WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging platform owned by Meta, suffered its longest outage since October 2021 on Tuesday (October 25), and the outage appeared to affect WhatsApp users worldwide, affecting millions of users. More than 2 billion users rely on the meta-owned WhatsApp for both communication and payments.
While WhatsApp is undoubtedly the most popular and convenient messaging platform, it also suffers from problems and glitches (as it does today) that cause great inconvenience to its huge user base. This is the time when other messaging apps can come in handy. We’ve shortlisted the top 5 apps that smartphone users can use when WhatsApp goes down. Here are the top 5 alternatives for WhatsApp.
telegram
Telegram is an encrypted messaging platform founded by Pavel Durov. Accessible worldwide, Telegram is a cross-platform, cloud-based instant messaging service. Telegram also offers optional end-to-end encrypted chats and video calls, file sharing, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) among several other features. Telegram was launched in August 2013 for iOS devices and October 2013 for Android. The encrypted messaging platform recently reduced its monthly subscription fee in India for premium users from Rs 469 to Rs 179.
signal
Signal is a privacy-focused, free messaging and voice talk app that can be used on both Apple and Android smartphones and desktops as well. This cross-platform, centralized, encrypted instant messaging service is being developed by the non-profit Signal Foundation and its subsidiary, Signal Messenger LLC. Signal users can send individual and group messages including files, voice messages, images and videos on the platform.
google chat
Developed by technology giant Google, Google Chat is a communication service originally designed for teams and business environments. However, it was later made available to general consumers as well. Google Chat also offers the option to share files, which ensures that you can share files or any work-related documents.
iMessage
Developed by Apple, iMessage is an instant messaging service that was introduced in 2011. However, iMessage works exclusively on Apple platforms such as iOS, macOS, iPadOS and watchOS.
Microsoft Teams
One of the apps that gained popularity at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 was Microsoft Teams. This is also one of the best workplace chat apps that can be used outside of work as well. Microsoft Teams is a proprietary business communications platform developed by Microsoft as part of the Microsoft 365 family of products.
