If you got here thinking that you want an app that’s going to allow you to call and text with the people that you talk to the most, you’ve come to the right place. The truth is more and more people are turning to apps for calling and texting instead of making regular calls or sending SMS text messages. There are a couple of reasons for that. Number one though, is the price tag for each of these services. While regular calls weren’t getting any cheaper and the quality of the calls wasn’t getting a lot better web calls were improving. The first web communications options were admittedly very low quality. That’s not the case anymore. Essentially that’s why we have apps for calling and texting these days.
Could using these apps allow you to lower your cell phone bill? Technically yes, but we do have to give credit to wireless service providers. Most US service providers have understood the trend and now offer unlimited data plans. If you look closely, most of these plans aren’t all that cheap. Now, they want to offer streaming services as a bonus to users. We’ve got to say that wireless service providers are getting creative. The reason we bring this up is you have to know how to manipulate them and the apps for calling and texting that you use to be able to get better deals. That’s exactly what we want to help you do in this article.
- What are the apps for calling and texting?
- What you need to do to keep these apps active
- Email or phone number verification what’s the difference
- Beware of the hidden costs in apps for calling and texting
- The best options for travelers
- Are my calls going to be safe on these apps?
What are the apps for calling and texting?
What are the options that you’re going to have if you want to use one app to do both calling and texting? There are going to be apps like Zoom that are essentially just for calls. Yeah, you can write things down when you’re on a call, but it’s not an app that you can really use for texting per se. From there really the options come to life. In this sense, virtually all of the other apps that you can use for calls, can be used for texting. For example, most of the social media messaging apps like Facebook messenger, Instagram DMs can be used for both calling and texting. Actually both IG DM’s and Facebook messenger run on the same platform these days. The main benefit that you’ll have with this option is that you can contact your full contact list on these apps. The bad part about this is that all of your conversations are in the property of Mark Zuckerberg.
We are not going to lean into major conspiracy theories here. However, we do know that Zuckerberg’s appearance before the senate didn’t exactly put users at ease. The next two options that we’re going to talk about are Whatsapp and Telegram. These two are at heart phone apps that allow people to call and text. The major benefit of Whatsapp is that it has a larger user base. Therefore, it’s more likely that the person you’re trying to contact will be reachable through the app. The bad part is again the app is part of Zuckerberg’s Metaverse. Telegram operates virtually the same way that Whatsapp does. You’ll have a smaller user base though. The good part though is that your conversations aren’t run through a larger corporation if you will.
The last options that we’re going to look at are Skype, and Google Hangouts. These two potentially have the best quality calls. The downside to these may be that the people that you’re trying to contact may not be all too familiar with the texting option. Essentially the down side to this is that they may not have the sense of urgency or even a natural tendency to respond to your texts on these apps. To put it simply, these are typically not the apps a lot of people use for texting. Even though texting is a possibility for them.
What you need to do to keep these apps active
There are a lot of people who have questions about how to use these apps. Essentially the way to get an account on each of these apps can follow a completely different process. For example, with the social media options, you’re going to need to have a Facebook page or an IG account to be able to access the calling and texting features. Certain people don’t love the idea of sharing personal information through social media. Again, we don’t necessarily want to get into that whole debate. We’ll just say that if you don’t want to be on social media then you’ll just have to go with another option in the apps for calling and texting menu. To access social media apps, Skype, and Google Hangouts all you need is an email account. Your account will stay active as long as you check it regularly.
When it comes to the other apps that we’ve labeled “phone apps” in our list of apps for calling and texting, those you’ll have to access through your phone number. To be able to keep these apps active you essentially need to continue to have access to either your phone number or the device that you use it on. For example, if you change devices, but you keep the same number you can transfer your Whatsapp account to the new device without trouble. If you change numbers you can also transfer your chats without trouble. If you lose the device and the number you’re going to lose the account.
Email or phone number verification what’s the difference
The difference is pretty straightforward here. In apps for calling and texting if you access the app through an email account that just means literally putting your email in ,and you’ll be good. The main benefit with these types of apps is that you’ll essentially be able to access them through all sorts of different devices. Just like your regular email account. With your account and your password you can log into your Facebook, or Skype account and call and text through your phone or tablet without any type of trouble. With Skype you may have to download the app on certain devices, but that’s about it.
When we talk about phone verification apps like Whatsapp and Telegram you’re typically going to need access to the phone that the number is tied to be able to have access to the app. For example, both Whatsapp and Telegram have web versions. If you don’t have access to the phone that has the number that you registered with your more than likely going to be locked out of your account. When looking at this way it would certainly seem that email verification apps are best. The problem with most of these apps, at least in the beginning, was that they didn’t have great mobile versions. That’s essentially why WhatsApp, Telegram and other apps where able to take over the messaging market. These two are arguably the two most popular apps for calling and texting today!
Beware of the hidden costs in apps for calling and texting
Some of the extra costs that we talked about aren’t necessarily “hidden”. For example, making a call to a landline through Skype. You’re not going to be able to do that unless you add credit to your account. That’s not something though that isn’t as advertised if you will. The way that we see it though the real hidden costs are in the data usage to make these calls or send these texts. You’re never going to be charged with a per minute fee or a per message fee on these apps. Actually the cash that you spend isn’t even going to go to the app itself. Unless it’s something like the Skype example we talked about.
In simple terms, using apps for calling and texting requires data or a good internet coverage. If you’re on an unlimited plan that’s probably not something that you’re worried about. The same goes for when you’re connected to your wifi network at home. At the end of the day you’ve essentially already paid for the service. So we can’t call that a hidden cost. When you travel outside of your home country though, using these apps can waste a lot of data. That data when you travel typically isn’t unlimited. So those are the hidden costs that we’re talking about. At the same time people who aren’t on unlimited plans will face the same hidden costs even when using their phone locally.
The best options for travelers
Could we say that one of the apps for calling and texting really provides certain benefits for travelers? One of the key things to consider when downloading any app to call or text is how many of your “people” are on the app right? For the most part, you need the other person to have the app to be able to contact them through the app! This may sound like a weird plot twist, but Whatsapp has actually become a reliable app for communication in certain countries. Restaurants and nightclubs will give you a chance to book tables with them through the app. Something that you won’t have through other apps or regular SMS text messaging. Telegram is also becoming an option for those types of situations. We could make a similar argument though for Facebook and Instagram!
You have to be very careful though about who you’re giving your number to when you’re abroad. Particularly in certain countries. We had an experience where we were victims of an extortion through WhatsApp. The situation arose from giving out a cell phone number to a hotel trying to contact the lobby. Someone at the lobby used the information to text from another phone saying that they were from a cartel. The whole experience was just dreadful! Therefore, you may want to miss out on the WhatsApp advantages when you take into account the sad disadvantages. Having said this, we want to be optimistic and say that extortions aren’t a common occurrence in every country.
Are my calls going to be safe on these apps?
Online safety has been a topic of major discussion for years. Over the past few years we would argue that it’s become even more popular to tackle this topic. The question that we would pose is, are any of your calls going to be safe? In the cold war days folks were also afraid of using landlines. In reality if you want to get as paranoid as possible all of the calls that you make can be traced in some way! We’re sure that’s not necessarily what you wanted to hear. We could argue though that at least these companies that make apps are supposedly making an effort to encrypt calls and texts. Facebook, or Meta, have advertised the fact that calls and texts through Whatsapp are fully encrypted.
The way that we see it is we understand why certain people may not feel safe on certain apps. You may not like the person behind that app. If you’re one of those people then Zoom may be the best option that you’ve got. Sure, someone can find the code to the meeting and sneak in with some x-rated content. Essentially the peer to peer element is meant to make the contents of the call harder to trace. Whereas in other options communication does run through the servers of a particular company. In short, you’re as safe as can be. Sadly, there are people out there that may want to give you a hard time.
Apps For Calling and Texting – Conclusion
It’s hard to really pick the best overall app. Even though a lot of these apps have very similar features, there are different aspects of the app that may appeal to some people. Usually things like Google Hangouts or even Skype are used more in a business setting. If you want to keep in touch with colleagues, or even clients, these two apps work best because you can link your email contact list to them. If you’re looking for an app to make social calls or texts then even doing so through social media can make more sense. Since, you’ll have your full “friends-list” that you’ll be able to contact directly through these apps.
Apps like WhatsApp and Telegram these days kind of fall right in the middle. In the sense that they are typically used for both personal and professional calls and texts. Of course, the biggest problem that you can encounter is that the person that you’re trying to contact isn’t on these apps. In that case, it’s way more likely that they are, let’s say on Facebook for example. Hopefully we’ve been able to open your eyes to the different options that are out there. So that at the end of the day you’ll be able to pick the best fit for you out of the list of apps for calling and texting.