Messaging applications can easily and quickly help us stay in touch with friends, family, coworkers, and communities across the globe, making them an indispensable part of our everyday lives. These apps enable cross-border and cross-time zone communication in real-time via text, voice, or video. Messaging apps are becoming more and more important due to our mobile lifestyles, where having connectivity while on the go is crucial. They make it easier for teams to collaborate professionally and communicate personally when they are in separate places. Messaging applications are useful tools that help businesses stay responsive and flexible in the face of the growing trend of remote work and international teams.

To meet the needs of different users, modern messaging apps also incorporate functions like file sharing, video conferencing, and safe encryption. Messaging apps will continue to lead the way as technology develops.

We have compiled a list of 20 messaging apps you should consider:

WhatsApp – Very popular, encrypted messaging – voice and video calls.

Telegram – Cloud-based with speed and security as its main features, channels, and bots.

Signal – Privacy-focused with strong encryption technology that privacy advocates recommend.

Viber – Messaging for free; Voice calls; Video calls; Public chats; Games.

WeChat – This is a popular app in China, it combines messaging with social media and mobile payments.

Line – Most used in Japan, as well as offering stickers, messaging, voice, and video calling features, along with social media characteristics

Facebook Messenger – Facebook Messenger incorporates message message-sending feature, voice call functionality, and provision for video communication.

Snapchat – It is known to have a messages disappearing feature plus photo sharing capabilities.

Discord – Mostly used by players allowing text chat, voice chat, or video chat for gaming purposes.

Kik – An anonymous type of service that is very popular among young people. It has built-in bots too.

Threema – An app that takes data security seriously provides the option for anonymous messages to be delivered across secure channels, such as private channels, between users.

Slack – It’s mostly used at the workplace and connects well to several productive tools together at once

Google Chat – Also part of Google Workspace. This application enables integration into other Google services

Skype – One of the first platforms for making video calls can also be used when sending SMSs (Short Messaging Services)

iMessage – Apple’s messaging service allows you to communicate seamlessly across various Apple devices.

GroupMe – This is a group messaging app that is easy to use and quite popular in the US.

Wire – This secure business-oriented messenger software offers private/closed/encrypted videos alongside their conversations

Tango: Social networking mobile applications usually have messenger applications on them. For examples it allows instant messaging along with video callings/voice calling/live broadcasts etc

Zalo – Popular in Vietnam, including but not limited to messaging, voice and video calls plus mobile payment solution.

BBM (Blackberry Messenger)- Once popular on Blackberry devices it has survived with a focus on privacy.

Some of these apps are general-purpose messaging platforms while others cater for specific purposes or regions such as gaming or those that emphasize privacy.