WhatsApp alternatives

[slyronit]

Recently I have been thinking about ditching Whatsapp and moving my family and close friends to another service. This has nothing to do with the Facebook privacy thing (I don't care), but the Win 8 style app is getting on my nerves now

1. No UWP, so no replies from the notification center
2. Still uses the old photo picker, so cannot share OneDrive photos from within the app
3. Doesn't scale well on the 950XL. Even with the latest version, there's always a blank bar at the bottom, taking up screen space. Text is also always bigger than every other app and the OS.

I will continue to use Whatsapp for most of my group chats, but want to move to a different service for most of my IM. The only 2 services I could find which are UWP were
1. Skype- Cannot share location, that's my major complaint. Also, iOS and Android users can't use racially diverse emoji
2. Viber- This actually looks good, however, you can't share location at will. You can tag your location to regular messages, but when I click on the geotag icon on received messages, it shows my location, not the location of the sender. Also, settings are a bit sparse.

What do you guys think? What do you use apart from WhatsApp? I don't really want to use an app which is not UWP (Might as well use Whatsapp, then)

 

[ven07]

Line/Telegram/Wechat... etc

UWP app is probably coming at some point. They did say they were working on it.

Replying from the AC isn't even available in the beta app, so that one will take some time

 

[Player Piano]

Line is definitely a solid option. The W10 app has been supported very well.

 

[slyronit]

Thanks, I think only Line is a UWP, I will try that one out.

 

[slyronit]

Telegram isn't a UWP, WeChat UI is horrible for Windows.

 

[ven07]

Line is definitely a solid option. The W10 app has been supported very well.

Thanks, I think only Line is a UWP, I will try that one out.

Yup I use line daily. On PC and mobile. Works well small quirks here and there, but overall it is decent

 

[slyronit]

Thanks, all for the suggestions. I like both Lime and Viber. Viber UI is better, but line has more options.

FB messenger would have been ideal if it didn't take 10 seconds to start each time on an SD 810

 

[ven07]

Maybe give this a shot? http://forums.windowscentral.com/wi...stall-old-ms-messenger-app-win10m-solved.html

 

[orlbuckeye]

Viber is similar to Whatsapp. My sister uses Viber when she wants to avoid international charges on phone.

 

[slyronit]

Maybe give this a shot? http://forums.windowscentral.com/wi...stall-old-ms-messenger-app-win10m-solved.html

Thanks, but it not being UWP is a problem (I might as well use Whatsapp anyways).

 

[slyronit]

Viber is similar to Whatsapp. My sister uses Viber when she wants to avoid international charges on phone.

Thanks, Have been using Viber with a friend last few days. A few bugs I found and reported back to them

1. It never redirects an audio call to my bluetooth handsfree
2. Sometimes, messages aren't sent at all. They disappear from the text entry box, but don't show up in the chat window. Only way is to kill the app and start it again.

For international calls, I use Skype. Is Viber cheaper/better than Skype?

 

[anon(9419666)]

The only message app I know of besides WhatsApp is WeChat. The is lot more messages app out there.

 

[ven07]

Just remembered, you could also use groupme lol

 

[slyronit]

Ha ha. I don't want to get too fond of any MS product, lest they kill it in the coming months.

 

[ven07]

Ha ha. I don't want to get too fond of any MS product, lest they kill it in the coming months.

LOLOLOL totally understand, but don't think this one will be killed off

Cross platform and the new team seems to be doing well with pushing out updates

 

[slyronit]

Considering that Skype has a feature overlap with GroupMe, one of them will surely perish soon. My money is on groupme dying a sudden death and its features being integrated into Skype.