What are the best messaging apps for iOS?
With thousands of apps for instant messaging on the App Store, It becomes tedious to filter all those apps and download the one that suits all your needs. The best messaging apps must enable you to contact others whenever and wherever you need to. It must mix a simplistic layout, privacy of its users, and expressive chatting trends such as stickers and emojis. We helped you by narrowing down that list to the top 10 free messaging applications available for iPhone/iPad in the following list.
WhatsApp Messenger
WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging app on both iOS and Android. With more than 2 billion active monthly users, WhatsApp has dominated the texting category for years. Users can chat, send live location, file sharing for multimedia, documents, contacts, and keep message backups through Google cloud. In addition to sending recorded voice messages and video messages, the app also supports voice and video calls. WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption guarantees users’ utmost privacy, as the recipient can only decrypt messages. Another advantage is users can send high-resolution images where other apps downgrade images for smaller files size.
Unlike Facebook’s Messenger app, WhatsApp does not require a Facebook account. It uses your phone number as a username to signup with quick SMS verification, making it very easy to use and find people with the only contact number. Instead of competing with the app Facebook acquire the service and continue to develop more. Nevertheless, It has come under fire recently for updating its privacy policy, allowing Facebook to gather data about users on the app.
Slack
Slack is a powerful team messaging app that is heavily focused on workplace communication. From the simplistic layout to its third-party apps integrations, Slack can be convenient for any work-place. Slack allows users to integrate third-party apps such as Google Drive, Trello, and Zendesk. You can even integrate Speak.io for voice chat. The app offers a user the ability to create multiple teams, each team having public and private channels. You can send multimedia messages, documents, mentions, and even create polls amongst your co-workers. With everything clean and documented, Slack easily took the throne for team-based messaging apps. Slack is free. However, extra packages unlock more features such as Standard ($6.67 per month) plus ($12.5 per month). Nevertheless, Slack does not support end-to-end encryption, making a data breach disastrous as Slack is mainly used for sensitive information.
iMessage
Perhaps, the best chat app is what you already have if most of your friends and family use an iPhone or iPad. iMessage is Apple’s official texting app. However, it is not cross-platform and only works on iOS/Mac OS devices. iMessage contains plenty of features that make it deserve its spot on this list. You can send special effect messages such as “Invisible Ink” and “Fireworks.” iMessage also supports “Memojis,” where users can turn faces into a cartoon-like emoji and use it to send different facial expressions. iMessage also works hand-in-hand with Apple Wallet, as Users can easily and securely send money over iMessage to other recipients. iMessage offers end-to-end encryption for messages sent to an iOS device. You can read messages and reply from your Apple watch.
Telegram
WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging app on both iOS and Android. With more than 2 billion active monthly users, WhatsApp has dominated the texting category for years. Users can chat, send live location, file sharing for multimedia, documents, and contacts. In addition to sending recorded voice messages and video messages, the app also supports voice and video calls. WhatsApp’s end-to-end 2048-Bit RSA Encryption protocol guarantees users’ utmost privacy, as the recipient can only decrypt messages. Another advantage is users can send high-resolution images where other apps downgrade images for smaller files size.
Unlike Facebook’s Messenger app, WhatsApp does not require a Facebook account. It uses your phone number as a username to signup with quick SMS verification, making it very easy to use and find people with the only contact number. Instead of competing with the app Facebook acquire the service and continue to develop more. Nevertheless, It has come under fire recently for updating its privacy policy, allowing Facebook to gather data about users on the app.
Snapchat
SnapChat is mainly a social media app but offers great instant messaging features. Having a staggering 265 million daily active users, you’ll likely find all of your friends and family on Snapchat. The app’s instant messaging service offers unique Self-Destructing Messages features. Messages disappear after the recipient has read them. It also notifies the user in case any of the recipients screenshot anything from the user’s chat. Snapchat’s latest addition is SnapMaps, where the app shows you a map of your city and all of your friends’ locations. The app has different entertaining filters that can be played by you and your friends and tons of fun filters and AI-enabled augmented reality that would blow your mind. The messages are encrypted to respect user privacy. However, it is worth noting that the company does retain the key that can decrypt the user’s messages.
Kik
Kik is a popular cross-platform free messaging app for iPhone and iPad devices. You can chat, send media, and exchange even hand-drawn notes. Kik is the best anonymous chat app as it only requires your email, which is hidden to others. The great feature that we like is Public Rooms, where users can search up a public room about anything they’re interested in and start chatting with others. With over 90 million active users on Kik, you’ll surely find a room that interests you. Kik’s messages are not end-to-end encrypted, and technically, the company can read the messages between its users if they want, which is a huge privacy concern for users. Nevertheless, it’s still a super fun messaging app for many.
Signal – Private Messenger
Signal is considered the safest and most private messenger app on the market. You can use Signal to send Private Messages or make audio/video call to your friends. Signal adds an extra security layer in which users must enter a pin to avoid any possible hacks or breaches. It stores absolutely no data about its users on its servers, including meta-data and no logging. It was famously advocated by Edward Snowden and other experts in the field so you can rely on it from the security standpoint. Signal recently got a huge boost as the most secure messaging app. Many jumped ship to Signal after WhatsApp’s privacy policy changes allowed the app to gather and share user data with Facebook.
Discord
Discord is a famous messaging/voice calling app among gamers to chat with fellow gamers, make voice/video call, share their screens with Livestream, and instantly share screenshots. The app mainly operates in “Servers” or Groups. Servers are divided into different sub-rooms, and people in servers have different sets of privileges. Discord’s voice calls are known for their excellent quality. Discord’s messages and voice calls are end-to-end encrypted. However, their Video Calls are not encrypted and could be prone to attacks. Several Games were developed with Discord integration in mind, making the app the go-to for all gamers.
Viber
Viber is a better free messenger app for cross-platform support as it is available on Android, iOS, Mac, PC, and even on the Web. Viber’s strongest point is its Voice Chat and great sound quality during audio/video calls. You also get group video calls for up to 20 people and group chat. Users can send voice clips, share gif images, use funny stickers, emojis, emoticons, and explore communities for public chats. Viber also contains an extra tab that contains different snippets of news. It also has self-destructing messages option, as users can set a timer where messages get automatically deleted after it has passed.
Viber’s magical feature is users’ ability to make free international calls to others with no internet access, bringing the world closer and giving Viber the edge over many of the apps on this list. All chats on Viber are end-to-end encrypted, which means that only you and the recipient can read the text messages between you both. It is worth noting that Viber does not gather/sell users’ data to third-party advertisers, which is why Viber is popular amongst privacy advocates.
Facebook Messenger
Facebook’s ultimate messaging app allows you to chat with your Facebook friends. Messenger allows its users to chat, make audio calls, or do one-to-one or group video chat from smartphones, tablets, and desktop platforms. You toggle the dark mode for better readability or apply fun themes to chat with custom backgrounds. With Facebook’s 2 billion registered users, you will find all of your family, friends, and co-workers on the app. It has almost every messaging feature you could imagine, including live location sharing. Recently, The app added a feature that allows users to send money to each other. Another added feature is the ability to chat with your Instagram followers and connect both apps into one. The default chats on Facebook are not end-to-end encrypted. However, Facebook added a “Secret Chat” feature that is end-to-end encrypted. Messenger does gather data about the user and is permitted to sell it to third-party advertisers.
LINE
LINE is a hugely popular messaging app with over 84 million monthly active users, mostly from the Asian region. The app offers an instant chatting service and calls anywhere in the world for free. The app contains cool stickers and emojis that you can send to your friends. LINE also supports group chats for up to 200 people. LINE Pay allows users to send money to each other at the click of a button and do shopping in many counties. All LINE messages are end-to-end encrypted, which means that you can securely and privately talk to your friends, family, and co-workers on the app. It is worth noting that LINE does not gather data about its users.
We have narrowed down the AppStore to the top 10 messaging apps on the market in the list above. As you can see, Messaging Apps have taken over the market. In addition to the text conversation, you can make a call, send them money, and even share a story about your day to your friends securely and privately. All you need is an active internet connection.
