Page 132 - May 2018 - December 2018 Issue

Chat Apps for Everyone

By Mary Ann Caritativo, Technology Management

The communication process has undergone a drastic change over the years. It has
travelled a long distance right from the era of sending handwritten letters to the
present age of instant messaging. Years ago, the SMS (Short Message Service) was the
order of the day however, despite of its proven capabilities for enabling widespread
communication with the evolution of time, the popular chat base apps have
substituted its place. And this is because of the emergence of Smartphones which has
played a key role in bringing these apps.

The growing importance of chat applications can easily be seen by the million number
of downloads made. These apps let you allow to connect with anyone around the world
as well as in your vicinity. They make communication easy with respect to such as
instant messaging, video calls and voice calls. In other words, chat applications are
redefining the entire concept of communication by making interactive communication
unified.

Let’s have a look at some of the most used chat apps:

MESSENGER

Facebook has its own separate messaging app
that makes it very convenient to chat with
friends and family. It will automatically
populate your contacts, but you can also add a
contact, or allow someone to add you as a
contact, by scanning a unique code. There are
plenty of free stickers and you can send GIFs.
The video and voice calling is clear and very
reliable. On Android, the “Chat Heads” feature
allows you to keep a chat icon floating on top of
your screen, which is very convenient. You can
even start a secret conversation which is
end-to-end encrypted.

WHATSAPP

One of the most used messaging apps in the
world, Whatsapp is very easy to set up and it’s
free. You can chat, and share things like your
location, photos, documents, and contacts. You
can also make video and voice calls. The set up
requires you to grant access to your contacts, so
the app can automatically populate your

131 | TECHNOLOGY