Gadgetory

once Facebook's acquisition of whatsapp completes the company will have to instant messaging services at its disposal which of the two is better which client should you be using I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is whatsapp versus Facebook messenger chances are if you have a smartphone you've dabbled in one of the dozens of popular instant messaging clients kik WeChat bbm Google Hangouts apples iMessage Facebook Messenger what's up etc in February Facebook caught the tech world by surprise and purchased whatsapp for a staggering nineteen billion dollars in total but Facebook already has its own inbuilt instant messaging system Facebook Messenger and it already acquired a group messaging service Beluga in 2011 still why it wanted whatsapp is blatantly clear world domination at least by a social means the question now is which of Facebook's instant messaging clients is better what to each have to offer and which of the two should you be using Facebook Messenger is the client many of us here in the States are more familiar with Facebook being the incredibly popular service it is gives us a dozen reasons why we should use it over practically everything else but it isn't perfect what's F is incredibly popular in the eastern world and doesn't have nearly the same sort of user base stateside so first and foremost it's important to realize which is more popular in your region of the world and which service all of your friends are to use it's a lot easier to use what everyone else is using rather than trying to convince all your friends to use some client they've never heard of admittedly prior to doing some research before making this video I was not a user of whatsapp I had avoided it for its antiquated interface and because so few of my friends or users once you dig past the surface however whatsapp begins to shine set up as a breeze open the app for the first time enter your own telephone number and let it take care of the rest it will send a text to your phone and automatically confirm your number into your name as you want it to appear and you're done other whatsapp users are automatically populated from your existing contacts lists meaning all of your friends who are currently using whatsapp will automatically appear in your list of friends provided you have their mobile number this is where we sort of have a problem with whatsapp however you cannot simply start a chat with someone if you know their number you only way to begin a chat with someone is to add a number to your phone as a contact in your address book it's a minor gripe but a gripe and the less once you begin a chat it's business as usual messages are sent immediately you get symptom read receipts and you can send media we'll get into the inner workings of whatsapp in a second Facebook Messenger provided you're already a Facebook user is also quite simple to setup you can use Facebook Messenger in two ways either through a Facebook app or through the dedicated application if you're logged in to the official Facebook app logging into Facebook Messenger is as simple as confirming you want to continue with the same account you're immediately taken to your inbox where all your previous conversations are aggregated you can compose a new message with practically anyone on Facebook by hitting the compose button at the bottom of the screen of course friends are suggested first but scrolling down the list will reveal other people who fit the query again once you're in a chat it's quite the same messages are sent and received immediately and you're given sent and received receipts as well visually facebook Messenger and whatsapp are a good bit different Facebook Messenger was recently given a visual overhaul and it looks surprisingly nice and simple a white background a Facebook blue bubble for sent messages and a light gray bubble for received messages whatsapp isn't hideous but it definitely looks like it's stuck in the late 2010 era of UI design it's over developed and packed with frivolous features like wallpapers they're nice for customizing the experience if that's your sort of thing but the Android app at the very least is in need of a slight facelift the iOS app recently received one and looks notably better the other major difference in user experience is chat heads when you receive a new message in whatsapp you must stop what you're doing and open the app to fully read and respond to the message no big deal that's usually the case with almost any app but last year Facebook introduced chat heads on Android when you receive a new message a circular icon will pop up above the current app you're in tap the icon and the chat will expand atop the current app tap the head again and it minimizes if you no longer need the floating chat head flick it towards the bottom of the screen and it will close you can disable the chat heads feature in settings what's HAP on the other hand has a laundry list of utterly useful and awesome chat features you can attach pictures videos eclipse location pins contacts and a boatload of emoji to your messages the maximum file size is around 12 megabytes and whatsapp will automaticaly compress files sent at the expense of quality inside Facebook messenger you can also attach images in emoji no video and within whatsapp and Facebook Messenger you can record short audio cuts for a bit by bit voice conversation or sort of integrated voice mail whatsapp voice messages were of notably better quality Facebook messenger also comes with support for stickers additional packs can be downloaded if you so desire one of the neatest features of whatsapp is the ability to email entire conversations for safekeeping however there is no cross device support since your whatsapp account isn't tied to an identity but rather a number so for someone like me who carries two smartphones every day conversations are not synced across devices in fact as far as whatsapp is concerned I'm effectively using two separate whatsapp accounts with facebook Messenger you can't email yourself a log of your conversations outside manually copying and pasting them into an email but you do have cross-device sync and access from the web which is a huge feature for someone who spends a lot of time behind a computer finally support what's app supports blackberry Android iOS Windows Phone and Symbian Facebook Messenger is available on android iOS and Windows Phone as well as some feature phones for any basic users neither of these will likely be better than the other the feature sets are very similar but the concepts differ quite a bit it will boil down to what your friends use and your region facebook Messenger is an instant messaging service tied to a social account meaning it requires a Facebook account to be able to use it whatsapp on the other hand is standalone and comes with no baggage if you have a working mobile number whatsapp will give you no hassle however it's important to note the first year of weds up is free after the first year it's 99 cents per year Facebook is entirely free if you need cross-device sync Facebook Messenger is the only option however if you need to save old conversations what's up is probably the better choice personally I'll be sticking with Facebook messenger since I have hundreds of friends who use it and only a handful of friends who have ever tried whatsapp what about you what's your preferred messaging app be sure to tell us in the comments below and like the video if you found it helpful folks if you enjoyed this video be sure to click the thumbs up button below and if you want to see more videos like this one in the future be sure to click the subscribe button find us on all the usual places Twitter Facebook and Google+ at pocket now I'm Taylor Martin you can find me on twitter at casper tech and i will see you next time