#Text messaging apps on a mac android#
#Text messaging apps on a mac plus#

#Text messaging apps on a mac plus#

In fact, the Skype privacy policy says it “may use automated scanning within Instant Messages and SMS” and that “in limited instances, Skype may capture and manually review instant messages or SMS.”Įxtras: Video chat, telephony, calling and sending SMS messages to real phones, plus the frustration that only a truly convoluted UI can bring. If they go via Skype’s servers, then they use TLS, but only “between your Skype client and the chat service in our cloud.” This means the messages can be read by Microsoft. If the messages go direct from peer to peer, then they get AES end-to-end encryption. Privacy/security: Skype says that it encrypts messages, but in one of two ways. However, once you’re up and running with a group chat, you can take part on iOS. Group messaging: This is a pain to set up, and you need a Mac to do it. How it handles photos: You can send pictures on the iOS version of the app, and any kind of file from the desktop. How it handles text: Plain Jane text on both Mac and iOS. From the iPhone through the BlackBerry (remember those?) to your home phone or even your TV, Skype is almost literally everywhere. In-app signup can also be done with a Microsoft account (Microsoft owns Skype), and Web signups can use a Facebook ID.ĭevices it works with: All of them. How you sign up: Create an account on the Web or from within the Skype app. Skype: not just for phone calls and bad UI design. The problem is that Skype is for phone calls, which means that, if you leave it switched on for messages, you’ll get a ton of folks bugging you for a video chat. And seeing as everyone you know is already on there, it’s not a bad choice. You might just think of Skype as being for video chats, or telephone calls, but it also does messaging.

#Text messaging apps on a mac android#

However, it also stores its database on the SD card of Android phones, giving any app access to it, and it keeps the contents of your address book so it can match up your contacts with its own list of users.Įxtras: You can easily share your location or a contact from your address book, and you can also record and send short voice messages and listen to them inline (this is coming to iMessages in iOS 8). Privacy/security: WhatsApp’s FAQ say that the service encrypts messages between users. The difference is that replies to a group are seen by all group members, but replies to a broadcast are only seen by you. You can also make a Broadcast, which sends the same message to a particular group of people all at once. Only the person who started a group can add new members (members can leave at any time). Group messaging: You can set up as many as 50 groups.