But its rather large and active user base draws the most attention to make it one of the most popular messaging apps out there. WhatsApp doesn't have a lot of fancy features that are offered by other competing services, and it's often not the first to adapt to the new ones, either. This particular application has a massive user base of over 2.5 billion active users worldwide, and it goes to show just about popular it really is. WhatsApp is completely free-to-use, meaning pretty much anyone with an active SIM card can download the app and start using it over the Internet.

WhatsApp is easily one of the most popular messaging apps out there, and it's simply because it works flawlessly on most Android and iOS devices. Google has publicly called out Apple multiple times for not adopting RCS, but it remains to be seen if/when Apple will add RCS support to iMessage. The only notable omission from iMessage is RCS support, the next-gen text messaging protocol that will eventually replace SMS. With iOS 16, the app has gained several neat tricks, including the ability to edit or completely delete a sent message and mark a conversation as unread.

iMessage also offers all the standard instant messaging features, such as read receipts, end-to-end encryption, voice notes, GIFs, stickers, and more. One of the best things about using iMessage is that it automatically syncs across all your Apple devices, so you can essentially pick up and continue a conversation from your iPhone on your MacBook, iPad, or even Apple Watch. It also supports SMS/MMS fallback, meaning all your iMessages and standard text messages are integrated into a single app no need to use a separate SMS app. Simplicity, ease of use, and seamless integration with the Apple ecosystem are the main strengths of iMessage. IMessage is the default messaging service on Apple devices, and it’s the one that we recommend using if you happen to have an iPhone.

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