#Messaging apps like kik series#
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'All users in one country can communicate in one language (or with one app) and in another country a different language and app.' One example is KakaoTalk, which is massively popular in places like Indonesia, South Korea, and Vietnam, but is far from the lead in most other places. 'Most traffic does not cross borders,' he says. One app could win each country, or win a handful of countries, Marco says, for the same reason hundreds of languages and dialects are spoken around the world.

#Messaging apps like kik series#

Instead of having one app as dominant as SMS, there will likely be a balkanized series of silos, with different countries and regions each using their app of choice. But on a global basis, the answer is more complicated. Will one winner ever take all? 'On a per-country basis, quite possibly yes,' says Viber founder Talmon Marco.

Kik has a good portion of the United States, while LINE has a firm hold on Japan, Viber is big in India and Russia, and Skype is hanging on in Germany and France.

#Messaging apps like kik free#

A variety of other free contenders tie for second place with tens (or hundreds) of millions of users, but they are most often separated by country or region. Founder Jan Koum recently said that the app has over 200 million monthly active users, which makes WhatsApp bigger than Twitter. WhatsApp has an early lead, having been around longest, and is the top paid social networking app in nearly every country in which the iTunes App Store operates. 'ThatвЂ™s a result of all messengers being basically the same.' What has mattered most for many of todayвЂ™s leaders has been simply being in the right place (and on the right platforms) at the right time. 'ThatвЂ™s a result of all messengers being basically the same.' Most messaging apps include features like voice memos, location-sharing, stickers, and group messaging. 'Today, the market is really fragmented,' says Kik CEO Ted Livingston. As BlackBerry Messenger taught us, the messaging app with the best features wins, but it can also disappear into the ether just as quickly as it came. Fortunately, in such a crowded market, each company is forced to iterate quickly and launch new features to try to best its competitors. Dozens of apps like Viber, Kik, LINE, WhatsApp, Tellit, iMessage, Moped, and Facebook Messenger all want to be the place where you chat with friends. The messaging war as it exists today is getting hotter by the second. Texters, especially those outside the United States, will do anything they can to avoid paying for SMS when theyвЂ™ve already paid enough for cellular data. People have stuck with email because itвЂ™s the least common denominator between two people, but also because emails arenвЂ™t price-gouged by carriers the same way SMS texts are. You could hypothesize that texting, like email, will never go away, but thereвЂ™s an important distinction to be made between the two communication mediums. The short answer to both of these questions is a firm 'no.вЂќ For better or worse, the days of being able to SMS a phone number and expect a response are nearing their end.

The days of being able to SMS a phone number and expect a response are nearing their end But is having a dozen ways to communicate with friends and family better than one? Will there ever be one messaging app to rule them all, or even one standard everybody can agree on? Fortunately, all of these options are cheaper for consumers - especially abroad, where unlimited texting plans are hard to come by - and come with features like voice memos, read receipts, and group messaging. This news is particularly troubling for carriers, who reportedly generate $120 billion per year from texting plans. In fact, today, the world sends more messages using chat apps than conventional SMS texts, according to a study by The Financial Times. If youвЂ™re using a phone to send friends a quick message, itвЂ™s now more likely that youвЂ™re using one of these chat apps instead of SMS. Great, IвЂ™ll text you later! Never mind, IвЂ™ll WhatsApp you later, or are you using Kik now? Ah, I remember, you switched to Viber.