Sometimes I look at the comments under my materials and I think that some readers could well take their notes, no worse than mine. Along with this thought comes another (and you shouldn't criticize me for it, because by nature we are all lazy) – to raise such topics when the whole point of the article comes down to an interesting discussion under it. It doesn't have to be 'holivar' or something like that, sometimes it's enough to accurately formulate the original topic or ask the question correctly. So – below is an article from the category of such.
For almost a year now I have been using Telegram as the main service for communicating with people close to me, friends and work colleagues. Most of my contacts, one way or another, have already switched to 'telegram' or will soon be. At the same time, I will not say that Telegram is the best application on the market and blah blah blah. I just decided to think (with your help) – what exceptional features does each of the messaging services offer today? I will begin, I suggest you continue and correct me if I am wrong somewhere.
Telegram – end-to-end synchronization to the 'cloud'
You do not need to download backups in Telegram if you have installed the application on a new smartphone or a new laptop, entered the web version from any computer. The entire history is loaded automatically, and the files that you exchange with all participants in all correspondence are stored on servers and are also available to you from any device at any time, it would be the Internet. Neither WhatsApp, nor WeChat, nor Viber (as far as I know), much less Skype, have such a convenient synchronization system.
WeChat – use as a means of payment
The Chinese WeChat service is the only large and popular one that can be used as a contactless payment method for purchases. You will laugh, but while the rest of the world has been inventing different payment systems for several years in a row (Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, etc.), tied to the hardware of smartphones, the presence of certain chips and technologies, the WeChat service and a huge part of the Chinese population using it have been paying for purchases from a smartphone for three years. A wallet is tied to the account, and then, when paying, the person simply takes out a smartphone, opens the wallet in the QR code, and the seller reads it, as he reads goods on the tape. Perhaps the procedure is a couple of seconds more complicated than in modern Apple Pay and co, but it has long been debugged and is in demand by a very large part of the Chinese population, where even older people use this payment service.
Skype – calls all over the world
It's funny, but the long-term slogan Skype – 'calls around the world' – today is the only distinguishing feature of the service and the only one that can justify its use. For several years in a row, Skype has been deteriorating, with each new update for each platform there are more and more bugs and glitches, there is nothing new in the client for a long time, but! Skype still allows you to call not only other Skype clients, but in general to all numbers around the world for adequate money (Skype rates are much better than cellular operators' rates for similar calls).
WhatsApp is massive
I have been using WhatsApp for several years and even now I follow the development of the client, so I know for sure that, alas, it does not have exceptional chips. It could be calls with the ability to make video calls, but WeChat can do the same, so it's not unique. What is truly unique about WhatsApp is its popularity – it is the world's most massive messaging service.
Viber – free advertising on your smartphone around the clock
Seriously though, I do not know what features are in the 'Viber', I only heard about the fact that the service has a lot of advertising and spam, for which many of my friends refused to use it. Maybe you can tell me what is special about it?
Facebook Messenger – fast discharge of your smartphone
About a year ago, Facebook Messenger drew a lot of criticism due to the broken applications under Android and iOS, when after the next update users found that their smartphone was draining too quickly. And the reason was just the client Facebook Messenger. I don't know if this is surprising or not, but the problem then repeated several times, and now, with the next update, it began to appear again. For example, because of this, I deleted the application so far, after I discovered 15 percent of the battery for a couple of days in a row, 'eaten' by the client Facebook Messenger. And this is not a joke – in terms of curvature and harmfulness, the application from the developers Facebook is exceptional, even worse than Skype.