Exactly my thoughts. Besides, one does not live on an island and use the phone to communicate with other people and it happens that almost all the other people use one or two of those three services, so it's almost like an obligation to have them. Heck, in my country, Whatsapp is so popular that telcos, electricity, water and gas companies have a "whatsapp number" as an added channel for customer care. Radios and TV channels also receive voice and text messages via whatsapp and is very common to listen on the radio things like "wanna contact us? call us at xxx-xx-xx or send us a message to our whatsapp at zzz-zz-zz". Anyway, whatsapp may not be the best thing...not by far, but since everybody has it...
Google also has it's problems with privacy! Still better then whatsup, the problem is that there is still quite few users on other os like wp and ios and hangout won't work there I believe.
I do not seek extra privacy while using the internet simply because it is an open network, so I cannot recommend an SMS app in response to your query. I will add that I have since ditched Textnow because I could not tolerate their horrible flashing, flickering ads that make it hard to use. Instead I now use textPlus Gold and it is serving me quite well.
Ohh alright.. been looking for an app that could replace my text messaging app. I still use text because it's much more reliable, internet connection here sucks so bad. 3rd world countries.
Another alternative IRC probably no one here heard about it there's android irc so you can use it on your phone. I also use BBM sometimes
I'll never used Viber, WhatsAPP or similar. This one sounds not too commercial, yet. I'll try it out. Thanks.
Viber has the best sound quality, but lately has been some issues with calls durations, it drops sometimes after just five minutes. Tango was really good, had video as well, but now just does not work at all, tried two different phones, same issue. Whastupp works pretty well but has not privacy, the problem is that people are just pretty much using it, even forgetting sms or email for somethings.
Threema is now €2.49 (and rising, thanx to What'sUp, it seems... )... FOrget myEnigma, btw - they send nothing... grrrr....
I don't want to scare somebody nor I am scared nor do I want to blame what's app... I want people be aware that what's app has been acquired for 18 billion and is available for free!!!! Up to everybody to think about how that fits to an encryption/privacy.... I mean what would be left (to sale) if nobody of them could decrypt the contents anymore?! And if they can who else can? It is just common sense...
