Staying in touch

[049] ... [Internet]

We can't do without a messaging app these days, since email has turned passe for normal exchanges. With Internet charges having come down, everyone wants to do it quick. It's more instant without the log-in hassles, sending photos and files is a breeze, you can message, communicate through audio or video modes, form groups & channels, and so many more reasons that makes it a necessity for a company executive or right down to your housemaid.

I have tried many of them, starting with the most widely used--never mind its name, it's easy to guess. It was OK in the beginning to be in touch with all, be a part of a group, but turned to quite a bit of irritation on seeing the way it's misused than serving as a tool for spaced personal communication. Receiving all kinds of junk through the day, the same on all the groups of school, college or family makes it a full-time job, deleting from the chat and gallery. You can't say No to such and nor there's a way to block them as spam in email. I was looking for a way out since leaving a group gets announced and many don't like it. Luckily the end of support for my previous phone model came to aid, and I could do it with an assurance of joining back with a new supporting device. That I never went back is another thing which I never regret. You hardly miss anything, and there are many other modes to say hello.

I later tried many. Of course you need to have contacts on them to be useful, and a friend who, though sticking to the other well-known, has been sportive to try whatever new I came across. From the similarly working to those which work in real-time end-to-end without a server coming in between to store the exchanges, we had a go at so many. For some reason we moved away from all, and after discovering HalloApp through an article have stuck to it since an year. I found it a bit different if not totally from others. You can share Moments which, like Status on other platforms disappear after a day. Only, rather than a penny-sized click-to-enlarge image, it gets displayed in a large size on the home screen. You can also Post text, audio or photos that act like Feeds, again on the home screen to be optionally seen by just the selected favorites or all the contacts using the app. The feeds stays put for a month and get moved to Archive or can be removed individually any time before. Encrypted chats and AV calls work well, and there's no nagging on contribution, or Ads or sharing your data with third-parties. The interface looks youngish and the orange and dark gray looks pleasing in dark mode.

Of course, the choice is individual, but I felt the app, though seemingly not very popular yet, deserves a mention whether on Android or iPhone. It hardly matters if there's no web version, which in my opinion defeats privacy since messages stored on the server appear on desktop even if deleted within the fortnight of sending on the phone...