The 5 best messaging apps in India

New Delhi: The hype around mobile messaging apps has reached some pretty crazy heights recently with even more craziness expected next year. Ovum says it expects the number of messages to be “transacted” on social messaging apps like WhatsApp and Line to grow from 27.5 trillion in 2013 to 71.5 trillion by the end of 2014. The factors responsible for this growth are: the growth of affordable smartphones and access to mobile broadband (in emerging markets), plus large-scale marketing campaigns.Ovum also expects that a lot of room for a lot more growth within the service. “The cumulative strength of the social messaging industry could soon cross the 2-billion mark by the end of 2014,″ it adds.In the growing competitive scenario, established mobile apps like Facebook Messenger and older Internet calling services such as Skype are increasingly competing agsinst the likes of mobile messaging apps such as MessageMe, Viber, Line and TextMe.In the crowded category of apps, here's a look at five of the best mobile messaging apps. WhatsAppMessaging app Whatsapp has a huge base in India with latest reports suggesting the app crossing 25 million active users in India. WhatsApp is unarguably the world's most popular messaging app with over 350 milion users worldwide. WhatsApp lets mobile users send text messages without having to pay SMS fees to their carriers. The messages are sent through the Internet and therefore require the user to have a data plan on their phone, which is typical of these messaging apps. Messages can include video, audio and photos, not just text.WhatsApp is available for a variety of mobile operating systems including the iPhone, Android, Nokia, Windows Phone and BlackBerry. The app launched in 2009 and has proven popular.Earlier, WhatsApp used to cost $0.99 on iOS or Rs 55 in India but the app is now free on Google's Android Play Store. For the iOS the app follows the subscription model as it does on Android.The app has a simple and easy to use interface and allows folks to send text messages, photos and voice messages.Pros: Simple to use.Cons: Lacks more sophisticated featuresVerdict: A must-have app.LineJapanese messaging app Line has announced that it has surpassed 300 million registered users worldwide. That's double the user base it said it had in April. Line offers lets users send regular text messages, hold group chats, send photos/videos, make voice/video calls between fellow Line users and even play games with friends via the app. Line also lets users slap stickers and emoji into their messages, often in the form of playful, cartoon baby animals. A matching game can also be played with other Line users involving candy and animal heads is also built into the service.Line is available for free, but users can spend money on virtual content like stickers, in-app purchases within games. Line supports more than 40 apps — including a nifty camera app.Pros: A comprehensive app platformCons: With so many features, there is the potential for users to get a little lost within the service.Verdict: A good choice.WeChatThe popular social messaging app WeChat, has reached a new milestone as the app surpassed 100 million registered international users. This China-made service has been compared to Facebook because of the way it mixes a range of social network-like features with messaging. Earlier this year the company signed up football Lionel Messi to make it more popular in other parts of the world. WeChat offers all the usual messaging features like multimedia/group chat/push-to-talk voice messages — alongside voice/video calls and opt-in accounts from brands. The service comes with a discovery feature, which allows users to meet new people.Pros: Loads of features.Cons: Some stigma and concerns from being a Chinese service.Verdict: Another good option.BBMSmartphone customers see BBM as a must have app for active conversation. After introducing popular BBM to Android and iOS users, BlackBerry said it will partner handset makers from India, like Micromax, Spice and Zen, other nations to pre-install the popular messaging app on their smartphones. With the BBM app coming pre-installed, users can directly engage with other BBM users without having to download the app or incurring download charges. The BBM messaging app is already pre-installed on Micromax's Canvas Turbo and will be pre-installed on forthcoming Canvas releases.And if latest data from Distimo is to be believed then BBM has actually gotten more downloads than WhatsApp in India and UK.Pros: Tried and tested service of BlackBerryCons: Many BlackBerry users are probably wondering how long the BBM messaging service will be available for, considering BlackBerry's current state.Verdict: Another good optionKikKik is similar to text messaging, however a user needs to download the app first before using it. The latest version of Kik comes with two new features. The first is the ability to organize Kik Cards. Now instead of all Cards in one big pile in the slide out drawer on the left side of the app, Cards are split into two groups within the drawer — “Recent” and “Favorites.” This makes a user see the most recent Cards they've used. Second, Kik added in-app push notifications for the HTML5-based Kik Cards.There are currently five Kik Cards to choose from, including YouTube, Reddit, Image Search, Sketch and a brick smashing game called Squared. Pros: Doesn't require a phone number and easily customizable.Cons: There are no video or voice calling options.Verdict: Popular among youngsters, Kik is a feature-rich app.HikeHike is a messaging focused app which allows users to share text messages, photos, videos, short voice messaging and chat in groups. It also comes with ‘SMS out' feature.The native India only app also lets users send chat messages to non-Hike users.Pros: An app that offers good design offering a range of messaging features.Cons: SMS-out feature is India-only, and there are no calling features in the app.Verdict: Useful app for those based in India.