Now that Whatsapp is part of Facebook, some might feel a bit exposed using it. But I wouldn’t worry about Facebook doing something with their chat conversation data. I would worry more about the fact that it has been known to have very weak security.
Also last weekend, after the Facebook purchase, the service had a major fail. I had several friends going back to SMS messages to communicate.
So for those cases, here are 5 alternatives to Whatsapp in case you don’t like it, don’t trust it or when it fails:
### Line
Besides normal chat like Whatsapp, Line offers free video and voice calls. It has emoji like Whatsapp plus stickers, and you can also send location, photos, videos and voice messages in the chat stream. Another plus with Line is that it has a desktop client, so you can reply and continue your conversations on your desktop while doing other things, instead of having to reach your phone every time.
### Viber
Viber also supports emoji, stickers (and you can download extra ones if you need), and like Whatsapp it supports group messages with up to 100 members. Besides texts, Viber only supports voice calls. Like Line, it also has a desktop client. Oh, and they explicitly say they value your privacy.
### Telegram
When Whatsapp went down, Telegram signed up 5 million new users. This app is getting more popular every day.
Telegram supports group chats with a maximum of 200 members. You can share photos and any other media, and videos up to 1Gb. The most unique feature of Telegram is Secure Chats. These chats have end-to-end encryption and they claim are not logged in the chat servers. Also you can set them to auto delete themselves after certain time on both ends.
They also claim to be concerned about your privacy and security and they show it with their features. They also claim to never disclose data to third parties.
The interface is very similar to Whatsapp if you’re migrating from that. The downside is that it doesn’t support voice or video chats. It supports emoji but no stickers like other clients and no desktop client either. Although you can install it on a tablet, it lacks a tablet design.
### Skype
Well, we all know Skype by now. It supports chats with very limited emoticons, no emoji or stickers. You can send files but not share pictures easily in the chat timeline. The advantage of Skype is its large user base and its voice and video chats. And if you have skypeout or similar you can have an additional phone number to receive calls on any device.
### Google Hangouts
Hangouts is Google’s chat client replacing Google Talk. It supports voice and video chats, emoji, photos and location (no videos or voice messages for now). It has a desktop client (actually a Chrome extension) so you can continue your chats anytime your browser is open, or you can do it while having your Gmail or Google+ window open. Like Google+ in the social media landscape, Google Hangouts is a late-comer into the mobile messaging world and it has slowly been adopting features from its competitors. But since it has the Gmail user base behind it and every new Android phone seems to have Hangouts included, it is slowly gaining popularity and it is very likely that your friends already have it, ready to receive your messages in case other services are unavailable.
If your concerns are more into the privacy and security area, I recommend you to read my post about secure communication apps.
2 replies on “5 alternatives to Whatsapp”
Viber doesn’t work in my country, i think Telegram would be the best alternate. I was unaware of Line and Googl eHangout, i thought maybe Google don’t want to provide IM service anymore as when they stop GTalk they didn’t announce that they are upgrading their chat client. Well, i think until watsapp is free we should stick with it 🙂
No pusiste BBM!