Instant messengers in 2024

17.04.2024, to see all post click here.

Like everyone else right now I have about 30 different apps for messaging in my phone, each has its drawbacks and uses, so I thought I would write a bit how I use them.

iMessage

This seems nice and well integrated. I have about 3 people that actually use them, otherwise I only occasionally use them to send them live photos as it is the only messaging that keeps the video in.

I try not to rely on iMessages at all as they completely break down whenever I get a new travel sim. That is usually a first thing I would do when traveling to non european country. At that point all my conversations break down. This can be solved by sending the iMessages from @icloud account but in practise it does not work well.

Messenger

In my opinion the most reliable and useful. Most of my friends are available there and it works without issues. It has a good support on the web so I use it around 90% of the time.

Whatsapp

Super useful for travel. If I need to stay in contact with some random person I met in a bar in Thailand I will give them my whatsapp as I can block them easily and there is not much of information they can dig on me from that account.

Most business will also prefer whatsapp to any other communication platform and its quite convenient to arrange car rental and similar services.

Telegram

Nobody but russian and russian bots uses this. I like the UI but overall as a platform it has a zero functionality for me.

Signal

I only have 2 friends there and I find it a bit annoying so mostly I dont use it. The lack of a good web interface makes this almost impossible for me.

Matrix

I would like everybody to use it but nobody does...