Recently the incidences of “Mob lynching” were used to sham the messaging application like WhatsApp. This was the same mentality which went into placard message “Bullet didn’t kill my father, War did”. Blaming the messenger for the fault of Human action.
The government then requested WhatsApp to control the spread of fake news. I have a feeling that the use of social media will be restricted as we near the General Election of 2019.
So here are my few suggestions for an alternative to Whatsapp. While doing this I am strictly India centric while considering applications.
You can see, on 2nd place alternate to WhatsApp is Facebook Messenger. But that is no use because both WhatsApp and Facebook are owned by the same company.
The 3rd place is WeChat. It is a Chinese app and it is known to transfer your data to Chinese servers. As an Indian, I won’t be promoting WeChat. Though it is very simple to use, most of its options are still in Chinese. Their 'Help' is in Chinese. This app is not optimized for global use. And certainly not meant for India.
Viber on 4th place is a fairly simple app. The advantage it had, was that it also had a desktop application. So you can install Viber on PC. Even though Whatsapp comes with Whatsapp web it still requires your phone to be connected to interest to use Whatsapp web. There is no such limitation on Viber. You can switch off your phone and still do chat through your PC. The parent company is based in UK-London. So I have my doubts how much help they will be in case of any court case. We know how much helpful they are while extraditing Vijay Mallya. So they may not address our concern. Also, the UK has opted out of EU. So new EU regulation regarding social media does not apply to Viber. Something to be considered here.
Then we come down to Line. Now, this is something we Indians could use. This app is Japanese. It is heavily used in Japan-Indonesia and other South-East Asian Countries. The app is convenient and users might not feel the difference between Line and Whatsapp. Apart from its stickers which might take half of your screen.
The other apps on the list like Snapchat, Tango Kik are not worth considering.
There are other apps which are not on the list but we know their names and can certainly look into them. They are Google Duo, Telegram, BBM, Hike Messenger & Jio Chat.
Google Duo
This app comes pre-installed on our phones. But we never use it. Google already collects a ton of information on us. They are already Giant in the tech world. And start using google app for chatting will be giving them more power. Remember Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Telegram
This is a German app which fought Russia’s Putin over sharing user data. Some marketed it few years ago as Indian app. But it is not Indian. It is German. And popular in European countries. They might not share data with India to assist our investigation. Otherwise, the functions of the app is smooth. It is minimalistic. There is no profile/status nonsense or no paid promotion as well. It is simple chatting and message sharing app.
BlackBerry Messenger
Now we are entering into India friendly app territory. It was noticed a few years back that terrorists were using BBM to communicate with each other. This was an era when BlackBerry was famous. Indian Government asked Canadian Blackberry to provide access to chat data. And after months of negotiations, Blackberry agreed. They set up their servers in India. Sadly WhatsApp came along with Android and blackberry messenger fall behind in the competition. I used it for testing. And must say it is not smooth. It has lagging issues. The Emojis/stickers are limited.
Hike Messenger
This is an Indian app. But I must state that it has investment from Chinese investors. Never the less this app has been optimized for India. It gives you live cricket score as well as live Kabaddi scores of Pro Kabaddi. It gives daily motivational quotes, Good morning images etc. It seems this app developer do understand Indian taste better. The app also tried to set up payment platform but I am not sure it is currently working. There are some innovative features like hiding some chat completely. I have used all the above mentioned apps and I found this one most feature rich.
Jio Chat
This is truly Indian app as It is owned by Indian and servers also in India. So accessing them in case of national security will not be a big deal. This app has taken its inputs from Chinese WeChat. It is many sponsored channels which do advertising on the app. But I found lagging issues on this app, more serious than BBM. Also look of the app is dull. I hope they improve that.
Conclusion:-
We do not have anything which is 100% Indian and works smoothly. So we have to compromise on something or the other. On that front, I think Hike and Line should be considered. I rate Hike on top because I use to and found no problem whatsoever. Its features are very helpful at times. Line can also be considered. It is smooth but not optimised for India.
We do not have anything which is 100% Indian and works smoothly. So we have to compromise on something or the other. On that front, I think Hike and Line should be considered. I rate Hike on top because I use to and found no problem whatsoever. Its features are very helpful at times. Line can also be considered. It is smooth but not optimised for India.
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