evaluate apps based on your priorities whether simplicity, security, ubiquity, features, or automation integration. Texting apps as a digital platform show no signs of slowing their versatile utility across messaging friends to serving customers for enterprises.
