Keeping in touch with the people you love has never been easier, as long as you have a smartphone connected to the Internet and the right application installed. These are the best chat apps available on your mobile phones
The arrival and evolution of smartphones has completely reconfigured the conception of human relations. Despite the divergent opinions, there is no doubt about the innumerable advantages in the level and capacity of communication and distance reached to the point of relegating these devices to essential consumer goods . The digital union between a smartphone and an Internet connection has allowed the direct physiological evolution of the communication system, now light years away from Meucci’s first phone, but not only, just think of a few years ago when SMS and MMS in the GSM and UMTS networksthey were considered an indispensable prodigy. Nowadays, it is enough to have a chat application installed on a smartphone with an Internet connection to be in contact with anyone at any distance on the planet.
What are the best apps for chatting ? In this guide we will try to analyze the most popular ones with the most important features available for both iOS and Android devices . All you have to do is browse your reference store, make sure you have at least a small amount of storage on your smartphone, install the chat apps, and you’re ready to stay in touch with all the people you love.
WHAT ARE THE MUST-HAVE FEATURES OF THE BEST CHAT APPS?
Inevitably, messaging applications are considered as such from the moment they allow lines of text to be exchanged in real time between the two interlocutors, but to this must be added a series of functionalities that are considered standard today. Undoubtedly, the most important addition is the possibility to send, in addition to the text, a voice recording of variable duration according to the needs. This is, without a doubt, a very important help to avoid wasting time due to texts that are too bombastic or difficult to understand due to the tone used. In addition to these two features, there is also the possibility of making calls and video callshigh-quality real ones that make use of the Internet connection and thus avoid wasting money in the event that there is no promotion with reference to free minutes. Emoticons , GIFs , stickers , which have sometimes even become a personal trait comparable to a signature, cannot be left out. There is also a series of advanced functionalities thanks to the presence of installable bots capable of performing the most diverse functions.
The best messaging apps for chat included in this list have been chosen based on the parameters of popularity and functionality . Although some of them may partially overlap in terms of functional similarities, each of them has its own distinguishing features from its competitors. Nor can it be forgotten that a messaging application must offer the possibility of connecting everyone in the same way, despite the programming differences between the different Android and iOS platforms, with the exception of iMessage, which we will go into detail in a bit.
The time has come to break down and review the best apps for chatting on iOS and Android.
WHATSAPP – THE BEST CHAT APPLICATIONS
What other way to start than with the absolute queen application: WhatsApp . With more than 1,500 million users between Android and iOS, it is officially the most used chat app in our country and around the world. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that it is free, but also due to its incredible accessibility and ease of use . Added to this is a series of excellently executed functions: instant messaging with voice recordings, exchange of multimedia and text files, calls and video calls .
WhatsApp is also available in a PC version, so you don’t miss a thing even during work sessions in front of a monitor. The real difference between WhatsApp and other applications lies precisely in the fact that it offers functions that can already be defined as standard, but with such excellent quality that it has created such a large and loyal user base that it is no longer necessary to migrate to other platforms.
TELEGRAM – THE BEST CHAT APPS
Among the best messaging apps for chatting, you can’t miss Telegram. Telegram is the direct competitor of WhatsApp, which must be equated with the messaging giant due to the similarity in the services it provides, although, in this case, it lacks the possibility of making video calls. But Telegram is also much more. In fact, it provides its more than 200 million active users around the world with a series of unique and very interesting features, two of which we would like to detail.
“Channels” are a Telegram tool that allows a single person to get in touch with several hundred people. In short, it can be considered a means of disseminating news through which the owner of the channel manages to stay in contact with a group of people who intend to “follow” their messages. However, the most intriguing thing about Telegram is the presence of bots. A Telegram bot is a “program” programmed by a developer (which can be any of you, since it is an open source function), capable of performing a series of very convenient tasks. Among the different bots, for example, there are those to track a shipment , download videos and music , start random chats with strangers, search Wikipedia , and much more. In short, as you may have guessed, the development possibilities of this platform are truly endless.
SKYPE – THE BEST CHAT APPS
Certainly, it is not considered the best text messaging application, but, in our opinion, Skype is rightly included in this guide due to its enormous potential in the field of video calls. The chat application developed by Microsoft has been for years and continues to be a benchmark for high-quality calls and video calls on PC platforms .
Its arrival in a mobile version on Android and iOS devices has made it possible to make video calls (also group calls) not only between mobile devices, but also between PCs and smartphones. Skype’s high video quality has also allowed it to be considered a “work” application used at a corporate level due to the ability to conduct conference calls with very little signal loss.
IMESSAGE – BEST CHAT APPS
iMessage is the instant messaging service developed directly by Apple . Although it is not comparable to the other chat apps in this guide because it is much more limited in terms of functionality, its inclusion among the best messaging apps for chatting was a must. iMessage, in fact, only allows communication between Apple devices , but even before the arrival of WhatsApp, it represented a benchmark in free portable communication. Simplicity and seamless integration into the Apple ecosystem are its best qualities.
FACEBOOK MESSENGER – BEST CHAT APPS
Facebook Messenger is nothing more than the messaging application that maintains contact and allows communication between the different Facebook profiles . The messaging client is available as an app on iOS and Android, in addition tobe integrated into the desktop version of the social network website. The strong point of this application is the perfect integration between it and the Facebook account, which has become an essential element in everyone’s life. Through this application, it is possible to contact friends through text chat, calls and video calls. In addition, it also allows you to send messages to Facebook profiles outside your circle of friends to meet new people. This seamless integration with one of the most popular and used social networks has made Facebook Messenger the second most used instant messaging application after WhatsApp, with 1.3 billion active users.
ALL THE OTHERS I’VE HEARD OF?
As we said in the introduction, we wanted to focus the attention of this guide on the best applications for chatting according to their popularity in Italy , avoiding overlapping applications that are too similar and lack personal passwords. In the vast world of the web, there are, in fact, applications of the most varied nature that could easily be included in this list because they are excellent for messaging.
You’ve probably already heard of WeChat or LINE , the Asian counterparts of WhatsApp and Telegram , or you’ve no doubt received or sent a chat message through the increasingly popular Instagram client. Or you may have accidentally but unintentionally sent a message through Google Hangouts , the service developed by Google that is usually pre-installed on some versions of Android.
In short, the network is huge and full of infinite variants of apps to chat or that include this functionality (have you already forgotten when Snapchat reached the peak of popularity a few months ago?). Tell us in the comments which of these apps you use the most and which one you haven’t managed to try yet.