5 Best WhatsApp Alternative Apps for Android & iOS

Are you looking for the best WhatsApp alternative apps? If yes, then you have stumbled upon the right page. Here I will share 5 apps like Whatsapp that you can use to chat with your friends and family.

Whatsapp alternative apps

So, without any further ado, let’s get started. BTW I have also shared these cool Whatsapp tricks.

Also, read: Enable Dark Mode on Whatsapp

5 Best WhatsApp Alternative Apps

Recently WhatsApp surprisingly sent an in-app user agreement notification regarding their updated policies. This made everything clear how this popular instant messaging application collects tons of telemetry data from our smartphones.

The sad part is that if a user doesn’t choose to agree to their new policy, they will no longer be eligible to use WhatsApp’s services after Feb 8. The news broke the internet, and people started looking for WhatsApp alternatives that are more privacy-focused, secure, and feature-rich.

So, if you stand among those who want to shift to a more secure and private instant messaging app, this will be a very beneficial article for you. So here is my list of the 5 best WhatsApp alternative apps for smartphones that you can use. You can also use YoWhatsapp apk or the FM WhatsApp app as an aletrnative.

1. Signal:

Signal Messenger has always been my prior choice over any other instant messaging app available in the market. The reasons are pretty obvious – it is a free, open-source, and secure way to communicate online.

Whatsapp alternative apps

It uses end-to-end encryption that follows the Perfect Forward Secrecy and Signal Protocol algorithms to secure all your text messages and other media files. Signal Messenger is open-source software that means anybody can view or modify the source code.

Whatsapp alternative apps

Not only that, but the Signal messaging protocol that they use to encrypt texts and media files was also independently audited in 2016 by the researchers of three reputed universities that include Canada’s McMaster University, Australia’s Queensland University of Technology, and UK’s University of Oxford.

The researchers concluded that even after doing the in-depth analysis of the program’s cryptographic core, they did not find any significant flaws. Even Signal doesn’t store any user data except the user’s phone number and the date you logged in.

All your data gets stored on the user’s device in an encrypted form. Apart from this, Signal features a bunch of excellent privacy-focused features such as self-destructive messages, link previews, linked devices, screen security, and much other stuff.

Therefore, if privacy is your main concern, Signal Messenger can be the best Whatsapp alternative for Android & iOS devices.

2. Telegram:

The second app that you can use as a WhatsApp alternative is none other than Telegram. It is the second most popular instant messaging app after WhatsApp. The great thing about Telegram is that it is also an open-source application.

Apps like Whatsapp

Also, it has tons of excellent features that include creating groups of up to 100,000 users, self-destructing messages, end-to-end encryption in secret chats, public channels, the ability to share media and document files of up to 1.5 GB, two-step verification, ability to get logged in on more than two devices, and many others.

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However, this popular instant messaging app possesses some drawbacks as well. Although Telegram features end-to-end encryption, it does not get applied by default. Telegram does support end-to-end encryption but only for secret chats and voice calls.

That means that Telegram will have access to read all your chat data except for secret chats and voice calls. Not only that, but Telegram collects a bunch of personal information that they can keep for up to 12 months.

To sum up, all I can say is that if privacy and security is your primary concern, then Telegram is not a good option for you. If you want to shift to a feature-rich WhatsApp alternative, then you can definitely try Telegram.

3. Discord:

Discord was initially launched to provide gamers with a place to communicate through text and voice chats. But in the last five years, Discord has improved its services and features a lot.

Alternatives to Whatsapp

Right now, with over 300 million active users, Discord is one of the most formidable contenders to become the best instant messaging app available on the internet. It offers tons of excellent features such as group text messages, group video calls, personal messages, group voice calls, chatbots, etc.

apps like Whatsapp

Not only that, but users can also send various types of media files and can stream videos from many popular platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook. Users can also share their screens with other members.

However, Discord has some downsides, and most of them come from the security and privacy point of view. Discord stores a lot of personal user information such as email, log data, and telemetry data.

Additionally, they have not disclosed what sort of encryption they use to encrypt user chats. Therefore, if you are looking for a privacy-focused WhatsApp alternative, then Discord cannot be the right choice. But apart from that, it is an excellent instant messaging platform.

4. Wire Messenger:

The next instant messaging app on our list is Wire Messenger. I have tried Wire Messenger for a couple of weeks, and trust me, it has impressed me greatly. Wire Messenger is a highly regarded corporate collaboration tool designed to offer secure messaging and file-sharing capabilities.

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Therefore, their primary focus is on making the app much more secure for messaging. Wire uses end-to-end encryption to encrypt all the chats. It means the only time chat data gets stored on their servers is if the recipient is not online.

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To encrypt chat data, Wire uses Proteus protocol and WebRTC with PFS algorithms. Additionally, they have been independently audited multiple times by different organizations for security and encryption purposes. The wire is also an open-source tool, and its entire source code is available on GitHub.

Wire Messenger offers tons of excellent features such as free Wire Personal, self-destructing messages, end-to-end encrypted chats, group video calls, etc. The only downside I notice is that it has a minimal number of users.

That means there are extreme chances that most of your contacts might not be available on Wire. But if you are concerned about your privacy, then Wire Messenger can be an excellent choice for you.

5. Skype:

Skype is one of the oldest and widely used communication tools available on the internet. Companies and businesses mainly use it to hold online meetings and group communication.

Whatsapp alternatives

Since Skype has primarily focused on attracting businesses, many people think this is a tool available only for businesses, but that is not true. In reality, Skype can be a great WhatsApp alternative for people who make a lot of voice and video calls.

Whatsapp alternative

It offers some really cool features that include screen sharing, whiteboarding, presentation, group calls, recording, scheduling, etc. Skype also supports all major operating systems. And the great thing is that it is completely free for individual users.

But like other tools in this list, Skype has some drawbacks as well. The very first issue comes from user privacy as Skype doesn’t use end-to-end encryption by default. They do offer end-to-end encryption, but that is only available for private conversations.

That means that Microsoft can view all your chats and media files except for private conversations. Therefore, I recommend using Skype only for video and voice calling purposes.

Wrapping Up:

Well, that’s all for the best Whatsapp alternative apps for Android and iOS devices. If you can have any questions regarding these great apps like Whatsapp, just leave a comment below, and I will get back to you.

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