When it comes to easy ways of communicating with your loved ones, applications like Skype and WhatsApp instantly pop into mind. The ease of access they provide coupled with the sheer efficiency coming from these apps make them fan favorites and also industry leader. They come from different backgrounds (quite opposite actually) but they’ve both ended up in the same place, which is everywhere. Let’s take a closer look and see what the differences are in this instant message app showdown.
Backgrounds
Skype is iconic software that has its inception story way before the first mobile app was ever even designed, or had a platform to be designed for. Microsoft’s Skype service served as a solid solution for getting messages across quickly and efficiently. When the mobile app craze started, Microsoft felt it was necessary to establish a presence in the newly discovered territory and that’s how we ended up with Skype’s mobile version.
WhatsApp is a completely different story. It started out as a mobile app that became insanely popular and ended up being purchased by Facebook for billions of dollars. While it has its roots and also the majority of its fan base on the mobile platform, WhatsApp now also features a desktop version that people can fire up and use in their browsers. The desktop version is called WhatsApp Web.
Video messaging
Video chats are an iconic feature that carries on from the early Skype days. People recognize Skype as one of the first services that allowed them to see the person they were talking to from a very long distance. This hasn’t changed with the mobile app and users are still able to get some face time value with the trusty Skype app.
WhatsApp is dabbling in video but in a different manner. WhatsApp’s strength when it comes to videos is the fact that it lets user’s stream video content as its being downloaded in a message. This means that WhatsApp allows its consumers to preview and fully experience a file before it’s completely stored on the receiving phone. A lot of time is saved in the process especially if users are trying to watch a lot of video files in a row.
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