Today, it is all about personalization, which along with online/mobile buying also applies to online sharing with family and friends. Shifting people’s interests from social media, digital communication is now more inclined towards messaging apps.
Online communication has changed since 2010, when social media was a new entrance and an up-to-the-minute thing for people of all ages. Then after few months messaging apps got into prominence but social networking channels did not lose an inch of importance. However, with the rise of messaging apps till date, users have become more selective about sharing their photos, videos and status with a particular set of audience. Instead of posting it publicly on Facebook, and Twitter, people love to share it personally with their contacts.
Whether on a vacation, celebrating an occasion or exploring a new café, we all are more interested in clicking a selfie or photo and sharing it with our best friends, cousins and family.
If we flash on the past six years, we will find that we no more send any SMS and MMS texts as these free messaging services have taken the center stage. Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp (owned by Facebook), Line, Viber, WeChat, Skype, Snapchat are on the swing. People have also started to abandon public sharing when compared to intimate sharing through personal messaging apps.
There are more active users sharing personal messages through these free apps than on social networks, which clearly indicates the supremacy of mobile messengers. As of April 2016, WhatsApp caters to 1 billion active users worldwide, covering more of Asian, Chinese, Japanese and UK app markets (than the US). Facebook Messenger, QQ Mobile, WeChat are not left behind on the list with around 900 million, 853 million and 697 million active users, respectively (by statista).
Messaging apps are much more than just sending free messages. People can convey their happy, sad, anxious, surprised, dull, jubilant, celebrating, love, friendship and all types of emotions through that cute emojis and striking digital stickers these apps provide while chatting.
Realizing the emoji love of users, messaging companies are evolving with new, innovative categories like Disney emojis, giving a perfect emoji for every occasion. Further, elements like GIFs, video clips, audio clips, photos and free audio and video calling are additional perks of using the apps.
What better than talking to a relative abroad free of cost through Facebook Messenger?
Messaging apps largely contribute to the on-demand economy as they form an integral part of on-demand digital communication. Increasingly, the apps are becoming popular for eCommerce and business communications. Free messaging apps are including various in-app purchases and services for users to spend money and time. In an attempt to provide user convenience, app marketers aim to integrate various on-demand services apps with the most frequently used messaging apps, which in turn are valuable for app business. For instance, Facebook’s chat app can also make payments through Paypal.
This is how app publishers can take benefits from the messaging apps that are most used by the users worldwide.
Read more on Are Instant Messaging Apps Really the future of Mobile Commerce?
Notably, these apps are geographically confined. While Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are globally accepted, WeChat struggled to adapt in the Indian market. Conversely, WeChat and QQ has cornered much of the Chinese market. Facebook is officially banned in China while WhatsApp still works in the country, after a lot of controversy.
Similarly, Line is a completely dedicated app for Japanese market and Viber for western markets.
Since messaging apps are just catching on in the US market, app companies are making concrete efforts to introduce something intriguing for the American audience and gain profits.
Working with the same objective for our clients, we have developed a number of messaging and chatting apps. See the full list here.
Heena Banga is a Senior Content Developer at Konstant Infosolutions- a globally recognized mobile application development company. She leads marketing and growth initiatives at the company using a mix of technical and business content tactics. Heena also contributes articles to CrowdReviews, OpenSourceForU, Sociableblog, ducttapemarketing, PAYMILL blog. She hopes to enjoy a business conversation onboard a commercial space flight someday. Her ultimate goal is to combine business and writing and go into Advertising.
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