Messaging medium: Voice replacing text

In an emerging trend, users are increasingly using voice messaging features on their messengers, thereby reducing their dependency on typing out text into their smartphones and increasingly replacing the traditional voice calls.

A simple click on a smartphone allows you to record short voice messages and send it across to anyone using a similar service in your contact list.

WhatsApp can do it, and so can BBM, LINE, WeChat and a host of other messengers.

Apple has too has now joined the bandwagon and introduced voice messaging capabilities to its Messages app in iOS 8.

“I have stopped making calls to at least fifty per cent of my friends,” says Manjusha Tarun, a housewife in the UAE. “My bills have also dropped accordingly,” she adds.

She is not alone. According to Sindu her maid from Nepal has almost stopped using the phone for outgoing calls. “She is connected to the home network on Wifi and says she only uses WhatsApp to send voice messages. She gets a reply almost immediately. Almost all of her friends are on WhatsApp and that’s how they communicate,” she says.

Apple could introduce voice messaging into the iWatch The trend has become so popular that Apple is considering introducing voice-messaging into its iWatch.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is recently said to have revealed that he noticed a lot of people using the feature in China raising speculation that Apple could introduce this feature into the iWatch.

The trend is currently limited to personal use and among friends. But messenger services are increasingly being used for business communication as well.

Messengers for business

Recent trends have seen many using group messaging options for business communication.

However security threats have been a major concern though. In May security consultant Bas Bosschert put out a detailed log of the security flaw on WhatsApp and said: “The WhatsApp database is saved on the SD card which can be read by any Android application if the user allows it to access the SD card… And since majority of the people allow everything on their Android devices, this is not much of a problem.”

Why UAE WhatsApp users can dial down the excitement

BlackBerry has been insisting that it does not face similar problems and that while not all IM apps are built secure, BBM is.

Jeff Gadway, head of product and brand marketing for BBM in one of his blog posts noted that on BlackBerry, security is reinforced at every level of the device from CPU to boot ROM, to OS and file system, and applications.

According to him even on an Android device, BBM runs and stores all its data within the internal secure storage of the Android sandbox providing higher security than other IM apps that store their database in the shared storage space of the device.

Recently BlackBerry CEO John Chen warned business customers to stick to BlackBerry. He was reacting to a recent Google announcement  about introduction of Samsung Knox he said.

“BlackBerry architects security into every single layer, from our BlackBerry 10-enabled devices to the networks upon which your messages and data travel, to our secure messaging platform BBM Protected to the BES management software. It’s why we have won 45 security certifications, more than any other vendor,” he said.
 

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