Online messaging apps are those apps which allow one to send and receive a message instantly. Popular messaging apps include Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Google Chats, WeChat and Viber. They come with multiple features like location sharing, contact sharing, photo sharing, document sharing, and video and audio calls. These messaging apps can be installed on your smartphone, tablet or laptop for free.

If we look into the current communication trends, texting has become popular among all generations. It has surpassed phone calls and is most popular among millennials. The reason might be it is free of cost and has all the features essential for communication purposes. These messaging apps help people engage in multiple conversations, and also they can form groups such as family groups, friends groups, tuition groups, office groups, etc.

How Messaging Apps Evolved?

During the 1990s, these messaging apps came to the mainstream, helping people connect in real-time. But, at that time, these apps were not so popular and were used just as messaging tools. Through these apps, we could not send links, videos, images, or locations.

But, over the years, with the advancement in technology, messaging apps have been transformed into a platform from just a messaging tool. Multiple messaging apps are easily accessible with various features like sending photos, live locations, and attaching documents, videos or links. So, online messaging apps are in great demand in the current form of communication. These apps revolutionised the entire communication process and how people communicate.

The top three messaging apps by the number of users are WhatsApp – with 2 billion users; Facebook Messenger – with 1.3 billion users; and WeChat, with 1.12 billion users.

Advantages of Online Messaging Apps

Online messaging apps come with enormous advantages. One of the main advantages of these apps is that people can connect instantly even if they don’t live in the same place. These messaging apps can be used for work and business purposes too.

Online messaging apps are one of the standard platforms for marketing purposes. Nowadays, most companies use these platforms for marketing their products, offers, etc. You might have seen that companies send messages through WhatsApp about their business. These messaging apps can be accessed free of cost.

Even inside the corporate world, office colleagues use these messaging apps to send and reply to messages. They can also conduct team meetings online without physical presence and send work reports and updates. Any team member or manager out of the office for a business trip can connect with their colleagues through these messaging apps. Managers can create team members groups so that all can share their ideas, ask for help and get regular work updates.

People can also start their online businesses through these messaging apps. They can talk to their vendors and can display their products. Online messaging apps like WhatsApp also provide a platform for money transfers.

Disadvantages of Online Messaging Apps

Along with the advantages, there are disadvantages to using online messaging apps. We can’t perfectly understand the other person’s emotional state and can’t recognise with whom we are talking. After the invention of these messaging apps, face-to-face interaction and personal experience have come down.

When we communicate through these messaging apps, there are chances of miscommunication because of typos or the inability to make the other person understand our thoughts or feelings. During a face-to-face interaction, people show some etiquette, but during an online conversation, people don’t feel the need to use the appropriate netiquette.