There are several messaging and chat apps on social media today. In the beginning, America Online (AOL) started the phenomenon then Yahoo and MSN messengers later evolved. Years later the Blackberry phone was created rolling out one of the largest messenger applications only on Blackberry phones and was called BBM or BlackBerry Messenger. Today there are WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and even BBM which is now available to anyone on their devices be it a Blackberry or any other devices.
These apps can be downloaded from Google Play or the Apple store and once it gets to your devices, you can begin using them. The BBM app still has fierce competition with the WhatsApp one here in Africa. Young people have the opportunity of making free app calls on the latter while BBM is limited to broadcasts, chats and other news features. Africans are overwhelmed with scratching phone cards to make calls and thus phone companies are giving promotional discounts literarily on every recharge. They are in competition with several chat and messenger apps.
WhatsApp is the most commonly used chat app in Africa according to tech magazines and it is more popular because of the ability to make free phone calls aside from the chat features. Snapchat is very commonly used outside Africa most especially in the United States. The ability to use Snapchat is still challenging for many users in Africa because of the limitations of wifi. Without 4G wifi strength, Snapchat is very weak as most Internet service providers in Africa supply 3G services. When I use my 4G wifi, I connect well on Snapchat though the so called "4G" is really a broadband connection going thru a provider's server through a pocketsize modem.
Yahoo and MSN continues to thrive in online chat while Facebook Messenger still thrives on the free phone calls but the party you are calling has to be on Facebook and you should know the privacy disclaimer when using it. Your voice may be recorded. Find the chat app that suits you best. There are many and as a social media expert, I use all of them.
