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One of the most important features of iOS 5 was iMessage for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch that gave users a simple way to send messages, photos, and videos to their friends with iOS devices. iMessage is a great way to communicate and certainly the one, which is preferred by most iOS users. Although Apple released iMessage for the Mac in Mountain Lion other major mobile and desktop platforms are unsupported yet, which makes iMessage limited to Apple’s ecosystem only. However there are some good iMessage alternatives available that provide cross-platform chat experience to the users and enable them to chat with their friends with Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, and other devices. Here is the list of some good services available to iOS users.
WhatsApp is an internet based messaging service available on multiple mobile platforms and is a great iMessage alternative. In recent years it has posed a loss of $17 billion dollar to the wireless carriers internationally according to one study at it allows users to send local and international messages for free. It has many attractive features, like sending and receiving of unlimited texts, video and audio clips, pictures, geographical location, etc to a recipient or a group of people. WhatsApp can work on Windows Phone, iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Series 40. It costs only $0.99 to download it from the App Store.
Download Whatsapp
Facebook Messenger
Facebook is good for a number of reasons. Firstly anyone can use it even if he or she does not has a smartphone. Secondly most people are already members of Facebook so even if they don’t have it installed on their smartphone they can still receive and reply to your messages using social network’s site. These days most of the people have Facebook account, and also Facebook has designed messengers especially for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, and Windows Phones so you can chat with anyone you want. Most recently, you do not even need to login to your Facrbook account for messenger usage as you just need to enter your phone number and can enjoy the services of the Facebook messenger. It is available for free.
Download Facebook Messenger
Viber
Viber undertakes all features of WhatsApp, like group chat, texting, photo and video sharing etc but adds others as well. The messenger also comes with a really useful feature of Viber to Viber free calls. So with Viber you can also enjoy free calls over long distances. Unlike the iMessage app Viber is available on major mobile platforms including Android and Windows Phone. On BlackBerry, Symbian and Bada OS, the messenger has limited messaging. It is absolutely free of cost and features excellent voice quality. Viber is available for free in the App Store.
Download Viber
KiK Messenger
KiK is another way of internet messaging and a great alternative for iMessage as it works on Windows Phones, iOS, Android, BalackBerry OS and even Symbian. Along with group chats, video and photo sharing, messaging, etc, it has an additional feature of KiK cards. These cards can let you use other services like Bing Image Search and YouTube. KiK is a fast, simple and easy to use service with some really nice feature. It is available in the App Store for free.
Download KiK
ChatON
Samsung released its iMessage and Whatsapp competitor on multiple platforms including the iOS. It has a few extra features which are not present in other messengers like sending and receiving of manually drawn messages, contact information, animations, calendar entries, ranking of people present in your list based on your interaction with them and commenting their profiles with “Buddies Say”. The service can be used from browser as well by opening the dedicated ChatON site Samsung launched a little while ago. ChatON is a free service and available on Android and iOS for free.
Download ChatON
