10 Best Instant Messaging Platforms For Your Business!
“Instant messaging platform has opened enormous doors and opportunities for the next era of communication”
Well, none can deny it as ever since technology evolved and new advancements were made in every sector, the communication process also revolutionized to such an extent that it looked like an optical illusion on a desert.
And particularly post the pandemic when things were going haywire, instant messaging apps also known by many as IM apps saw their popularity. From taking over business’s internal communication on a positive note to seamless marketplace interactions to dedicated e-learning programs, IM platforms became intense.
Not just the fact that it would ease the difficulties of emails and faxes for an instant response but also greatly aids in collaboration.
Now, the common question that arises among us What is an instant messenger? Which one do I need for my business? And what are all the primary features of an instant messaging program? Is there free instant messaging for business?
Thus, in the post below, let us understand the top-performing corporate instant messaging apps of this year.
Before anything, it is time for vocabulary.
Table of Contents
What do you mean by instant messaging?
Instant messaging (IM) refers to text-based communication between two or more people in real time when using a chat service or app. This is one of the most commonly preferred types of non-verbal communication across the globe.
And, Instant messaging platform is the chat service or app where people converse with each other.
What is an Instant Messaging Platform?
Instant messaging or simply IM is a communication mode that helps two or more users to connect with each other in real-time for to and fro conversations. Usually, an IM platform is known for establishing P2P connections powered by AIM messenger.
Due to its faster and quicker response benefit, around 8 billion instant messaging accounts existed in the year 2022. Amazing does it sound right? All thanks to its features like group chats, group calls, conferencing, screen sharing, file sharing, and sturdy encryption which were positives for its usage.
Finally, understanding that there is growth in this sector, many companies started to build chat apps from scratch, missing the point that it may be time-consuming and difficult. However, very few caught hold of the integration of the chat features concept using an API.
Some of the instant messaging Platform examples for individuals include WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, etc. But for business communications, instant messaging APIs and apps play a vital role.
Especially businesses focused on integrating chat APIs to build business instant messaging platforms and tools. They also added messaging features that make enterprise instant messaging easier.
Types Of Instant Messaging
There are two types of instant messaging: application-based and web-based. Application-based instant messaging software is installed on the user’s computer, and examples include Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, Windows Live Messenger, and Rediff Bol.
Web-based instant messaging tools, on the other hand, doesn’t require downloading or installation. Users can access it through a web browser and typically log in to their messaging accounts on websites provided by the service, like Facebook Messenger or web-based versions of other popular messaging apps.
Key Features Of Instant Messaging
The four key features of instant messaging are:
- Online Presence/ User Availability: Instant messaging platforms often incorporate presence technology, allowing users to check the availability of their contacts in real-time. This feature shows whether a contact is online, away, busy, or offline, making it easier to decide when to initiate a conversation.
- Images and Emojis: Many instant messaging clients and customer messaging platforms allow users to enhance their messages by inserting images, emojis, stickers, and other multimedia elements. This feature helps users express themselves more creatively and emotionally in their conversations..
- File Transfer: Instant messaging applications enable users to send and receive files, such as documents, images, videos, and audio clips. This feature simplifies sharing information and media content with others during a chat.
- Switching to Other Communication Modes: Instant messaging often integrates with other communication modes, such as voice and video calls. Users can seamlessly transition from a text conversation to a voice or video call when needed, making it a versatile and comprehensive communication tool.
These features enhance the convenience and richness of instant messaging, allowing users to connect and communicate in various ways with their contacts.
How Safe Is Instant Messaging?
Instant messaging can have security risks, and it’s important to be cautious:
Privacy: Instant messaging conversations may not always be private or secure. Many IM programs lack encryption, so someone with access to the network could potentially eavesdrop on your conversations.
Sensitive Data: It’s not advisable to discuss sensitive or confidential information through instant messaging, especially on computers with sensitive data. Avoid installing IM applications on such devices.
File Sharing: Be cautious with file-sharing through instant messaging, as this can introduce security vulnerabilities. Ensure files are scanned for malware before sharing them.
To enhance the safety of your instant messaging communications, consider using secure messaging apps or platforms that offer end-to-end encryption, and be mindful of the information you share and the devices you use for IM.
Let us see the top enterprise and corporate instant messaging platforms below.
Best IM Platforms For Business Communications
Instant messaging is a way to chat with people online in real-time using text, either one-on-one or in group chat rooms, over the internet or other networks like local area networks (LAN).
Some of the few listed below offer free trials whereas others are known for exceptional requisites. Starting our top picks with,
1. Signal
A completely free chat platform to use for instantaneous communication around the world, Signal is a prominent provider among millions of users. From sending and receiving high-fidelity business instant message to engaging in HD-quality video calls to multiple numbers of features, Signal proves to be the best in every use case.
Along with this, Signal also supports advanced privacy features and collaboration techniques.
Features:
- Private/group voice & video calls
- Instant messaging
- Group chat
- In-app payments
- Push notifications
Location: Signal has users from different parts of the world, with a strong presence in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Use Cases: Signal provides secure communication solutions to various industries, including healthcare, finance, government, and education.
2. Rocket.Chat
From countless collaboration features to high-end security protocols to offering a seamless user experience, rocket. chat is growing to outshine itself as a popular instant messaging platform for businesses to communicate internally.
Initially started as a remote-based firm, they understand what features best suit a remote team. Further to help teams easily connect with other peers, they have prebuilt traits like threads, channels, groups, and more. If you do not know then let us tell you that rocket. chat is an open-source portal and so, anyone can customize chats according to their needs and preferences.
Features:
- Instant messaging
- Audio and video calls
- File sharing
- Video conferencing
- End-to-end encryptions
Location: Rocket.Chat has users worldwide, with a strong presence in South America, Europe, and Asia.
Use Cases: Rocket.Chat provides enterprise instant messaging solutions to industries like education, healthcare, government, and finance.
3. MS Teams
Yet another IM solution provider that is known well across the world for offering top team chat app facilities, is proven to be beneficial only for MS Teams users. Because they get teams for free and even look over to the collaboration part, they stand strong within its product limits.
What’s annoying is that when compared to other competitors in the market, their collaboration or communication features are restricted to only a few. Thus, many try other alternatives to MS Teams.
Features:
- Screen sharing
- Instant messaging
- Team meetings
- Voice & video calls
- Push notifications
Location: MS Teams has users worldwide, with a strong presence in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Use Cases: MS Teams provides collaboration solutions to various industries, including healthcare, education, finance, and government.
4. Slack
Come on guys! Who does not know slack? It is the most synonymous and alternate term for the instant messaging platform. The reason is from offering dedicated channels and groups for internal project discussions to collaboration features for easy understanding to an intuitive and flexible user interface, Slack is swirling in the minds of people as a preferred option.
However, we often notice data security concerns concerning Slack and this main cause has led its peers and competitors to take hold of the market share.
Features
- Instant messaging
- Third-party integrations
- Team collaboration tools
- In-app notifications
- Privacy regulations compatible with HIPAA and GDPR
Location: Slack has users worldwide, with a strong presence in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Use Cases: Slack provides communication and collaboration solutions to various industries, including technology, media, finance, and e-commerce.
5. Glip
Next up on the link is an instant chat app created by RingCentral. Glip is known for its chatting capabilities, group calls, event schedule, and screen-sharing features that are all top-notch and captivating to the eye. Further, using this app often leads to improved productivity, says businesses. How does it achieve this? The answer to this can be found only after analyzing it.
Additionally, they support third-party integrations meaning that users who are into other messaging platforms can very well adapt to this via simple integrations.
Features:
- Instant messaging service
- Multi-platform support
- Team collaboration tools
- End-to-end encrypted
Location: Glip has users worldwide, with a strong presence in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Use Cases: Glip provides communication and collaboration solutions to various industries, including healthcare, finance, and technology.
6. Flock
As goes with the name, this IM platform groups together all individuals in one place effortlessly with its communication and collaboration features. Their traits or so-called exquisites are known to boost productivity, keep the user focused on tasks, and offer help for remote teams.
Just like Glip, Flock supports third-party integrations aiding users to connect to their desired apps.
Features:
- Instant messaging service
- Multi-platform support
- Team collaboration tools
- End-to-end encrypted
Location: Flock has users worldwide, with a strong presence in India, the United States, and Europe.
Use Cases: Flock provides communication and collaboration solutions to various industries, including healthcare, finance, and technology.
Most Promising Instant Messaging Platforms Loved By Customers
Did you know that many businesses are drawn toward instant messaging software from customer-oriented apps? And, the ones we have listed below are all the leading platforms with multiple accounts in each category.
Recommended Reading
7. Telegram
Considered to be a real-time messaging platform, Telegram is a solution that offers seamless communication and security features to users with its modern app design. From engaging in single chats to conference calling to sharing screens, this chat platform is indeed making way for many people around the globe.
Plus, standing top on our list as the best and most secure software, this particular app is said to be prevalent in any country and region.
Features:
- Private and group Instant messaging
- Push notifications
- Auto-translation services
- File sharing
- Voice & video calls
Location: Telegram has users worldwide, with a strong presence in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
Use Cases: Telecom provides communication solutions to various industries, including media, finance, and e-commerce.
8. WeChat
A popular chat platform in China, this app is named to be China’s Super app because in addition to the collaboration and communication features that it holds, they also offer video game facilities to users.
Features:
- Instant messaging service
- Push notifications
- Private or group voice & video calls
- File sharing
- AES-128 security standards
Location: WeChat has users primarily in China and Southeast Asia.
Use Cases: WeChat provides communication and e-commerce solutions to various industries, including finance, education, and healthcare.
9. Facebook Messenger
Everyone is aware of the Facebook Messenger app, from instant and quick messaging to creating groups for both professional and personal grounds and calling facilities, FaceBook is a parent product for all other messaging platforms. There are a billion users using FB to date.
Features:
- Buyer seller chat
- Instant messaging
- Feeds and stories promotions
- In-app payments
- Voice & Video calls
Location: Facebook Messenger has users worldwide, with a strong presence in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Use Cases: Facebook Messenger provides communication and customer service solutions to various industries, including e-commerce/ marketplace, finance, and healthcare.
10. WhatsApp
WhatsApp is the world’s most popular social messaging app, with over 2 billion users worldwide. It is the best instant messaging platform that can be used in day -to-day life.
From popularizing unique encryption standards to adding extra features to making it a user-friendly tool, WhatsApp developers found it mountain-challenging for creating the best-known personal and professional messaging platforms.
Features:
- Instant messaging service
- Broadcast messaging
- Whatsapp status
- Business catalog
- Audio & video calls
Location: WhatsApp has users worldwide, with a strong presence in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
Use Cases: WhatsApp provides communication solutions to various industries, including finance, e-commerce, gaming, transportation, logistics and healthcare.
What is the benefit of Instant Messaging in Business Communication?
The prime benefit of any instant messaging app is the ability to help people communicate with each other in real-time. Additionally, IM tools ease the process of file sharing, mentions, status sharing, status settings, and other capabilities.
These features that are described above can be used for both business and casual purposes. However, to dig deeper into answering why is IM platform beneficial for business communication, here’s a breakdown:
- Boosting Team Collaboration
As per a recent percentile, it is proven that over 86% of employees and executives lack collaboration capacity thus leading to workplace failures. Thus, many organizations must realize the fact that collaboration is the prime aspect of any team’s success, be it productivity or meeting deadlines.
- Fostering Productivity
If your employees are given an instant messaging tool or platform to help communicate and collaborate on the topics they face difficulty with, then ultimately their productivity rises by shortening the period in each project.
A report shows that over 25% of organizations succeed in productivity rates whose employees are well connected.
- Improving Employee Engagement
If employees can connect with each other well in discussing their work parameters and strategies, then it results in improved employee engagement. Further, the availability of bots in instant messaging platforms can help employees pose and get answers to different questions making them engaged with the platform.
- Eases Remote Working
Asynchronous real-time communication helps coworkers to connect and collaborate with ease via instant messaging apps. These apps can render flexibility in team communication even when they reside in different time zones and locations.
- Strengthens Company Grounds
Employees who love the quality of their work seem to be a lot more attached, and you can even bring it to your business by adding instant messaging platforms and creating channels in it for employees to connect on both business and professional grounds.
This small tiny step can help your employee’s retention levels in the organization.
- Highly-liked by Gen Z Groups
Gone are the days when managers used to call employees to discuss project matters because with the multiple features and benefits that instant messaging platform offers, many new millennials and gen Z groups are more attracted to tools that boost collaboration and communication in good ways.
Because a recent survey shows that over 75% of employees love to exchange instant messages rather than getting engaged in calls.
How to choose the right instant messaging solution?
Looking at the various instant messaging platforms above, you may seem a little precipitated on which to choose. Below, we will list a few features to help you select the best one without giving it a second thought.
They are:
- Secured encryption protocols and standards
- Unique collaboration features like recording, screen sharing, and file attachments
- Ready-to-use UI kits and push notifications
- Delivery and read receipts in addition to chat moderation features
- Search history and multi-tenancy option
If you find a platform with all the above-mentioned, you can give it a tick.
Build A Secure Instant Messaging App With MirrorFly!
With MirrorFly’s chat SDKs, building an instant messaging app with the features you wish to include and customize is quite simple. From offering exquisite features like scalability, analytics, and moderation to keeping our pricing parameters affordable, our APIs go above and beyond satisfying every business need.
Plus, you may find the top features that we have devised under SaaS & Self-hosted categories.
Here’s what you get with our SaaS Model:
1. Video, Voice & Chat APIs
2. Effortless Pre-built UI Kits
3. Flexible monthly and yearly plans
4. Safe and secure Cloud hosting
Our Self-hosted Chat API Plans give you:
1. Whitelabel chat solution to rebrand our APIs as you wish to
2. 100% customizable features & get complete ownership at a one-time license fee
3. Hire a dedicated team & experience comprehensive assistance
See, MirrorFly can come of great help in building custom apps for your businesses. In case you agree with us and wish to travel along, contact us to request for a quick demo for a detailed analysis.
Get Started with MirrorFly’s Instant Chat Features Today!
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Instant messaging platforms are used to facilitate real-time communications among users over the internet. Enterprises, professionals, and consumers see Instant messaging as a faster and more reliable way of communicating than email. Users can facilitate instant messaging from any device with the right platform.
Yes,Here are 5 popular instant messaging apps: 1. WhatsApp 2. Telegram 3. Signal 4. Messenger 5. WeChat
WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging service globally, with more than 2 billion active users. It provided instant messaging services with enriched features and facilitated real-time communication with voice and video features. WeChat has grabbed second place with 1.2 billion active users, and Facebook Messenger has grabbed third place with 990 million active users.
There are two types of instant messaging software. Application-based software Web-based software. Application-based software requires you to download and install software on your device, Such as WhatsApp, Viber, Line, etc. Web-based Software requires you to sign in directly to the web, such as Google Chat, Slack, Microsoft Teams, etc.
Instant messaging software is end-to-end encrypted. But it is recommended not to use your system, mobile, or email ID password to log in, considering your own safety. And never share any sensitive credentials, such as credit card details, OTPs, or bank-related sensible content. As instant messaging software is end-to-end encrypted, you will never know to whom it is being forwarded.
Yes, Instant messaging is private. Every message you send or receive is end-to-end encrypted, which simply means that only the sender and receiver can see the messages. Hence, instant messaging is completely private.
Instant messaging has reached enormous heights over the years, with yet more to come in the future. The future of instant messaging facilitates voice and video calls, high-quality pictures, and artificial intelligence features like image editing, automated replies, face swapping, etc.
Related Articles:
- 10 Best Self-Hosted Chat Platforms Reviews To Try In 2024
- Top 10 Business Instant Messaging Software in 2024
- How does a chat solution help IT projects?
- How To Build a Real-Time Chat App for iOS and Android?
Vigneshwar is a seasoned digital marketer and blogger, extremely passionate about driving search engine visibility for websites. He thoroughly enjoys exploring emerging technologies and is currently honing his expertise in Chat APIs and their associated tech stacks.
hi,
Nice article, How can I choose the instant messaging apps for my personal use, can you recommend anything?
Hi Shelpa,
Evaluate instant messaging apps based on factors like security, user interface, and features. Consider the preferences of your contacts and the app’s popularity. Popular choices include WhatsApp for widespread use, Signal for privacy, and Telegram for features and mirrorfly for custmoizable solution, roackt.chat for real-time fetures. Try a couple to find the best fit for your personal communication needs.
hello,
if it possible! Can you recommend an instant messaging software with excellent team collaboration features? So that I can choose the perfect one.
Hi Rein,
Certainly! Microsoft Teams is a robust instant messaging software with excellent team collaboration features. It integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365, offering chat, file sharing, video conferencing, and collaboration on documents. Slack is another popular choice known for its intuitive interface, extensive integrations, and efficient team communication tools, making it a strong recommendation for team collaboration.
Hi,
I just acrossed your blog, it was quite nice. can you clear me that which instant messaging platform is best for large group chats and communities?
Hello Niranjana,
For large group chats and communities, MirrorFly stands out as an excellent choice. It offers powerful moderation tools, customizable, secure and features channels for broadcasting to unlimited audiences. Its scalability, along with diverse features, makes MirrorFly a top recommendation for managing extensive group communication and communities.
Your article gave me a lot of inspiration, I hope you can explain your point of view in more detail, because I have some doubts, thank you.
Sure Gevin, will be done it
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