Top Snapchat Alternatives
instagram.com
Instagram (commonly abbreviated to IG or Insta) is an American photo and video sharing social networking service owned by Facebook, created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and originally launched on iOS in October 2010. The Android version was released in April 2012, followed by a feature-limited desktop interface in November 2012, a Fire OS app in June 2014, and an app for Windows 10 in October 2016. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can be shared publicly or with pre-approved followers. Users can browse other users' content by tags and locations and view trending content. Users can like photos and follow other users to add their content to a feed. Instagram was originally distinguished by only allowing content to be framed in a square (1:1) aspect ratio with 640 pixels to match the display width of the iPhone at the time. In 2015, these restrictions were eased with an increase to 1080 pixels. The service also added messaging features, the ability to include multiple images or videos in a single post, and a Stories feature—similar to its main opposition Snapchat—which allows users to post photos and videos to a sequential feed, with each post accessible by others for 24 hours each. As of January 2019, the Stories feature is used by 500 million users daily.After its launch in 2010, Instagram rapidly gained popularity, with one million registered users in two months, 10 million in a year, and 1 billion as of May 2019. In April 2012, Facebook acquired the service for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock. As of October 2015, over 40 billion photos had been uploaded. Although praised for its influence, Instagram has been the subject of criticism, most notably for policy and interface changes, allegations of censorship, and illegal or improper content uploaded by users. As of July 2020, the most followed person is footballer Cristiano Ronaldo with over 233 million followers. As of January 14, 2019, the most-liked photo on Instagram is a picture of an egg, posted by the account @world_record_egg, created with the sole purpose of surpassing the previous record of 18 million likes on a Kylie Jenner post. The picture currently has over 54 million likes. Instagram became the 4th most downloaded mobile app of the 2010s.
whatsapp.com
WhatsApp Messenger, or simply WhatsApp, is an American freeware, cross-platform messaging and Voice over IP (VoIP) service owned by Facebook, Inc. It allows users to send text messages and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other media. WhatsApp's client application runs on mobile devices but is also accessible from desktop computers, as long as the user's mobile device remains connected to the Internet while they use the desktop app. The service requires users to provide a standard cellular mobile number for registering with the service. In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app targeted at small business owners, called WhatsApp Business, to allow companies to communicate with customers who use the standard WhatsApp client.The client application was created by WhatsApp Inc. of Mountain View, California, which was acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for approximately US$19.3 billion. It became the world's most popular messaging application by 2015, and has over 2 billion users worldwide as of February 2020. It has become the primary means of electronic communication in multiple countries and locations, including Latin America, the Indian subcontinent, and large parts of Europe and Africa.
facebook.com
Facebook (stylized as facebook) is an American online social media and social networking service based in Menlo Park, California, and a flagship service of the namesake company Facebook, Inc. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The founders initially limited Facebook membership to Harvard students. Membership was expanded to Columbia, Stanford, and Yale before being expanded to the rest of the Ivy League, MIT, and higher education institutions in the Boston area, then various other universities, and lastly high school students. Since 2006, anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old has been allowed to become a registered user of Facebook, though this may vary depending on local laws. The name comes from the face book directories often given to American university students. Facebook can be accessed from devices with Internet connectivity, such as personal computers, tablets and smartphones. After registering, users can create a profile revealing information about themselves. They can post text, photos and multimedia which is shared with any other users that have agreed to be their "friend", or, with a different privacy setting, with any reader. Users can also use various embedded apps, join common-interest groups, buy and sell items or services on Marketplace, and receive notifications of their Facebook friends' activities and activities of Facebook pages they follow. Facebook claimed that it had more than 2.3 billion monthly active users as of December 2018, and it was the most downloaded mobile app of the 2010s globally.Facebook has been subject to extensive media coverage and many controversies, often involving user privacy (as with the Cambridge Analytica data scandal), political manipulation (as with the 2016 U.S. elections), psychological effects such as addiction and low self-esteem, and content such as fake news, conspiracy theories, copyright infringement, and hate speech. Commentators have accused Facebook of willingly facilitating the spread of such content.
Telegram
telegram.org
Telegram is a cloud-based instant messaging, videotelephony and voice over IP service with end-to-end encryption for secret chat only. Telegram client apps are available for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux and originated in Russia in 2013. Users can send messages and exchange photos, videos, stickers, audio and files of any type. Telegram's client-side code is free software, whereas its server-side code is closed-source and proprietary. The service also provides APIs to independent developers. As of April 2020, Telegram had 400 million monthly active users. An announcement at that time included a promise to implement secure group video calls later in 2020.The default messages and media use client-server encryption during transit. This data is also encrypted at rest, but can be accessed by Telegram developers, who hold the encryption keys. In addition Telegram provides end-to-end encrypted calls and optional end-to-end encrypted "secret" chats between two online users on smartphone clients. However, the desktop clients (excluding macOS client) do not feature end-to-end encryption, nor is end-to-end encryption available for groups, supergroups, or channels. Telegram has defended the lack of ubiquitous end-to-end encryption by claiming the online-backups that do not use client-side encryption are "the most secure solution currently possible," despite several other chat services such as Signal, Matrix, and WhatsApp offering end-to-end encryption on all platforms.
Discord
discord.com
Discord is an American proprietary freeware instant messaging and VoIP application and digital distribution platform designed for creating communities ranging from gamers to education and businesses. Discord specializes in text, image, video and audio communication between users in a chat channel. Discord runs on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, and in web browsers. As of 21 July 2019, there are over 250 million users of the software.
X
x.com
X, formerly Twitter is an online social media and social networking service operated by the American company X Corp., the successor of Twitter, Inc. Twitter is an American microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through its website interface, through Short Message Service (SMS) or its mobile-device application software ("app"). Twitter, Inc. is based in San Francisco, California, and has more than 25 offices around the world. Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but was doubled to 280 for non-CJK languages in November 2017. Audio and video tweets remain limited to 140 seconds for most accounts. Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006 and launched in July of that year. By 2012, more than 100 million users posted 340 million tweets a day, and the service handled an average of 1.6 billion search queries per day. In 2013, it was one of the ten most-visited websites and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet". As of 2018, Twitter had more than 321 million monthly active users. Formerly Twitter.
Messenger
messenger.com
Facebook Messenger (commonly known as Messenger) is an American messaging app and platform developed by Facebook, Inc. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the company revamped its messaging service in 2010, and subsequently released standalone iOS and Android apps in August 2011 and standalone Facebook Portal hardware for Messenger-based calling in Q4 2018. Later on, Facebook has launched a dedicated website interface (Messenger.com), and separated the messaging functionality from the main Facebook app, allowing users to use the web interface or download one of the standalone apps. In April 2020, Facebook officially released Messenger for Desktop, which is supported on Windows 10 and macOS and distributed on Microsoft Store and App Store respectively. Users can send messages and exchange photos, videos, stickers, audio, and files, as well as react to other users' messages and interact with bots. The service also supports voice and video calling. The standalone apps support using multiple accounts, conversations with optional end-to-end encryption, and playing games.
pinterest.com
Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the World Wide Web using images and, on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboards. The site was created by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp and had over 400 million monthly active users as of August 2020. It is operated by Pinterest, Inc., based in San Francisco.
reddit.com
Reddit (stylized in its logo as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website. Registered members submit content to the site such as links, text posts, and images, which are then voted up or down by other members. Posts are organized by subject into user-created boards called "subreddits", which cover a variety of topics such as news, politics, science, movies, video games, music, books, sports, fitness, cooking, pets and image-sharing. Submissions with more up-votes appear towards the top of their subreddit and, if they receive enough up-votes, ultimately on the site's front page. Despite strict rules prohibiting harassment, Reddit's administrators spend considerable resources on moderating the site.As of May 2020, Reddit ranks as the 19th-most-visited website in the U.S. and in the world, according to Alexa Internet, with 55% of its user base coming from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom at 7.4% and Canada at 5.8%.Reddit was founded by University of Virginia roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian in 2005. Condé Nast Publications acquired the site in October 2006. In 2011, Reddit became an independent subsidiary of Condé Nast's parent company, Advance Publications. In October 2014, Reddit raised $50 million in a funding round led by Sam Altman and including investors Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, Ron Conway, Snoop Dogg, and Jared Leto. Their investment valued the company at $500 million then. In July 2017, Reddit raised $200 million for a $1.8 billion valuation, with Advance Publications remaining the majority stakeholder. In February 2019, a $300 million funding round led by Tencent brought the company's valuation to $3 billion.
Nicegram
nicegram.app
Fast, secure and nice messaging app. Imagine the mix of powerful Telegram API, careful code optimization and unique features that deliver a whole new level of experience you can’t refuse!
Zalo
zalo.me
Zalo is a messaging application from Vietnam that provides fast, stable, convenient, and private connection for users anytime, anywhere. Fast and stable - Messages, calls, images, high-quality files... is promptly and stably delivered in any conditions and contexts. Simple and convenient - A simple interface that is easy to use for all. - A multi-functional app supporting text message, voice, stickers, pictures, audio call, video call, 1-1 connection, group chat, file sending, screen capture...for various use case. - Easily accessible from multiple platforms such as phone, desktop, or website. - Enjoy sharing and saving beautiful moments with your family, your beloved friends on Zalo Timeline
Google Messages
messages.google.com
Google Messages is an SMS and instant messaging application developed by Google for its Android mobile operating system. A web interface is also available. Launched on 12 November 2014, it supports Rich Communication Services (RCS) messages since 2018.The app does not support end-to-end encryption, however development of the feature was seen in a leaked internal version of the app on 23 May, 2020.By April 2020, the app had more than a billion installs which was most likely due to Google's wider roll out of Rich Communication Services to many different countries without carrier support.
Skype
skype.com
Skype is a telecommunications application that specializes in providing video chat and voice calls between computers, tablets, mobile devices, the Xbox One console, and smartwatches over the Internet. Skype also provides instant messaging services. Users may transmit text, video, audio and images. Skype allows video conference calls. At the end of 2010, there were over 660 million worldwide users, with over 300 million estimated active each month as of August 2015. At one point in February 2012, there were 34 million users concurrently online on Skype.In March 2020, Skype was used by 100 million people on a monthly basis and by 40 million people on a daily basis. That was a 70% increase in the number of daily users from the previous month, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.First released in August 2003, Skype was created by the Swede Niklas Zennström and the Dane Janus Friis, in cooperation with Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, Jaan Tallinn, and Toivo Annus, Estonians who developed the peer-to-peer backend that was also used in the music-sharing application Kazaa. In September 2005, eBay acquired Skype for $2.6 billion. In September 2009, Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board announced the acquisition of 65% of Skype for $1.9 billion from eBay, which attributed to the enterprise a market value of $2.92 billion. Microsoft bought Skype in May 2011 for $8.5 billion. Skype's division headquarters are in Luxembourg, but most of the development team and 44% of all the division's employees are still situated in Tallinn and Tartu, Estonia.Skype allows users to communicate over the Internet by voice, using a microphone, by video using a webcam, and by instant messaging. Skype implements a freemium business model with Skype-to-Skype calls being free of charge, while calls to landline telephones and mobile phones (over traditional telephone networks) are charged via a debit-based user account system called Skype Credit. Some network administrators have banned Skype on corporate, government, home, and education networks, citing such reasons as inappropriate usage of resources, excessive bandwidth usage and security concerns.Skype originally featured a hybrid peer-to-peer and client–server system. Skype has been powered entirely by Microsoft-operated supernodes since May 2012. The 2013 mass surveillance disclosures revealed that Microsoft had granted intelligence agencies unfettered access to supernodes and Skype communication content.Throughout 2016 and 2017, Microsoft redesigned its Skype clients in a way that transitioned Skype from peer-to-peer service to a centralized Azure service and adjusted the user interfaces of apps to make text-based messaging more prominent than voice calling. Skype for Windows, iOS, Android, Mac and Linux received significant, visible overhauls.
wechat.com
WeChat (Chinese: 微信; pinyin: Wēixìn (listen); lit.: 'micro-message') is a Chinese multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018, with over 1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has been described as China's "app for everything" and a "super app" because of its wide range of functions.User activity on WeChat is analyzed, tracked and shared with Chinese authorities upon request as part of the mass surveillance network in China. WeChat censors politically sensitive topics in China. Data transmitted by accounts registered outside of China is surveilled, analyzed and used to build up censorship algorithms in China. In response to a border dispute between India and China, WeChat was banned in India in June 2020. On August 6, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning U.S. "transactions" with WeChat in 45 days.
Text Free
textfree.us
Get a free phone number to send unlimited free texts from the comfort of your desktop with TextFree Web. Just sign up for free, pick your free phone number, and start texting for free.
Tumblr
tumblr.com
Tumblr (stylized as tumblr and pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog. Users can follow other users' blogs. Bloggers can also make their blogs private. For bloggers many of the website's features are accessed from a "dashboard" interface. As of August 12, 2019, Tumblr hosts over 475 million blogs. As of January 2016, the website had over 500 million monthly visitors, which dropped to less than 400 million by August 2019.
Instagram Direct Messenger
instagram.com
Send messages, photos, and videos to friends across Instagram or Facebook—complete with effects and captions. You can also send posts or connect on video chat.
GroupMe
groupme.com
GroupMe is a mobile group messaging app owned by Microsoft. It was launched in May 2010 by the private company GroupMe. In August 2011, GroupMe delivered over 100 million messages each month and by June 2012, that number jumped to 550 million. In 2013, GroupMe had over 12 million registered users.
LinkedIn Messaging
linkedin.com
LinkedIn Messaging allows you to communicate with other LinkedIn members that you’re connected to. On LinkedIn, you can only message your 1st-degree connections (and, within group pages, fellow group members) for free. If you aren’t connected, you always have the option to send an InMail to another LinkedIn member.
Threema
threema.ch
Threema is an end-to-end encrypted instant messaging application for iOS, Android and Windows Phone.The software is based on the privacy by design principles and the service doesn't require users to provide a phone number or any other personally identifiable information: The Threema app can be used anonymously.In addition to text messaging, users can make voice calls, send multimedia, locations, voice messages and files. Using the web app “Threema Web,” the service can be used on PCs.Threema is developed by the Swiss company Threema GmbH. The servers are located in Switzerland and the development is based in Pfäffikon SZ. As of April 2017, Threema had 4.5 million users. As of January 2019, the business version, Threema Work, was used by 3.000 companies and organizations.
Meetup
meetup.com
Find groups that host online or in person events and meet people in your local community who share your interests.
Instapaper
instapaper.com
Instapaper is a bookmarking service that allows web content to be saved so it can be "read later" on a different device, such as an e-reader, smartphone, or tablet. The service was founded in 2008 by Marco Arment and has around 2 million users as of late 2011. In April 2013, Marco sold a majority stake to Betaworks and by mid 2016 Pinterest acquired the company. In July 2018, ownership of Instapaper was transferred from Pinterest to a newly formed company Instant Paper, Inc. The transition was completed on August 6, 2018.
Reddit Chat
reddit.com
Chat for Reddit.
SlideShare
slideshare.net
SlideShare is the world's largest community for sharing presentations. With 60 million monthly visitors and 130 million pageviews, it is amongst the most visited 200 websites in the world. Besides presentations, SlideShare also supports documents, PDFs, videos and webinars.
ICQ
icq.com
Convert audio messages to text, use smart replies, stay online even with bad internet connection.
Yandex Messenger
yandex.com
Yandex.Messenger is a platform that lets employees communicate with each other. Users can send instant messages, make calls, and create group chats. Yandex Messenger is a secure corporate messenger in a familiar interface. We have combined the important functions of instant messengers and added the necessary capabilities for corporate work - for example, inviting teams or departments to a group chat. It’s easier to work on projects when the contacts of all colleagues are collected in one place, and chats with family and friends do not distract from tasks.
X Messages
twitter.com
Direct Messages are the private side of X. You can use Direct Messages to have private conversations with people about posts and other content.
MySMS
mysms.com
The mysms family of applications helps you text anywhere and enhances your messaging experience on your smartphone, tablet and computer.
Glitch
glitch.com
Glitch is where everyone can create the web. It's a simple but powerful tool for creating websites and apps, supported by a fun and friendly community of creators—from brand new to expert developers. Glitch is a collaborative programming environment that lives in your browser and deploys code as you type. Use Glitch to build anything from a static webpage to full-stack Node apps.
BuzzFeed
buzzfeed.com
BuzzFeed has breaking news, vital journalism, quizzes, videos, celeb news, Tasty food videos, recipes, DIY hacks, and all the trending buzz you’ll want to share with your friends. Copyright BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved.