Why Are There So Many Messaging Apps?

Not long ago, teens communicated with one another through SMS messages. As inexpensive as they are, though, they can begin to add up to hundreds of messages. This is the market that messaging apps target. They let you message for free by using your phone’s data plan rather than its SMS plan. If you haven’t been paying attention to the messaging app market, though, it can be a little overwhelming to figure out how to get in. There are literally dozens of apps available. What are they all for and which one should you pick?

Free messaging services are all the rage now among teens who can't afford standard SMS rates. These services are popular among adults, too. If you are a businessman communicating with international associates, for instance, sending SMS messages back and forth can quickly add up. These messaging apps can save you a bundle.

To someone new to the world of free messaging apps, a dozen popular examples are available today. If you aren't as involved in messaging apps as teenagers tend to be, it can be hard to know which way to turn.

Google Hangouts is included by default on Android phones were made after mid-2013. If you have an iPhone, the Messages app and the iMessage app are included out of the box. Messaging apps save you money because they don't use your cellphone's SMS plan. Instead, they use your phone's data plan. When both you and the receiver of your message have the same app, you can simply route your message to him over the Internet, through the app's servers. Your cellphone's SMS plan is neatly bypassed.

The fact that both the sender and the receiver need to use the same messaging service can be a problem. While Hangouts is available on iOS and Android, it isn't available on Windows Phone. Apple's Messages and iMessage aren't available on non-iOS platforms. By definition, then, these apps can't work for everyone. You have no control over what brand of phone your friends use, after all.

If you're interested in using an app to truly replace all the text messages that you do, you need something that's available on every phone platform. Third-party apps work very well for this purpose names such as Snapchat and WhatsApp are a very good idea. Most of your friends are likely to have one or two of these. If you simply need a free text messaging substitute, get WhatsApp. 

WhatsApp allows you to send text messages photos videos and even voice snippets. VoIP calls are a planned feature, too. It's a full-featured app and it offers a message history, offline message storage, status settings, and so on. WhatsApp is unique among messaging apps for its ability to work on nearly every platform in existence even some feature phones. While WhatsApp is tremendously popular, other alternatives are possible, depending on what your friends use names Facebook Messenger, Kik, and Viber are popular.

Snapchat is much better for image-based messaging. Snapchat is intended as a messaging service for those who exchange images and videos. The service has a killer feature for sexting enthusiasts - since the risk of sexted messages isn't safe for anyone to keep on their phones, Snapchat comes with automatic self-destruct. All messages, images and videos self-delete after a few seconds. While one can certainly make copies of a sexted message, Snapchat's self-destruct is still reasonable assurance that an image won't hang around a receiver's phone.

Snapchat is popular with non-sexters who need to simply share images, too. People like the fact that the images they receive don't clog up their storage space. If you aren't comfortable with Snapchat, you can try Instagram Direct or Clipchat.

If you only need to chat with people in your immediate neighborhood Firechat has a new concept and you use it to chat with people who are logged on to the same Wi-Fi network as you or whom you can connect to over Bluetooth. This would most. You don't need an Internet connection for Firechat to work - you just need to be connected to a local network over Wi-Fi. Firechat is popular in dorm rooms.