Technology has evolved at incredible speeds over the previous years, helping us reach heights never before thought possible. Just twenty years ago, cell phones were extremely rare. People had to get home or to listen to their messages in order to find out if somebody wanted to talk to them, and talking while on the go was almost completely absent.
Nowadays, most of the world’s population has devices in their pockets that can not only make calls to anyone on the planet, but they also have access to a wide array of other mediums of communications. And most of these conversations usually involve your message first going to a satellite and then back to Earth.
And if talking to people proves too difficult or inconvenient at a certain point, there are tons of apps which allow you to send text messages for free to anyone with internet access. And these apps are available on the road (on your smart phone), or on your desktop or laptop if you so prefer.
The latest one to pull off such a universal accessibility is a text based app owned by Facebook, as you can now use Whatsapp on your desktop. Facebook decided to expand the reach of their number one messaging app, most likely having the number of users skyrocket.
This marks the point when Whatsapp became available for every major operating system out there. The app finally landed on PCs and Macs after already being present on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows phones. Understandably, it services more than one billion users all over the world.
Because of its cross-platform accessibility, friendly user interface and optimal support, Whatsapp has become a threat to its competitors, primarily Skype and iMessage. Of course, iMessage starts with an immediate disadvantage, only allowing communication on Apple devices. Skype is a different story, however.
First of all, Skype still maintains its rank as the number one voice and video call service out there. It doesn’t really shine in the text messaging department, but its extensive Windows support and highly optimized video and voice calls granted it some three hundred million users so far.
Still, when it comes to text messaging, it seems like Whatsapp is the best app out there. It even outperformed its rival sibling, Facebook’s own Messenger. While they are both owned by the social media titan, each of the two apps was designed to serve a different purpose. So unless Facebook is looking to do something drastic, both Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger will be along for quite a while.
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