The news is that Facebook is planning to merge all its three messaging services (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram) into a single chat platform. After the merging is completed, all the three apps will remain a separate service with, but they will use the same internal cross-platform chat service, even if their icon will remain separate. Of course, Facebook says that it will be an end-to-end encrypted product, but that doesn’t mean that all the users are happy about this merging. So, if you want to have a backup for this will happen, we will show you some alternatives chat platforms.
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Viber
Using Viber, you will find group chat, instant voice and video messaging, a lot of animated stickers and gifs. Of course, audio and video calls are supported on Viber. The app is available on Android, iOS, and Viber users can give free calls between them, but for international calls, you must pay. Viber’s feature is Trusted Contacts with which you can verify the identity of the other one, end-to-end encrypted messages, hide conversations, lock messages with a PIN code, and you can hide your status and availability.
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Telegram Messenger
The first and much-needed feature is the end-to-end encryption, the auto-deletion feature; it supports group messages, text and media, and faster delivery of the messages. You will find the Telegram Messenger app available for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Linux, Windows desktop, and macOS.
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GroupMe
This app is owned by Skype and is a group messaging service. Because Microsoft owns Skype, all the data collection is made by the company in the same way they do with their products. You must know that GroupMe doesn’t have security features and no encryption feature. You can share images, documents, videos like in the other apps. It features emoji sets, direct messages to a member of the group, and you can like the messages. GroupMe comes for Android, iOS, Windows, and it’s available only in the U.S.
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Signal
With this app, you will have a high level of privacy, security, and it supports text and group messages, all kind of media, of course, voice and video calls. This app has the same auto-delete feature as Telegram and end-to-end encryption. The signal is available for iOS, Android, macOS, Linux, and Windows.
Nora Reynolds is a major in biology and a minor in Biological Basis of Behavior, writing about science in general. She also likes to try new gadgets and sports about the AI new era.