There are some great social
networking and communication apps
available for smartphone and tablet
users, and two that are of interest are
LINE and WhatsApp. These are both
extremely popular and are available
for Android and iOS devices from
Google Play or the App Store. We
thought we’d take a look at the Line
app vs. WhatsApp, giving an idea of
what they each have to offer and
evaluating them for 2013 chat. What
we’d really like to know is what
readers think of these apps?
We’ll begin with the LINE app, and this
one is available for both Android and
iOS devices. It offers a good
experience for social networking with
unlimited calling and messaging 24
hours a day, that’s free voice calls
and free messages. LINE is now
available in more than 230 countries
around the world and has over 180
million users. Features include high
quality voice calls, a message
function with icons, photo sharing,
location information, ways to express
yourself with stickers and Emoji, and
much more.
LINE also has a timeline feature and
you can leave messages and
comments, and there are now LINE
official accounts for popular
celebrities, and also money saving
opportunities via coupons. Data
transfer fees may be incurred though
so if you have an unlimited mobile
price plan that’s good news. LINE is a
free app and for Android devices it’s
available from Google Play here. This
is compatible with devices running
Android 2.1 or later. For iOS devices
head to iTunes here. This one is
compatible for iPhone, iPad and iPod
touch running iOS 4.3 or later. Both
the Android and iOS apps have
recently been updated with minor bug
fixes.
Moving on to WhatsApp Messenger,
and this is another app that is highly
rated. As its title suggests this is a
smartphone messaging app, and it
uses 3G or WiFi where available, to
enable you to easily communicate
with family and friends. If you switch
from SMS to WhatsApp you get the
first year free and it’s then $0.99
yearly afterwards. Once you’ve
downloaded the app, chat is unlimited
and there are no hidden costs. You
can send photos, videos and voice
notes to your contacts and enjoy group
chat, and there are also no
international charges if your friends
are also using the WhatsApp
Messenger app.
WhatsApp integrates with your
existing phone address book and
there’s no need to log in and out as
you are always connected. If you
miss a push notification, messages
can be saved offline for later retrieval,
and other features include location
sharing, contact exchange, custom
wallpaper, custom notification sounds
and much more. The Android
WhatsApp Messenger app is available
free from Google Play here and is
compatible with devices running
Android 2.1 or later. WhatsApp for iOS
devices is available from iTunes here
priced at $0.99. It’s compatible with
iPhones running iOS 4.3 or later.
Taking a look through user reviews of
these apps we can see that both apps
have a lot of fans. LINE for Android
manages a rating of 4.1 stars while
WhatsApp attains an extremely high
4.6 star rating. Many of the comments
about LINE have a lot of positive
things to say about the stickers
available. Looking at comments for
WhatsApp reveals that many also
people love this app. However, in
reviewing comments from the last few
days it seems that there are some
complaints about the app crashing
lately and some iOS users regret that
the app cannot be used with the iPad
or iPod touch.
We’d like to gauge opinion about LINE
vs. WhatsApp by asking readers to get
involved. If you use either of these
apps, what do you think about it?
Maybe you’ve used both apps but
have settled on your favorite? If so,
which do you prefer? Let us know with
your comments.
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