Better Messaging Apps Than WhatsApp

Update: Telegram has recently announced a web client 07/01/2021 (MM/DD).

By now you know that we are not a fan of Facebook or any of their products, you won’t surprise you to know that I don’t use WhatsApp. But why?

There are few reasons I don’t use or like WhatsApp; they don’t care about innovation; Privacy, what privacy, it’s a Facebook owned product and the worst of all the things it has is the “convenience” it offers.

We don’t like the “convenience” of anyone to have our number and feel entitle to message us 24 x 7; We don’t like the convenience of sending terrible picture quality either How terrible Smartphone Cameras are comparing to a Pro Camera?  Or the zillion groups everybody makes.

Anyway, let’s go through some alternatives now:

iMessage

Messages for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac - Official Apple Support

Learn more about sending and receiving text messages, photos, personal effects and more with the Messages app on your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac.

Official Apple Support

Pros

• Pre-installed in all the iPhones
• Supports Video, Voice Messaging and Reaction to received/sent messages
• Easy and clean design
• Works really well!

Cons

• iMessage’s only works with other Apple devices
• It needs an Apple device to work
• There is no Web Client; so, you need a Mac and a Phone to use the app from your desktop
• Proprietary/close code

Google RCS

Messages by Google - A simple, helpful text messaging app

Messages is a simple, helpful messaging app that keeps you connected with the people who matter most. Text anyone from anywhere across devices.

A simple, helpful text messaging app

Pros

• Pre-installed in almost all the new Android phones or can be installed in any Android phone
• Supports Video, Voice Messaging and Reaction to received/sent messages
• Easy and clean design
• Open-source protocol
• Web client

Cons

• Even though is an open standard, some carriers developed their own version, so it’s not compatible between different carriers. You can work around this by using Google Messages instead of your carrier or phone manufacturer messaging app
• Many users don’t even know their Messaging app supports RCS or what RCS is

Signal

Signal Messenger: Speak Freely

Say “hello” to a different messaging experience. An unexpected focus on privacy, combined with all of the features you expect.

Signal Messenger

Pros

• Cross-platform; available in Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS (iPhone), iPad OS, Android
• Privacy focused
• Clean UI
• Security in mind
• Supports Video, Voice Messaging and Reaction to received/sent messages
• Can replace your SMS app in Android; but it does not support RCS yet.

Cons

• Security is inconvenient, so moving the account to a new device may be challenging for some users. Documentation hyperlink.
• Few users, but growing rapidly because WhatsApp boycott
• Desktop client could be better
• No Web client

Telegram

Telegram – a new era of messaging

Fast. Secure. Powerful.

Telegram

Pros

• Cross-platform; available in Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS (iPhone), iPad OS, Android
• Privacy focused
• Clean UI
• Security in mind
• Supports Video, Voice Messaging and Reaction to received/sent messages
• Web Client

Cons

• No as many users like WhatsApp but growing rapidly because WhatsApp boycott; Businesses are creating their profiles here.
• Russian based (in case you care…)

Messaging apps are very generic in their plainer form; however, Telegram has taught us that new features, or a simple dark mode shouldn’t take 3 years to arrive, or that limitations are because of the lack of innovation within some other platforms.

We hope that Google RCS gets more popularity, even though I hate Google in a way I appreciate their effort to lunch an Android equivalent to Apple iMessage’s product.

Anyway, I made my mind about deleting WhatsApp two years ago. What about you, which option one would you use, and why?