Let's make one thing clear: unfortunately, there's no one best texting app. Unless you absolutely require one or two specific features, the best text message app for you will be the one that the people you want to text also use. Depending on where you are in the world, that can be iMessage, WhatsApp, Viber, LINE, or even SMS.

But if, for whatever reason, you do have a choice of which messaging app you can use—or you can convince the people you want to message to switch—these are the five best texting apps to choose from. (Though, if I could rule the world using benevolent AIs, I'd make everyone use Signal.)

The 5 best texting apps

• WhatsApp for most people

• Viber for an alternative to WhatsApp

• Telegram for logging in from multiple devices

• Signal for security

• Messenger for contacting anyone

What makes the best texting app?

As a child of the '90s, I've been sending text messages as long as wide-spread, affordable cell phones have been a thing (and, if I'm honest, a year or two before then). I've also used text messaging apps for professional reasons—both to communicate with my remote colleagues and to review the apps themselves.

Especially after testing all the texting apps out there, I believe the best texting app is normally the one people will actually reply to you with. If that's SMS or smoke signals, you have my full permission to use it—as long as you aren't talking about anything super sensitive. So when it came to putting together this list, that freed me up to be pretty strict about the requirements for inclusion.

iMessage, SMS, and Android Messages didn't make this list. Nor did whatever Google is calling its latest messaging foray. Twitter, despite badly adding end-to-end encryption to its direct messages, isn't here either. The big reason to use any of those apps is that your friends do. (The only app I'm sorry isn't included is Discord, but it's just not a texting app.)

If, however, you're starting a friend group, desert island colony, or fan club from scratch and you get to pick the tools you use, this is what you should be looking for in messaging apps:

• Availability on both iPhone and Android. And ideally on desktop too. We don't want any green bubble/blue bubble drama here. Text messaging should be about the person, not the device they use.

• Privacy and security. Do you know who can read your SMS messages? Pretty much everyone. The best chat apps all have end-to-end encryption enabled by default, or at a stretch, they allow you to quickly turn it on. There are a handful of circumstances where end-to-end encryption isn't appropriate, like with public group messaging and some kinds of business communications; but across the board, I favored services that cared about your security and privacy.

• No price tag. The best text apps are all free to use. Part of this is because most people aren't prepared to pay for them, but it's also because large corporations actually make surprisingly decent apps sometimes. It also helps that it's easier to convince your friends to sign up for a new service if they don't have to pay. 

• Support for pictures, video, and other multimedia. Text messages are no longer 140 characters long (at least if you're not using SMS). They can be long essays, but also photos, GIFs, voice notes, YouTube links, documents, and lots of other forms of multimedia. If you want to send something over text message, you should be able to—at least as long as it's digital.

• Support for group chat. A lot of text messaging doesn't happen one-to-one. For a free chat app to make this list, it had to be able to support group messaging. To be honest, this requirement didn't exclude many apps as it's a very common feature, but I still felt it needed to be stated.

To put together this list, I tested more than 30 different apps. A lot fell short because they didn't meet the criteria above or because they were just unpleasant to use. I spent time testing and texting in any app that looked like it could be a candidate for inclusion—plus, as I've already said, this is a category I have a lot of experience with, so I'd already spent a lot of time in each of these apps in the past.

And now, on to the apps. 

The best texting apps at a glance

Best texting app for most people

WhatsApp (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Web)

WhatsApp is the undisputed ruler of free mobile messaging in much of the world. Launched in 2009 as a way to send messages over a data connection rather than SMS, WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014. Since then, the service has grown both its feature set and user base. As of 2023, it has around two billion users, and it's easy to see why: it's a shockingly decent service.

The app is a fully-featured messaging client that supports text chats, as well as photos, short videos, voice messaging, and audio and video calls. You can chat one-to-one or in groups with up to 512 participants. Despite being the most popular messaging service in the world and being owned by Facebook parent company Meta, WhatsApp has end-to-end encryption enabled for all conversations. Everything you send, including file transfers, is fully encrypted. Encrypted messages are even removed from WhatsApp's servers once they're delivered. 

Meta has also aggressively rolled out new features over the past year or two that could potentially change how WhatsApp is used. In particular, Communities allows organizations like HOAs and clubs to manage multiple groups in one place, and the recently-announced Channels allows for one-to-many broadcasts. Both features are basically lifted straight from Telegram and Viber, where they're incredibly popular, but I won't say no to a good thing. 

Another major change is that WhatsApp now lets you sign in on multiple smartphones, though one of them will have to be on if you want to use the desktop apps for Windows and Mac, and the web app at web.whatsapp.com.

All in all, WhatsApp continues to tick pretty much every box. They could turn around and ruin it in the next few years, but at least to me, the outlook is still pretty sunny.

WhatsApp price: Free

Best WhatsApp alternative

Viber (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows)

Viber is another solid all-around messaging app, with millions of users across the globe. It's a touch more chaotic than WhatsApp, but it offers the same core messaging features. It wouldn't be my first choice of app to use personally, but it does the job it sets out to do.

Talk to individuals or create a group chat with up to 250 participants, where you can share instant voice and video messages without having to make a call. It's perfect for when you're too busy to talk and too lazy to type. While many other apps include voice messaging (like WhatsApp, above), Viber makes it just as easy to send a video message for a more personal touch. Plus, GIFs and stickers are built into your chats for when you're lost for words.

End-to-end encryption is standard in all Viber one-on-one and group chats. Channels and Communities, however, aren't end-to-end encrypted (as it would then be impossible for new members to see the chat history). It's a small security sacrifice in the name of offering a better service. In addition to free voice and video calling to other Viber users, a service called Viber Out enables you to call any mobile or landline in the world as much as you like for $5.99 per month. It's like Skype, except with better security practices and a nicer smartphone app.

One mature feature that Viber has that WhatsApp has just introduced is Communities—essentially large group chats with strangers that you can join or start. These public chats can have an unlimited number of members and feature robust controls for admins to moderate their chats: manage who's in the group and who can post, or change the Community's look and feel with a new background and group description. You can find Communities based on things like location, hobbies, and favorite teams. Think Reddit, but more like a group chat. (Fair warning: if you live somewhere where Viber isn't the dominant chat app, expect these groups to be filled with conspiracy theories, scams, and other wildness.)

Where Viber falls a touch short is in the busyness of the whole app. With sticker stores, all the different kinds of chats, and even the occasional ad, it's a less fulfilling experience than WhatsApp—especially if you aren't making use of its unique features like Viber Out. 

Viber price: Free

The best texting app for logging in from multiple devices

Telegram (iOS, Android, Web, Mac, Windows, Linux)

Telegram was one of the original messaging apps that emphasized the importance of security, although it takes a slightly different approach to encryption so that it can store your conversations on its servers. While security experts have expressed their concerns with it if you want to keep your communications safe from governments and espionage agencies, it does allow you to log in from multiple devices including through the desktop apps.

Otherwise, Telegram offers the features you'd expect: you can use it to make voice and video calls, and send text messages, photos, videos, and files to other Telegram users. You can even create group chats with a whopping 200,000 participants or channels with an unlimited number of subscribers.

If you want end-to-end encryption, you can enable it with Telegram's Secret Chats feature: start a new message, then choose New secret chat from the menu. (Alternatively, make a voice call.) For texts, you can also set self-destruct timers for any secret messages you send so that they won't hang around once they've served their purpose. Secret chats aren't stored in the cloud like regular chats. But even your regular chats in Telegram are encrypted, stored on the server, then decrypted when they're downloaded. This gives you the option of choosing between highly secure messaging and a more convenient, slightly less secure option. You can use both interchangeably, as you see fit.

Telegram's supergroups (the ones with up to 200,000 members) and channels, where you can broadcast one-way messages to an unlimited audience, are, in my experience, a lot more popular than Viber's alternatives. Some channels have millions of members. Though with that said, the same caveats as with Viber apply: if you aren't in a region where Telegram is the dominant messaging platform, the public groups can be wild and unusable.

Telegram also has an open API, which means users are free to build their own unofficial apps for use with the service. This has given birth to projects like Unigram, a Windows 10-optimized third-party client, and a command line version of Telegram for Linux users. It also means you can integrate Telegram with Zapier.

Finally, Telegram recently launched Telegram Premium for roughly $4.99/month (it depends on your location and mobile app platform), which removes the few non-intrusive ads and doubles limits for things like file uploads (from 2 to 4 GB) and the number of groups you can join (from 500 to 1,000). It's currently not essential at all.

Telegram price: Free; Premium from $4.99/month

Best texting app for security

Signal (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux)

Signal is one of the cleanest-looking and most functional texting apps—almost everything is kept to a single screen. Other than selecting from one of three themes or choosing a background, there's little in the way of customization available. It's frequently recommended as a WhatsApp alternative; while chatting, you'll even notice WhatsApp-style double ticks to denote message status. Signal also includes voice and video calling with other Signal users. These chats are end-to-end encrypted just like other messages sent via the app.

You can send text, photos, videos, documents, and voice messages to individual or group conversations, but unlike with WhatsApp, you can have up to 1,000 people in a group. The app uses end-to-end encryption to secure all messages sent via the service (in fact, the encryption protocol it developed is also used by WhatsApp and Messenger), with the option of setting expiration dates for each conversation. Once your messages expire, they're no longer recoverable. There's also a handy "Note to Self" contact for you to store your thoughts.

Signal recently added Stories (end-to-end encrypted, of course), but it doesn't really change the overall experience of using the app.

You can download a desktop app for Windows, Mac, and Linux to bring the full suite of Signal features to your computer too. And on Android, Signal can even replace your stock SMS app. This allows you to send Signal messages and regular SMS messages to non-Signal users from a single interface. (This doesn't work for iOS users on account of how messaging works in the Apple ecosystem.)

Signal is great if you want security and simplicity. There are few bells and whistles—it's just industry-standard encrypted texting and calling. (And I absolutely love it.)

Signal price: Free

Best texting app for contacting anyone

Messenger (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Web)

Contrary to popular belief, you don't need a Facebook account to use Messenger. The company only requires you to sign up with a phone number to talk to anyone else using the service. If you do already have a Facebook account, you can jump straight in and message any of your Facebook friends (and other Facebook users) who've signed up for Messenger.

The app includes all the basic messaging and calling features you'd expect—and some you probably won't. Send texts to individuals or groups of up to 250 people, and react to messages with stickers, GIFs, and emoji. Make voice and video calls to your friends and family. You can send voice messages, photos, and videos, or capture your own media using Messenger Camera and its fun Snapchat-like filters. You can post photos to your Messenger Story (or crosspost them from your Instagram Story). There's a lot there, and this is actually a leaner, more stripped-down version of Messenger than it was a few years ago. 

Facebook has no end-to-end encryption by default (and almost didn't make this list because of it). But if you tap on your contact's name in any conversation and select Go to Secret Conversation, you'll enable encryption on both ends. You probably won't do this for every conversation, but if there are some chats you want to keep particularly protected, it's an option. 

Because your regular conversations aren't private, Facebook is able to scan all the images sent through Messenger to see if they've been flagged as child abuse materials, and Facebook has used message scanning in the past to quell sensationalist messages designed to incite harm or unrest. The company claims they do not scan your private conversations for advertising purposes.

What Messenger lacks in security and privacy, it makes up for with its ubiquity. More than a third of the world's population uses Facebook every month. That's wild. If you want to contact an old school friend, a local business, or your partner's parents, you can probably do it using Messenger. It's a serious feature that no other texting app can match. 

You can do more with Messenger by connecting it to Zapier, so you can automatically reply to messages with the help of AI, or send messages to your team wherever they already spend their time.

Facebook Messenger Price: Free

Which texting app should you choose?

Text message apps aren't really about the app—they're about the people you're connecting with. If you can convince your friends and family to use one of these picks, like WhatsApp or Signal, go right for it. Lay out the reasons that you—and I—feel it's safer, more secure, or more convenient than whatever they're already using, and see if they'll make the switch. 

But if they insist on only using iMessage, I'd suggest you park your interoperability concerns and stay in contact.

Related reading:

• How to make phone calls and text from your computer

• Beeper vs. Texts: Which should you use?

• I let AI write my texts for a week—here's how it went

• The best universal texting apps

This article was originally published in June 2019 by Timothy Brookes. The most recent update was in June 2023.