Business or otherwise, as Positronic, a global connector solutions provider, puts it, your connections greatly matter.
Due in part to the fact that we live in a highly technological world, keeping those connections alive can happen without much ado – thanks to the ever-growing power of smartphones and the sheer number of communication apps popping up here, there and everywhere. With the speed at which messages reach their destinations (through e-mail, voice chat or whatnot), more than the instantaneous exchange, boundaries like geographies and time zones are transcended. If you’re an Android phone user, power or otherwise, here are some of the top messaging apps that are gaining traction in 2013:
5 of the Top Messaging Apps for Android for 2013
A multi-platform application that’s available not just for Android users, WhatsApp is one of the most popular mobile chat apps offered today. Besides chatting with other users of the app, you get extras like group chat, location adding, status messages, message timestamps, notifications when text messages had been viewed by the recipient, photo sharing, video and audio notes within conversations, among others.
WhatsApp is free to use for the first year. After that, it costs $0.99 per year.
Viber
With Viber, you make phone calls (something WhatsApp doesn’t support) and send text messages to other Viber users free of charge. Aside from allowing you the ability to talk with contacts for as long as you need to (especially when you’re connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi), the sound quality is better than that of a regular phone call.
To start using the application, all you need is download it from the Google Play store. No registration necessary. Your phone book contacts are automatically added into Favorites if they have the application installed in their phones as well.
Avocado
Known as the couple’s app, Avocado is a private instant messaging platform that allows you to create lists and add calendar entries to share with your favorite person in the world. Aside from photo sharing, you can click images of yourself and assign them as pre-defined expressions. You can also create sketches of yourself and your partner. One other interesting feature is that whenever you hold your phone to your chest, you give your significant other a virtual hug.
A piece of trivia from the Avocado site that you might find interesting: Avocados don’t self-pollinate. They need another tree nearby to bear fruit.
Avocado is free for Android users. You can login to Avocado via the web, too.
ooVoo
Free for Android and utilized by more than 75 million users, ooVoo is a video chat app that allows you to make calls to practically any platform – landlines (you need some credit to use this feature), Facebook or ooVoo. The app can support simultaneous video calling with up to 12 friends and see four of them on your mobile screen. It also allows you to send and receive text messages while on a video call. Aside from busy, away, online or invisible, ooVoo allows you to customize your status message.
Go SMS Pro
If you’re big on SMS and MMS, Go SMS Pro is a free-to-use messaging app that allows you to send short messages that include text, photos, voice and doodles. With Go SMS Pro, you can schedule SMS, easily back up and restore your messages, blacklist users who love spamming your inbox and auto-reply to incoming calls and messages (a feature that’s convenient when you’re in a meeting and can’t be immediately reachable).
Conclusion
Keeping your connections, especially those that matter to you, alive has never been easier with the numerous apps that are available for the Android phone – your connectors, so to speak. And while there is mounting evidence that man’s connection with his smartphone is beginning to trump his connections with his fellow human beings, that doesn’t have to be the norm. More than the reliability and convenience it offers, technology should reinforce what truly are important to us – in this case, our human connections.
About the Author: Maricel Rivera is a blogger and online marketing professional with more than ten years of freelance writing experience. You may connect with her on Twitter: @careermomonline.
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