11 Hot Mobile Messaging Apps from Asia and How They’re Super-Innovative

With the numbers Rick released on mobile messaging apps growth, and Willis’ post on how heated the mobile messaging battle is getting, I thought I’d take a look at the killer features that make messaging apps so strong with younger smartphone users in the region. They’re all a big threat to Facebook Messenger (which seems to be imitating Asian chat apps in some respects) and the newer Facebook Poke.

Why are these apps so hot? It all boils down to the virtual stickers and being so multimedia and immediate. This is where Asian apps are innovating like crazy.

Of course, all messaging apps have a set of features that mark them as messaging apps, so we’ll just note them in a quick list and move on:

• Instant messaging with ‘sending’ and ‘received’ notifications
• Group chat
• Sending a photo or video (WeChat and Zalo are the only ones that offer Instagram-like photo filters)
• Changing your chat area’s wallpaper
• Leaving an audio note or message
• Sharing contact info
• Sharing your location
• Live video or voice calling
• A microblogging feature like Path.

Now, I’ll go through the ten most prominent chat apps in Asia, and show you what each one has that makes them stand out from the others.

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Chikka from the Philippines

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Released: October 2010
Users: 500,000+

The Philippines, where foreign-made chat apps like Whatsapp and Viber rule the roost, also has its own messaging app called Chikka. The app is currently sitting in 28th position in the Apple App Store in the social networking category, which means it’s had hundreds of thousands of downloads. The app doesn’t have any notable additions beyond the basics. And hasn’t grown much over the past three years.

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Comm from Japan

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Released: October 2012
Users: ~5 million

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