5 standout features of the most popular messaging (IM) apps around

posted by Chris P. / Nov 19, 2015, 7:21 AM

5 standout features of the most popular messaging (IM) apps around

Earlier today, we shared the results from our yesterday poll, Which is your preferred messenger app? Nearly two thousand readers of ours took part in the survey, and shared their preference, allowing us to draw some conclusions. For starters, Whatsapp is by and far the most popular chat client among our users, followed by (Facebook) Messenger, Telegram, BBM, and Viber.

So what makes these special? With some, it's their ubiquity, meaning that they can count on their friends and family to be available for chat. With others, it's a particular, special feature that makes them worthwhile. So we sat back and thought hard about what it is exactly that draws people to any of the aforementioned five and identified one standout feature of each.

Ready to find out? Let's go!

5 standout features of the most popular messaging (IM) apps around

(Facebook) Messenger: GIFs overload!

BBM: Retracting messages

Telegram: Security

View more + 1 image

5 standout features of the most popular messaging (IM) apps around

Believe it or not, WhatsApp offers nothing really unique in terms of features. It is by far the largest community, however, which is what really sets it aside from the rest. As of September 2015, WhatsApp boasts a user base of over 900 million monthly active users, which is downright incredible. So if you're looking for nothing more than just a a simple platform to chat away on, then WhatsApp is probably your best bet.
Download WhatsApp for Android | iOS | Windows Phone | BlackBerry

Options

13 Comments

1. zeeBomb

Posts: 2318; Member since: Aug 14, 2014

Good set of features.

posted on Nov 19, 2015, 7:23 AM 0

2. tech2

Posts: 3487; Member since: Oct 26, 2012

Whatsapp has support for desktop as well (its 3rd party tho). You can download the chrome extension.

posted on Nov 19, 2015, 7:53 AM 0

12. nodnarb

Posts: 35; Member since: Apr 27, 2012

you can also chat through the website without having do download a program, that's what I do

posted on Nov 20, 2015, 10:55 AM 0

3. Paximos

Posts: 279; Member since: Jul 26, 2012

Viber in my experience is such a big scam. After signing up and putting $20 into the account for international calls, I quickly realized that the voice quality wasn't up to par and that i had constant disconnects, I called to cancel my account and was told that i could do that via the mobile app which I did but they refused to refund me the remaining $17 because it had been over 2 month since my last use of the App. All that and that I was bombarded with unwanted ads on my mobile app not to mention their horrible customer service, a pretty s**tty company overall.

posted on Nov 19, 2015, 8:04 AM 0

4. TheOldOne

Posts: 196; Member since: Mar 29, 2012

I am looking for a good Yahoo messenger replacement (an app that can support Yahoo's messaging protocol), can someone point me to a good one? I am not looking to the usual suspects like IM+, FLiPSi

posted on Nov 19, 2015, 8:11 AM 0

5. gomezzz

Posts: 1; Member since: Nov 19, 2015

and Telegram is available for Android, iPhone/iPad, Widows Phone (the new Windows Mobile), it's available for OS X, PC and Linux... and most importatly it's web based too, so it's the most independent from them all, cuase you can use it on any browser.

posted on Nov 19, 2015, 8:12 AM 0

6. yecruzsulla

Posts: 11; Member since: Nov 05, 2015

i use gif message on messenger a lot, thats is very funny :)

posted on Nov 19, 2015, 8:35 AM 0

7. runzlord

Posts: 245; Member since: Oct 13, 2013

BBM has more features than any other I'm there! You did not even mention "timed message" and others Wechat too has some mad features including video calling.

posted on Nov 19, 2015, 8:52 AM 0

8. buccob

Posts: 2949; Member since: Jun 19, 2012

For me it is Whatsapp - Hangouts - Facebook.... Ubiquity and calls - Video and regular calls, desktop use - Floating heads on Android (plus all the contacts that I don't have a phone number)

9. HtPsycho

Posts: 27; Member since: Aug 14, 2015

I've been using telegram for about 4 month now. It's getting better and better with every new update. Maybe the best feature for me is accessing all my chats frow it's website when my phone's not around. You can access your account from any device, anywhere, and all your chats (except secret chats) will be instantly synced. And the worst thing would be lack of video/audio call.

posted on Nov 19, 2015, 9:59 AM 0

10. Ankitm

Posts: 6; Member since: Mar 04, 2014

I really like hike. It has few unique and useful features that no other messengers have.

posted on Nov 20, 2015, 3:37 AM 0

11. me.tmk2010

Posts: 2; Member since: Aug 19, 2015

Definitely Hike.... Use it..u will forget others. Stickers, offline messages, send any file up 100 mb, chat with out internet with hike direct. get embedded NEWS , latest scores Get coupons etc. I don't know why its not listed here.

posted on Nov 20, 2015, 3:58 AM 0

13. Nkukza

Posts: 52; Member since: Feb 19, 2015

This is my favourite apps in order Viber, Whatsapp, Hike, Facebook messenger, Telegram, BBM, Line, Wechat. find Hike and discover the glory of chatting, I just think hike is powerful but not as popular as some of these its just a metter of time before everyone starts adopting it.