BlackBerry made it popular with their BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service. Apple is launching iMessage with iOS 5. And now Samsung is joining the non-text-message-messaging-service party with ChatOn.
ChatOn, which is set to go live in September in over 120 countries, is Samsung's stab at creating a new world-wide messaging platform to compete with the aforementioned services, and work around cell carrier's asinine text-messaging fees. However, Samsung appears to be looking to reach a much larger audience than BBM and iMessage.
The ChatOn service will be compatible across multiple platforms including iOS, Android, Bada, BlackbBerry and a Web client users can download for their PCs. This appears to be the services main advantage over its competitors - and its huge. Being able to message friends across multiple platforms almost eliminates the need for text messaging. Not something the telecoms will be happy about.
ChatOn, which is set to go live in September in over 120 countries, is Samsung's stab at creating a new world-wide messaging platform to compete with the aforementioned services, and work around cell carrier's asinine text-messaging fees. However, Samsung appears to be looking to reach a much larger audience than BBM and iMessage.
The ChatOn service will be compatible across multiple platforms including iOS, Android, Bada, BlackbBerry and a Web client users can download for their PCs. This appears to be the services main advantage over its competitors - and its huge. Being able to message friends across multiple platforms almost eliminates the need for text messaging. Not something the telecoms will be happy about.
This isn't the only feature Samsung is touting, though. ChatOn includes group messaging, video and voice messages, as well as contact, location and calendar sharing. Also, a number of social media interactions appear intertwined with the service including profile pages, comments on said pages, and an Interaction Rank feature that ranks your contacts based on how often you interact with them.
ChatOn is most importantly free, like iMessage and BBM. It appears the assault on traditional text-messaging will continue until carriers are forced to drop the service. That wont be for a while yet, but the end is nearing.
ChatOn is most importantly free, like iMessage and BBM. It appears the assault on traditional text-messaging will continue until carriers are forced to drop the service. That wont be for a while yet, but the end is nearing.
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