Do you have a messenger app installed on your phone that you use as your primary means of communication with family and friends? Depending on where you live, the answer might differ. For example, messaging apps like KakaoTalk, Line, and WeChat are popular in different East Asian countries, whereas SMS is still rather popular in the United States for sending messages between friends. Since messaging apps rely on mobile data, they aren’t as dependent on a phone number and often have additional features [1] compared to traditional SMS.
While MMS allows for photo sending by way of a carrier [2], messaging apps allow for far more sophisticated expressions of reactions, such as with stickers, reacting to individual messages, and even sending messages with fun effects. Likewise, messaging apps allow for video calling, which serves to improve standards for communication. Indeed, some messaging apps are so integrated with citizens’ day-to-day life that they serve as a source of payment, a social media app, and more.
The growing popularity and ubiquity [3] of new messaging apps also brings into question new privacy concerns for users. End-to-end encryption [4], allowing for user privacy in message sending, became increasingly popular in 2016 and has since become more well-known thanks to the privacy-centric messaging app Signal. Ultimately, though, the fundamental value of a messaging app lies in how big its user base is, and the ubiquity of a given messaging app among one’s demographics is likely what will determine which app prevails.