Messengers

logo WhatsApp WhatsApp
logo Agent Mail.ru Agent Mail.ru
logo Facebook Messenger Facebook Messenger
logo JTWhatsApp JTWhatsApp
logo Signal Signal

It's hard to imagine a more popular category of smartphone utilities than messengers. They are used by people for personal purposes and as part of their work. Just 10 years ago, mobile Internet was so slow that its speed was sufficient only for messaging. Now people are having group video conferences. That's how far progress has come. Along with the improvement of messengers, the idea of their functionality has also changed. In addition to free text messages, they now feature calls to anywhere in the world. Also for free, by the way.

Votsap and Vyber are more popular for smartphones, while Skype is widely used on PCs. Modern messengers are extremely convenient. Now you can not remember the password, it will automatically come in an sms. Contacts from the address book will be automatically loaded, you don't need to enter them manually. By the way, your people from the address book (who have preceded you) will receive a notification of your registration in the messenger. You can save a lot on cellular communication, and call directly from the messenger. It has become a worthy alternative. For the application to work properly, you only need to have Internet access.

In terms of messenger security, there is a small flaw. Anyone who knows your phone number can add you to their address book and find out what messengers you use. In some of them, other personal data is also available. Encryption of transmitted data is also lame. The following is an overview of the most popular messengers for Android smartphones.

All Messengers in rating

Having a mobile device makes it possible to communicate with the subscriber in all possible ways, including messengers. Such applications include all the necessary arsenal of working functions for informative communication, while occupying a very small amount of system resources of the smartphone, and many mobile operators' tariffs do not include the use of messengers in the traffic. The free WhatsApp application has all the features for fast and versatile communication between users of the platform.

Pros

    • Simple and intuitive user interface
    • Sign in and log in with your phone number
    • Exchanging messages in personal and group chats
    • Free messaging and voice calls
    • Save the message in your bookmarks
    • Supports integration with your phone book
    • Sending videos and other media files
    • Synchronization with WhatsApp mobile client
    • Multilingual interface, including Russian

Cons

    • Sending files for a maximum of 100 MB
    • Maximum duration of a voice message - 15 minutes

New is well forgotten old, such a slogan corresponds to the famous "ICQ" or ICQ application, which now serves as a convenient and technological messenger. Although the former popularity it has not yet managed to win, but advanced functionality and the latest technological developments make it competitive with similar software products. A user-friendly interface with a logical division into sections, simple controls and a designer's design is very attractive to platform subscribers.

Pros

    • Quick and easy messaging, photo and video sharing
    • Totally free voice calls
    • Huge selection of stickers for all situations
    • The app offers you relevant stickers, based on the context of your messages
    • Voice message decoding and conversion to text
    • Channels and bots
    • 30 3D masks with stunning animations to make video chatting even more interesting
    • Use of uncompressed photos and video
    • Synchronization between devices

IMO software for Android is a free chat and messaging system for your device that allows users to send and receive messages along with voice or video calls. Using this app, users can easily send and receive messages from friends anywhere in the world.

Pros

    • Make calls and send messages for free just by connecting to a 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi network
    • Enjoy voice and video calls with great sound and picture quality
    • Talk in groups with friends, family or coworkers
    • Share photos and videos
    • Send stickers to liven up your conversations
    • Shows which contacts are available to chat or take calls
    • Group chat features
    • Customizable interface
    • Function to block users

Mail.ru Agent is a messenger from Mail.Ru Group. Like other messengers, Agent has everything you need to communicate comfortably with your friends. You can start a dialogue with what you have in your My World friends or contacts. If users don't use Agent, they'll receive an invitation. It won't take long to register.

Pros

    • User-friendly interface
    • Fast registration
    • Extensive features
    • Nice design

The popular worldwide service for communication Facebook Messenger is integrated with the social network, but has more rapid capabilities for instant communication between users. The application has a simple user interface and requires little system resources of the gadget when installed.

Pros

    • Free voice and video calls via VoIP
    • Send messages to your social network friends and contacts in your address book
    • Find out when recipients of messages have read them
    • Resend messages and pictures to people who join the conversation later
    • Include location and let you know when you're near
    • Check who is active or online on Messenger and Facebook
    • Create shortcuts to your favorite conversations from your device's home screen
    • Turn off notifications when you want
    • Take photos and record videos directly from the app and share them in your conversations

LINE messenger provides all possible types of fast communication between the platform's clients. Despite the fact that there are already many similar applications, the development of Japanese programmers is steadily gaining popularity among supporters of virtual communication due to the features of its functionality.

Pros

    • Instant messaging and chatting between contacts
    • Free voice and video calls using VoIP and supporting 200 people connected at the same time
    • Keep feature that allows us to save messages, photos and videos and then share them
    • Wide range of emoji and stickers to emphasize expressiveness in messages
    • Timeline feature to share photos, text, locations
    • Multi-platform: use your account on Windows, macOS, iPhone, or the web version accessible from your browser
    • International calling service with LINE Out at special rates
    • Access to the games section

A variety of messengers presents a difficult choice for the user, each has its own characteristics, and in addition to the recognized leaders, such as Viber, WatsApp, there are no less functional applications that do not require large system resources of the user's device. Messenger BiP provides in addition to the usual options for fast communication there are additional features, including entertainment content.

Pros

    • Make voice and video calls
    • Send messages, including voice messages and disappearing messages (from 3 to 60 seconds)
    • Send pictures, videos, stickers, contacts, location
    • Send Buzz - notifications that will make your smartphone vibrate

The developers of the famous Skype software have very successfully integrated the software on mobile devices, taking into account the technical features of mobile devices. The user interface is as close as possible to the official version and contains all the necessary options for communication between platform clients.

Pros

    • Free use
    • Sending files in all file formats
    • Always a familiar face in Skype's pervasiveness
    • Low internet speed requirements
    • Group video conferences
    • Cell phone calls
    • Chat-type discussions
    • Simple interface that takes no getting used to

Cons

    • Some functions are optional

Signal is a secure messenger for communicating with people around the world. The end-to-end encryption protocol ensures the security of transmitted data in private and group chats. The messenger is similar to Telegram, but with a more sophisticated interface.

Pros

    • text messaging
    • calls and video calls
    • group creation
    • disappearing messages (messages live from 5 seconds to one week after you read them)
    • sending photos, video, audio and other files
    • location sharing (GPS coordinates)
    • sending SMS and MMS to Android devices
    • separate chat settings for each contact (color, ringtone, notifications)
    • ability to react with emoticons to contact messages

Cons

    • Impossibility to create public groups and channels
    • Minimum number of stickers

The application is very easy to use, because it has a minimalistic and typical for such programs design. There is nothing superfluous in it, but the program provides a lot of features. It is available online calls with a high quality connection. To date, it is considered the fastest messenger, thanks to the low load on the device and low traffic consumption.

Pros

    • Private, public and secret chats
    • Group chats (up to 5,000 participants)
    • Community groups and channels
    • Secure voice calls
    • Cross-platform synchronization (Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux)
    • Unlimited file sharing
    • 256-bit AES and 2048-bit RSA encryption
    • Sticker and GIF animation platform
    • Completely free and ad-free

VK Me is a messenger that allows you to exchange messages, files, and stickers with your friends from the Vkontakte social network. You can create group chats and record audio messages.

Pros

    • User-friendly interface
    • Easy registration
    • Lots of features
    • Security
    • Easily connect with friends from VK

Cons

    • Failures in operation for the time being

Applications for calling and communicating on the Internet come and go. Discord is especially in demand among gamers and students. The free messenger is able to work from the window of any browser.

Pros

    • The main advantage is multifunctionality. As a consequence, the unloaded system will work many times faster
    • Discord has the most modern and stylish design (compared to the closest competitors). Everything is always at your fingertips here: contacts, servers, sound controls
    • All kinds of customization options: from font selection to tweaks to notifications
    • Special functionality that makes it easy to use while playing all kinds of games (the application was originally created specifically for gamers)
    • Calling can be started from PC and continued from tablet or phone

Cons

    • The Discord interface will take some getting used to at first. There's so much that you can't get into it in two minutes.