Instant messaging or real-time chats have indeed exploded over the years leaving behind email communications & SMS texts to become an excellent chat medium for internal communications.

One can find a plenitude of free messaging apps available in the market, but if you need a more efficient tool that gives you a suite of options from conferencing and audio/video calls to group chats, then this blog is for you. 

Before delving into the tech part, time for some basics!

What is Instant Messaging Software?

Instant messaging offers a real-time transmission of messages over the internet, either through a standalone app or software. It differs greatly from 'Chat' where participants get engaged in a more public real-time conversation within chatrooms.

Now that you know what IM is, let us see the next main part.

Top 6 Instant Messaging APPs

In today's tech-savvy world, it has become quintessential for modern business hubs to acquire a persistent spot when it comes to customer satisfaction. And, a prime way, businesses achieve this top position is through bringing notch instant messaging platforms to their users. 

With a lot of providers in the market, we have curated the best 6 instant messaging portals, starting right from my favorite-

Contus MirrorFly

MirrorFly is an API provider which yields the best in-app communications to its users. Its high-end and easy-to-integrate Chat messaging APIs and SDKs offer feature-rich chat, voice, and video solutions that have powered billions of conversations so far thus making it the powerhouse for business communications. 

Packed with rich benefits like HIPAA and GDPR compliances, E2E encryption mechanisms, and robust features have indeed helped developers to build a fully functional messaging app. 

With these, they also offer a dedicated hosting space that other API providers miss providing.

Notable Features

Compatible with Android, iOS, and Web platforms. 1-to-1 and group chats and calls. Call Muting, Call Signaling, and Media StoragePresence and Typing Indicators. File Sharing, Notification Alerts, and Read Receipts.Conferencing and Screen Sharing.

Pricing Plans

MirrorFly lets you try their features for free upto 21 days. Post the trial period, you are required to choose any one of the below plans to proceed:

Essential: With $ 299/month, you can get all the modern chat features for your app.Growth: With $ 699 /month, you get all of the Essential Plan with voice and video functionalities.Premium: All of the Growth Plan plus group calls into your apps for a $ 999/month.

Microsoft Teams

Developed by Microsoft, their messaging app is the king of real-time communications with over 13 millions daily users. It is compatible with Android, iOS, macOS, Web, and Windows platforms, and among the 200 integrations that it supports, is Microsoft 365 that fosters collaboration across Microsoft toolkit without the need to leave the app. 

Notable Features

1-to- 1 direct and group chatsInitiating conference calls through links and invitesDedicated channels for group messagingFile sharing, GIFs, emojis, animations.Screen sharing, whiteboards, and breakouts.Fully compliant and uncompromised security. 

Pricing Plans

They offer free and paid plans for its users.

Essentials: Rs. 100 per user  per month that covers group meetings up to 30 hours and 10 GB of cloud storage per user.365 Business Basic: Rs.125 per user per month that includes all of Essentials plus 1TB cloud storage per user, collaborations, whiteboard, live captions in meetings, and more.Standard: Rs.660 per use per month, covering all of Basic and webinar hosting,  desktop versions of Office apps, attendee registration, and more. 

Slack

Slack is the second sought-after instant messaging platform by businesses as it offers team communication and collaboration in a single space. They are compatible across multiple platforms, hold 1500 integrations, and have to-date catered to 10 million daily active users. 

Slack has channels for streamlining internal business conversations and comes with a two-factor authentication method.

Notable Features

Organize conversations by topics or projects. One-on-one and Group Chats. Document Sharing and Editing. Customized Notifications. Audio Calling. External Partner Integration. Presence of Channels and Threads

Pricing Plans

Slack offers free and paid plans, a brief description of it is below:

Pro: At Rs.218 per month, this plan is for small teams that is inclusive of features like collaboration and audio and video calls.

Business: This plan helps to scale businesses with Rs.375.20 per month that includes all the goodness of Pro, and compliance requirements, 99.9% uptime, 24/7 support, and real-time active directory sync.

Enterprise Grid: This plan works well for large enterprises. For pricing, reach out to their sales department. 

Apphitect

Using modern technologies like AWS, Cassandra, and Erlang, Apphitect offers top messaging solutions like chat, audio, and video calls to enterprises of all sizes. Their messaging APIs and SDKs cater services to varied use cases like healthcare, marketplace, education portals, and more.

Notable Features

One-on-one and Group ChatsFile and Screen SharingAudio and Video Callings Notification AlertsVideo Conferencing HIPAA and GDPR Compliance Read Receipts and Presence Indicators

Pricing Plans

They follow a monthly billing cycle. 

Rocket.chat

Rocket.Chat is a fully customizable messaging platform that is developed using JavaScript. Trusted by over 12 Million plus users across 150+ countries, this app has finally seen its reach! It enables users to create a niche messaging platform with their APIs  for them to own data, customize it as per their needs, and add integrations.

In case of customizations related to additional features, they give you access to their source codes as well. 

Notable Features

Collaboration ToolsCustomer ServiceChats and Voice ChannelsWhitelabelling OptionDirect and Group ChatsE2E mechanisms, GDPR, and HIPAA Compliances.File and Document Sharing

Pricing Plans

Its pricing plan includes two plans to choose from.

Community: This plan is free and is deployed for smaller teams.Enterprise: At $7 per user per month, this plan offers security, compliance, and collaboration features. 

Troop Messenger

Troop is a sole, top-tier, and efficient team messaging app that features chat solutions that suit every office team. Whether it is a direct chat or a collaboration, or to cater to varied verticals, troop gets businesses covered on all these grounds. 

Their messaging API and SDKs are easily integrable and compatible on Web and Android platforms. They cater their services to NGOs, defense, government, politics, and shipping portals. 

Notable Features

One-on-one MessagingAudio MessagingForkoutFlaggingSelf-messageRead Receipts, Typing Indicators, CollaborationAudio and Video CallsLocation TrackingNotifications

Pricing Plans

Troop gives its business troop a free 7 day trial, post which these plans come to effect.

Premium: Starting from Rs.149 per user per month, it houses features like chats, audio calls, wallpapers, unlimited search history, network status indicator, and others.

Enterprise: All the goodness of Premium plan along with features like remote screen sharing, group calls, conferencing, drive access, active directory, and contact book. Everything at just Rs.299 per user per month.Superior: With Rs. 599 per user per month, holds features of Enterprise plan and a few others like remote desktop control, annotation, whiteboard, APIs, and contact authorization

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, the 6 top instant messaging platforms would have given you some idea on which to choose for your business grounds. 

Regardless of the feature list they offer, go for MirrorFly to give users the best-in-class and secure chat experience, Slack for streamlining internal communications, and Microsoft Teams for collaborations.