Here at TruTower we have quite possibly the most in-depth list of messaging apps available on the internet today. There are hundreds of these types of services, all vying for a piece of the social pie.
We know about the bigger ones — WhatsApp, WeChat, Skype, and LINE are among the biggest and the few we’ll name here — but for the sake of this article, I’d like to spend some time focusing on some of the smaller, more innovative additions to the space, many of which we’ve covered on TruTower before.
One of my favorites is Pinnatta (pronounced like Piñata). While not a standard messaging app per se, Pinnatta offers up a fun way to send interactive greeting cards, personalized video and animated messages to your friends and family. And when I say “interactive” I mean fully interactive — the app lets you blow, tap, swipe, drag, rub and shake your device to make your messages do things, and they’ll do different things depending on the content of the message.
For example, let’s say you have a birthday cake card in the app that you want to send to another user on his or her birthday. They can really blow out the candles. There’s even a creepy window through which a ghost suddenly appears when it’s tapped.
Read also: Truly Interactive Messaging Gets Spooky on Pinnatta, Just in Time for Halloween
There’s more to see in Pinnatta. Browse among tons of ready-to-use designs and select the one that perfectly matches your needs. They can be fully personalized with voice messages, photos, or text before you send them to your family or friends. Pinnatta is available on Android and iOS.
The next favorite on my list is lettrs. lettrs is a simple app that seeks to bring back the long-lost art of actually writing your messages, giving them that personal touch that a digital text-based message lacks.
The lettrs network spans 80 languages across 170 countries. With letters, it’s all about keeping your messages more personal. Features of the app include:
- Write or voice dictate your message
- Personalize with themes, fonts, and SocialStamps created by renowned designers
- Make your mark™ with an authentic signature or doodle
- Add tags, photos, and location
- Send & share via SMS, email, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, & LinkedIn
- Interact with celeb & branded stamps to win promos & contests
- Participate in weekly writing contests for social shout-outs & prizes
- Become a weekly featured writer
- Message with global influencers like Paulo Coelho, Izabella Miko, Michelle Phan, & United Way
- Chance to receive an authentic message and signature from your favorite celebs
lettrs has recently established partnerships with high-profile brandssuch as Paulo Coelho, the USO, Aspen Institute, and the United Way to bring mobile messaging to the next level of personalization and social media potential. The app also recently launched a “Woman of Note” stamp collection that spotlights, well, women of note. You can find lettrs on Android, iOS, and Amazon devices.
Finally, I can’t end my short list of “smaller” favorites without mentioning Zello. Like Voxer, Zello connects users utilizing push to talk technology. Zello works over 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi networks. Unlike other PTT or, as they’re sometimes called, “Walkie Talkie” apps, the Zello software can also be used with existing 2-way radios along with mobile devices that have Zello downloaded. Most people don’t use 2-way radios in today’s market and it’s true that Voxer is a better choice overall for the average consumer, but for anyone who’s looking for an all-voice all the time approach to group messaging, Zello is hard to beat.
Zello PTT also allows up to 300 users through its unique “channels” feature to simultaneously chat with real-time, high-definition voice transmission.
It’s also widely accessible. Zello is currently available for Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and web browsers, putting Zello into a unique position that allows users to take advantage of any platform they choose. It’s all about constant, complete choice.
These three apps are just a few of the innovative messaging apps out there. They have some of the smallest user counts, but it’s always nice to take a step out of Tango and other behemoths for a moment and give yourself a different experience. What messaging apps do you use beyond the bigger guys? Let us know in the comments below, in the forums or on our social networks!