We all have at least one of those new free messaging services. From whatsapp to Kakao... we're all using them right? Well which is the best one on the market? Obviously, how many of your friends use the app influences it...but which one do you prefer?
I'm going to show you the services I use (Kakao, Line, Whatsapp and BBM) and then explore some alternatives as well. Including Baidu's Hi!
KAKAO
Let's start this off with Kakao. I'm going to assume that most of you have at least heard of this service. It's become standard and there are now phrases such as 카톡해오? (Ka-tok [Kakaotalk shortened] Haeyo?) existing in Korean. They've become obsessed I guess! Visit here, to see some of the stats for the service!I've had Kakao for a while (my id is sakurapikuseru if you want to talk!) and I love it. Although the Blackberry service isn't great, the Android and iOS ones are.
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| Notice the Big Bang stickers? There is an option to change the background...but thanks to the great app developers... it doesn't work for Blackberry! |
Personally I think the Blackberry screen is too small to embrace the pretty display...but lets ignore that. I've also used it on iOS so we can discuss that and the product in general.
A number of my friends have displayed a dislike for this app. I've come to realise now that if the bulk of your friends aren't Korean/K-poppers then you're not going to get along with Kakao. Let's face it. The reason we love Kakao is because we're all on it right? Well what happens if none of your friends are on the service? You're going to leave! So Kakao hasn't been all that great in building a Western audience...but does that really matter? Asia is in love with the thing...and so is everyone who's embracing the Hallyu Wave. Isn't that enough?
The emoticons on it are cute sure...but when you see Line's emoticons...there's no going back. What I don't like about their emoticons is that they say things like "(haha)" instead of ":D"...which looks strange before you send it... I'd prefer it to be more visual...I want to read the message in the same way I'm sending it...
Kakao has some great benefits and is pretty widely used! There's also the Plus friend option where idols like Super Junior, Girls Generation, Wonder Girls etc. all send updates and pictures for you to see! Think of it as a text blast, but this isn't available for Blackberry!
Out of 10, I'd give Kakao an 8. I love this service, my friends are all on it, it's cute, it's free. But the amount of bugs with the Blackberry app...it makes me sad. I still can't change my profile picture on it....and the app has frozen a number of times on my phone~ so for that reason it's getting an 8 instead of a 10!
SNAPCHAT
I personally don't use this service. At the moment I'm using a Blackberry, so I can't download snapchat. But everyone loves the thing at the moment. Available on Android and iOS, it sends "selfies" - the equivalent shortening of SelCa - to a friend and then it disappears. They're supposed to be promoting friendship and stuffs and a way of connecting between people.
As with every photo service though, people come along...abuse it~ and now they've received some pretty bad press in places (covered by Mashable here)
Although there's a lot of bad press and everything surrounding this service...I think it's a pretty good idea and a way to share photos quickly and it's just a nice idea...
Not particularly sustainable though! I feel like most people will get bored with this SNS pretty quick...
Although there's a lot of bad press and everything surrounding this service...I think it's a pretty good idea and a way to share photos quickly and it's just a nice idea...
Not particularly sustainable though! I feel like most people will get bored with this SNS pretty quick...
LINE
This is my favourite service. Hands down. I'll explain why to you though!
Line was started by the company NAVER - think Me2Day and Hangame. It's the most downloaded app in over 40 countries and is available in over 230 countries...so it's pretty international!
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| Here's a screenshot from my buddy Kate...notice the perfect stickers...who doesn't need a dog sitting next to a fan in their conversation? |
I can't say much about the whole sticker shop side of it at the moment because I use a Blackberry (this issue seems to be coming up pretty regularly now) and there's no sticker shop area in the BB version of the app. Only iOS and Android users can buy new stickers - there's some awesome G-dragon ones - but the free stickers are still awesome...
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| Source: bigbangupdates.com |
They also have a service called Line Play, which is an avatar game that reminds me of the Japanese service Ameba (the guys who make Poupeegirl)'s Pigg which I used to play! So I really like the look of Line Play and will be on it more when I change over phones! The only thing I didn't realise is that if you switch from iOS to Android or vice versa, the gems you have will be lost... so I was playing using my brother's iPod and switched over to my mum's Android and found I had no money...that probably isn't a problem normally though! Unless you plan on playing through both your phone and iPod!
Line also has a PC service and through this you can chat in the same way on your PC as you do with your phone. This needs to be activated from a smartphone - if you can't get the Line app but want to use it on your computer, you'd have to register for an account on a friend's phone because you can't register through the computer - but after you've got an account, you can do everything online that you were doing through your phone. Even the "free call" option is available!
The great thing about this though is actually that you can block notifications to your phone whilst you're on your PC and then your phone isn't constantly ringing whilst you're trying to talk to friends!
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| Take a look at all the notification options! They seem pretty simple...but it's easy for a mobile service to forget about them! |
Because Line is my favourite, it's definitely getting 10! I just wish people would put more time into Blackberry apps!
I'm so indifferent to this one! It's great yeah, but it offers nothing special. It syncs up the contacts in your address book with the app so all of your contacts are the ones for whatsapp... The theme is pretty simple...
The main flaw in the theme though is the picture option. As soon as a picture is introduced into the chat screen, all of the space starts to get lost - especially on more compact phones!
I do use Whatsapp for people I text a lot - so I don't have to constantly worry about going over my text allowance! - but realistically...it's nothing special. Whatsapp offers nothing new or original.
There's no stickers, the emoticons are the typical emoji type found on iOS and Japanese service...
Whatsapp is getting 6 though because it hasn't really done anything wrong as such, it's just done nothing right at the same time!
BBM
Blackberry Messenger. The one I hate the most in the entire world. It drains my battery, full of creeps and just a highly un-enjoyable experience. If you're originally one of my friends on bbm and are reading my blog now, then you'll remember I had a sudden disappearing act a couple of weeks ago and haven't come back! I uninstalled the app, left all of the groups that I was a pretty active member of...and my battery now lasts twice as long...
The service was just full of people who I really just didn't get along with. I suppose that isn't as much blackberry's fault...but I wish there was more regulations over who could talk to you...the amount of people I had to block on BBM...and I'd never blocked anyone on a service before that -.-
Let's just say I don't use bbm anymore and I'm giving it 3 out of 10.
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| I was searching for a screenshot of bbm to show you... they all had messages like this. This pretty much shows you the kind of people on bbm.... Yeah. Not impressed. How hard is it to find a good conversation?? |
ALTERNATIVES
So you didn't like any of the ones I've just shown you? Well try looking into some of these ones:
Baidu's Hi!
From the Chinese search engine Baidu, they offer an MSN like service which is basically just a messenger. This is all in Chinese, but great if you want to chat to Chinese people!
Offers a simple look and Facebook connect. It's developed by Tencent in China and is translated into a number of different languages - including English, Hindi, Malay and Indonesian.
Kik
This had a burst a while ago, when everyone would say "what's your kik id?" but it fazed out pretty quickly...It was developed by University students
There's obviously hundreds of platforms out there, but hopefully now you're all up to speed on the most important and popular as well as upcoming services! If anything changes dramatically then I'll probably come back and edit this post.
If you have any additions to this list, please feel free to leave a comment below!
Which messenger services do you use?
