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Unfortunately, iMessage is only available for iPhone users, so you'll struggle to interact with anyone using an Android. The app has a number of impressive features included no character limits, the ability to send pictures and videos, and of course Apple's animated emoji feature, Animoji.
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If you use an iPhone, you may consider simply switching to iMessage, Apple's own messaging app. This means that the code for the app is publicly available to view, making it near-impossible for the app's creators to sneak in any backdoors that could allow governments or hackers to spy on your messages. Signal is one of the most secure messaging apps, thanks to the fact that it is open-source. However, as a WhatsApp spokesperson pointed out, Telegram 'does not offer end-to-end encryption by default so it’s not necessarily more secure than WhatsApp'. Telegram also offers end-to-end encryption. While it looks very similar to WhatsApp, what sets it apart is the fact that it gives the option to set messages to self-destruct after a given period of time, leaving no trace. With more than 400 million users, Telegram is one of the most popular WhatsApp alternatives.
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If you're considering deleting WhatsApp, you'll be happy to hear that there are several alternative apps to choose from:
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There have been a number of social media outages in recent months, with Instagram going down for 16 hours in September, and all Facebook platforms going offline in June.
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Whatsapp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger all run on a shared back-end infrastructure, creating a 'single point of failure' according to experts. Its staff were said to have rushed to data centers to manually reset parts of the system in person, although one insider writing on Reddit claimed online that the firm's response was hampered by a lack of technicians working in the centers due to the coronavirus pandemic. The October 5 update to its servers appeared to paralyze Meta's internal systems, which are run on the company's own network - meaning staff were left unable to communicate with each other and keycards at the company California HQ allegedly stopped working. They're some of the most popular social media apps around the world, but Whatsapp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger all run on a shared back-end infrastructure, creating a 'single point of failure' according to experts
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