There are multiple apps available for messaging nowadays and each one offers a new insight to the world of texting.
To select the best app that you might choose to call “most reliable”, we first need to look into what are the requirements we have and what all the apps can offer.
Why texting?
Texting is the most reliable source of online communication in the online world. It is engraved in the concept of online communication itself. It is very useful due to following reasons:
- Things are clearer: since everything is written, the problem of miscommunication narrows down drastically. This is especially important in terms of professional or formal communication.
Even in informal communication, information related to timings, numbers and names are easier to remember.
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- Refer again: we can keep referring the information given to us and check to reconfirm as much as we want without being bothered or without bothering the other person. This helps in multiple day to day communications like sending address or phone numbers or to give complex step by step instructions which are harder to remember in general.
- Letters of past: it also serves as a memory when we are very happy about something or want to remember the scenario, we had with someone while talking to them via messages. This also includes arguments where we tend to miss the other person’s point of view or sometimes even what they are saying, these can be reviewed /re-read/ analysed later with a calmer mind which works wonders in terms of relationships.
- Proof: you can prove what the other person said on text as long as you haven’t deleted it. That is why it helps you get proofs which helps in making people accountable for their words, actions and reactions.
- My life my time: messages are great because you can send whatever is in your mind without the issue of you forgetting it later and the person receiving it can read and respond whenever they can or whenever they want to.
- You can quote exact words: quoting exact words becomes a huge challenge in verbal communication but in terms of texting, you can just copy paste or forward the message someone has.
- Mass communication made easier: communication with a large group of people is not that easy but with messages it becomes much easier to communicate a large set of information with friends, family and acquaintances without any fear of data loss due to mouth communication.
- No FOMO: group chats help in avoiding the Fear Of Missing Out for all the members of a friend group. They may not be the part of a conversation happening inside a group if they happened to be offline, but they can always read what the people talked and what exactly did each one of them said.
These were the few, out of plenty of advantages that messaging offers to people. Now to understand which app to choose for messaging online, these points should be kept in mind. We need an app with the following features:
- Option to make group chats
- Be able to delete or unsend a message that has some issue
- Be able to type using voice recognition
- Be able to record audios in case we do not feel like typing
- Be able to share media and documents online
- Be able to call the person if needed
- Have a huge number of active users
- Does not glitch or crash
- Supports regional language fonts
- Has some fun stickers and GIFs
- Easy to use
Now keeping in mind, the above features, here are some of my favourite texting apps:
- WhatsApp: I don’t think this app needs an introduction anymore! This is the most used texting app in the entire world and is still gaining thousands of new users each day. It has gained its popularity mainly because it is so easy to use and has always been a trend setter in terms of messaging apps. It has unique features and works really well in terms of group chats, calls audio recording, images or video sharing, documents sharing and what not. It is also one of the safest apps as the messages are end to end encrypted. It also supports all kinds of stickers like Bangla stickers.
Its popularity is huge and it is one of the only major apps that are absolutely add free. Also, it supports regional language fonts and hence is not at all bounded by languages. All you need is a Hindi keyboard app and you can type in Hindi.
It feels like we are chatting using the normal text messages but with tons of more features. Whats App doesn’t even need anything to set up your account, just a phone number. This also goes hand in hand while adding someone on Whats App. All you need is someone’s phone number and done!
I can go on and on about this but we need to explore more options!
- Instagram: One of the major reasons this app became largely popular besides sharing similarities with Facebook is its messaging. It is very easy to use text using Instagram and we have unique features like sending pictures with filters or sending selfie-emoji or “view only once” images. Moreover, Instagram can also be used to send voice messages and similarly has most of the features that Whats App offers. We can also share posts of images or videos here and allow our followers to comment, like, tag and share the posts of people they follow.
One thing peculiar about Instagram is, we cannot “clear chat” as the chats are saved online. This helps in reducing the memory of phone that is occupied by the files we see when we open the chats.
Discord: this app again stores most of the texts and medias in the chats online. This again helps in reducing the memory these media files would otherwise have. This app also allows you to group video call, live stream with friends and much more! This app is growing rapidly in terms of users and for obvious reasons. So do discover this app!