Since then, the service has grown both its feature set and user base. Launched in 2009 as a way to send messages over a data connection rather than SMS, WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014. WhatsApp is the undisputed ruler of free mobile messaging in much of the world. To be honest, this requirement didn't exclude many apps as it's a very common feature, but I still felt it needed to be stated. For a free chat app to make this list, it had to be able to support group messaging. A lot of text messaging doesn't happen one-to-one. If you want to send something over text message, you should be able to-at least as long as it's digital. They can be long essays, but also photos, GIFs, voice notes, YouTube links, documents, and lots of other forms of multimedia. Text messages are no longer 140 characters long (at least if you're not using SMS). Support for pictures, video, and other multimedia. It also helps that it's easier to convince your friends to sign up for a new service if they don't have to pay. Part of this is because most people aren't prepared to pay for them, but it's also because large corporations actually make surprisingly decent apps sometimes. There are a handful of circumstances where end-to-end encryption isn't appropriate, like with public group messaging and some kinds of business communications but across the board, I favored services that cared about security and privacy. The best chat apps all have end-to-end encryption enabled by default, or at a stretch, allow you to quickly turn it on. Do you know who can read your SMS messages? Pretty much everyone. Text messaging should be about the person, not the device. We don't want any green bubble/blue bubble drama here. If, however, you're starting a friend group, desert island colony, or fan club from scratch and you get to pick the tools you use, this is what you should be looking for in messaging apps:Īvailability on both iPhone and Android. The big reason to use any of those apps is that your friends do. Nor did whatever Google is calling its latest messaging foray. Neither iMessage, SMS, nor Android Messages made this list. So when it came to putting together this list, that freed me up to be pretty strict about the requirements for inclusion.

If that's SMS or smoke signals, you have my full permission to use it. I still believe the best texting app is normally the one people will actually reply to you with.

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