Chat Apps Overtake Text Messages

It has recently been announced that chap app messages are now more popular than text messages. Informa, a research firm, has discovered that in 2012, 9 billion messages were sent out per day via chat apps, compared to 17.6 billion mobile text messages. Inform has predicted that chat app messages will continue to skyrocket, and that by 2014, 50 billion messages will be sent each day. Text messaging is a key revenue source for mobile operators, so this recently-revealed statistic may cause some concern.

We can see why chat apps have become increasingly popular – most applications are free or very inexpensive to download and operate. If you exceed the number of text messages covered in your tariff, it could be costly. Chat apps give you an unlimited supply of messages to send, so you’re free to communicate without the worry.

Perhaps the biggest contributor to the boom in chat app messaging is WhatsApp. The concept of WhatsApp is simple – if you have someone’s phone number and you’re connected to the Internet, you can message them for free, no strings attached (if they have the app downloaded too, of course). It’s essentially an SMS alternative, and it works. You can see why it has over 200 million monthly users and is the most popular chat app. It works in exactly the same way as a standard text messaging service, but it’s free! What more could you want?

Do you use chat apps to talk to your friends, or are you still an avid text messager? Let us know in the comments!