Microsoft: We Have Lots of Windows 8 Apps, but We’d Rather Not Say How Many

OCTOBER 24, 2012 AT 9:40 PM PT

Many people will look at the Windows 8 storefront and find the number of apps lacking, whether in terms of number, or in terms of big names.

Yes, apps from Netflix and Hulu Plus are there, along with Evernote and eBay. But all one need do is plug in an iPhone or try to update their Quicken portfolio to see the major omissions. Intel, for one, is touting that fact — along with its compatibility with older Windows apps — as a key selling point for machines that use its processors.

Still, for its part, Microsoft notes that its App Store will have more apps than any other store at launch. Indeed, the number of apps is triple that of just a few weeks ago.

So, how many apps is that exactly? Well, um, we’d rather not say, Microsoft says. After all, there are many ways to count apps, and …

It’s nothing new for Microsoft to launch a new version of Windows with few apps designed for its new features. On day one of Windows 7 or Windows Vista, one would be lucky to name 10 apps that really took advantage of new features.

The difference with Windows 8 is that older Windows Apps really look like second-class citizens in a world designed for touch-centric programs. What’s worse, Microsoft has a second operating system, Windows RT, that works with phone and tablet chips, but only runs the new-style apps.

“Those are not all going to be there day one,” agrees Antoine Leblond, the Microsoft executive responsible for the Windows storefront that is home to the new Windows 8 apps. The key, Leblond says, is the momentum that Microsoft will get as the number of Windows 8 machines quickly grows into a significant figure worthy of developers’ attention.

Then the OS will benefit from a number of factors, including the ability of developers to write in multiple languages, the flexibility to use Microsoft’s payment system or not, as well as the potential for developers to earn 80 percent of store revenue, rather than the standard 70 percent cut once apps have generated $25,000 in revenue.

Although Microsoft has been accepting paid app sales since it finalized Windows 8 this summer, Leblond says the real test will come as machines preloaded with the new OS go on sale.

“The store opens Friday,” Leblond said. “That’s when things will get interesting.”

Make Money Blogging

Do you want to make money blogging? If you do – you’re not alone. More and more bloggers are finding that blogging is a profitable medium. Whether it be to earn a few extra dollars a week to feed their coffee habit, or making enough money to stop them having to get a part time job to get through college, or whether they’ve got it to a point where they are able to make a full time living from their blogging – there are tens of thousands of bloggers who make money blogging.

How to Make Money Blogging

In this page I want to share some information for beginners on how to make money blogging. For a very quick and broad visual intro – check out this Make Money Blogging MindMap which visualizes just SOME of the ways bloggers make money blogging.
Firstly – lets get our expectations right. Not everyone who tries to make money blogging becomes rich. In fact those who do well from blogging are in the minority. I’m sorry if this disappoints you – but I’m not here to hype this up or make any promises. It is possible to make money blogging – but it takes time and a lot of hard work – and it doesn’t happen for everyone!
For a picture of how realistic it is check out my post – Can You Really Make Money Blogging: 7 Things I know about Making Money from Blogging.
Secondly – let me start by sharing my own top Money Making Methods but below that point you to some great resources and teaching on how to increase your income from blogging.

What follows is a quick summary of my main income streams from blogging. Before you read it though – keep in mind that every blog is unique in how it can make money. Some of the following income streams will work on some blogs a lot better than others – the key is to experiment with as many as possible and see what works best for you.
The following income streams (from a number of blogs) have helped me to earn a six figure income each year for the last 5 years from blogging. I’ve ranked them from highest to lowest.
I hope you find it useful to see the mix and variety of ways that I earn a living from blogging.

1. AdSense

Despite not using it here at ProBlogger any more (here’s why) I continue to use AdSense with amazing effect on my other blogs. I have them all set to show image and text based ads and find that 250×300 pixel ads work best (usually with a blended design). I don’t have much luck with their ‘referrals’ program but their normal ads work a treat and continue to be the biggest earner for me.

2. Affiliate Programs

I run a variety of affiliate programs on my blogs – most of which bring in smaller amounts of money that don’t really justify a category of their own (but which certainly add up).
These include recommending quality products like these here on ProBlogger: Thesis WordPress theme, Yaro’s Blog Mastermind Coaching Program and How to Launch the F*** out of your E-Book (and others) as well as some great products on my photography blog including 123 of Digital Imaging, David DuChemin’s amazing Photography E-Books and Mitchell Kanashkevich’s great ebooks.
The great thing about many of these programs is that they are of such high quality that they sell themselves and I am being emailed from readers who sign up to them thanking me for the recommendation!

3. E-Book Sales

Last time I did a wrap up of how I make money blogging this category did not exist for me – I didn’t really have any of my own products to sell at all. However in the last year or so I’ve released 3 E-books – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, The Essential Guide to Portrait Photography and Photo Nuts and Bolts: Know Your Camera and Take Better Photos. While these products all only sell for under $20 they certainly add up and some months this has been my biggest category of income. The reason they were only ranking at #3 in the last month was that I didn’t do a product launch (I wrote about one launch which brought in $72,000 in a week here). This is an income stream I see growing as I add more E-books to my range (expect 3 in the coming few months).

4. Continuity Programs

This is another newer category for me but one that continues to grow.
A continuity program is a site where you earn a recurring income from people who subscribe to a service you offer.
For me this includes two sites – ProBlogger.com and Third Tribe Marketing. Both programs are membership sites and generate monthly income from the thousands of members that they have as a part of them.

5. Private Ad Sales/Sponsorships

Private ad sales directly to advertisers have fallen for me in the last year (they previously ranked #3 on this list). This is partly due to a change in my own focus but also partly due to the economy as it is. I should note that this area does vary a little from month to month depending upon the campaigns we’re asked to run – we’ve had a couple of months where it actually ranked #2 in the last year.
This includes ad sales of the 125 x 125 ads here at ProBlogger as well as a campaign or two at Digital Photography School.

6. Chitika

Chitka continues to be a great performer for me on my blogs. They traditionally have worked best on product related blogs although their Premium ad units now convert well on a larger range of blogs.
While I’ve focused a little less on Chitika in the last 6 months (mainly as I’ve released my own products and moved a little away from advertising) they do continue to perform well where I use them and over the time I’ve been using Chitika they’ve now earned me over a quarter of a million dollars – as a result I can’t recommend them enough!

7. Amazon Associates

Amazon’s affiliate program has been one of my big movers in the last 12 months. I used to make a few odd dollars from it – however in recent times it has become a significant earner for me (in fact it’s now earned me over $100,000 since I started using it). Christmas time (and the lead up to it) is a particularly good time for Amazon – last December it would have ranked #2 on this list.

8. ProBlogger Job Boards

The job boards here at ProBlogger continue to grow each month in the number of advertisements that are being bought. This enabled me to invest most of the money that they’d earned a while back into getting a new back end for the boards and to redesign them. These job boards now bring in over $1000 a month in revenue which is pretty nice considering that they are so low maintenance to run. They also offer a service to readers and add value to the overall blog.
The only problem that I face with the job boards is that there are so many bloggers looking for work that the demand for jobs far exceeds the supply. On the good side of things is that advertisers are reporting getting amazing quality of applications.

9. Speaking Fees

I get asked to do a lot of speaking and increasingly they are paid opportunities. I’m not able to do as many as I would like (mainly because I live in Australia and most of what I’m asked to do is overseas and I only travel 2-3 times a year) – however in April I did a couple of events and the income was enough to include in this list.

Other Income

In addition to all of the above there are many smaller incomes. Many of these are from smaller advertising programs that I test but none are big enough to really rate a mention here.
The other income stream that there was no actual money from in April was book royalties from the ProBlogger Book. These are only paid every 6 or so months (not in April). It’s probably also worth mentioning that authors don’t tend to make a whole lot of money on book royalties – you don’t write books to get rich (unless you sell a lot of them).

Useful Resources for Bloggers Wanting to Make Money Blogging

A lot has been written on the topic of making money online from blogs. There is a lot of wonderful information out there – but also a lot of hype and sometimes dangerous information.
Below are a number of articles that I’ve written exploring some of the different ways that bloggers make money.

Recommended Reading on How to Make Money Blogging

• A Reality Check on Blogging for Money – I don’t like hype – this post attempts to paint a realistic picture of blogging for money.
• How Bloggers Make Money – a post that I wrote in 2005 (updated) which gives a broad introduction to how bloggers make money blogging.
• Making Money from Your Blog – Direct Methods – bloggers make money from blogging in two main ways – directly and indirectly. This post explores some of how they do it directly.
• Making Money Because of your Blog – Indirect Methods – and here’s an exploration of indirect methods.

How to Make Money Blogging from Advertising

• Advertising Optimization – A series of posts on how to optimize advertising on your blog including posts on Traffic, Ad Positioning, Ad Design, Ad Relevancy and High Paying Ads.
• AdSense Tips for Bloggers – an 8 part series of posts that walk bloggers new to Google’s AdSense (the way I make much of my income) through how to use it effectively to make money on their blogs.
• Positioning Your AdSense Ads - a 3 part series on how I literally doubled my AdSense earnings overnight by repositioning my ads
• How to Guarantee that You’ll Never Make More than 0.14 cents per month from AdSense – 10 points to help you earn more money from AdSense
• How Quickly After Starting a Blog Should I put Ads on it? – one of the most common questions I am asked
• 10 Ways to Make Your Blog More Attractive to Advertisers – an Ad Guy tells all

How to Make Money Blogging from Affiliate Programs

• 10 Tips for Using Affiliate Programs on Your Blog – these tips helped me grow my affiliate earnings many times over
• The Power of Getting Readers in the Door at Amazon - a case study on how linking to Amazon can lead to some surprising results
• 9 Reasons Why I am an Amazon Affiliate – Amazon is one of my bigger earners

Other Articles on Making Money from Blogs

• Principles of Choosing a Profitable Topic for Your Blog – key factors to consider before choosing a topic for your blog
• Should I Blog for Money? – before you rush into monetizing your blog – here is a post on whether you should at all

http://www.problogger.net/make-money-blogging/

What Google knows about you

by Tom Gara
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com

By: Tom Gara
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/
Let’s run through a little thought experiment.
Imagine there’s a list somewhere that contains every single webpage you have visited in the last five years. It also has everything you have ever searched for, every address you looked up on Google GOOG +0.26% Maps, every email you sent, every chat message, every YouTube video you watched. Each entry is time-stamped, so it’s clear exactly, down to the minute, when all of this was done.
Now imagine that list is all searchable. And imagine it’s on a clean, easy-to-use website. With all that imagined, can you think of a way a hacker, with access to this, could use it against you?
And once you’ve imagined all that, go over to google.com/dashboard, and see it all become reality.
For a piece complementing today’s story on Google and privacy by the WSJ’s Amir Efrati, I took a deep dive into Google Dashboard, a kind of Grand Central Terminus for all the information the company has stored on you. It’s a truly amazing amount, especially if, like me, you have been a heavy Gmail user since its launch in 2004. As long as you are logged into Gmail, or any other Google account, the company isn’t just keeping track of how you use its own service — it’s noting every site you visit on the web.
Here’s a snapshot of the kind of data we found on my Google Dashboard, put together as a graphic for today’s newspaper. It includes my 64,019 Google searches, and 134,966 Gmail conversations:

A few caveats: First, this data can only be collected when you are logged in to a Google service. Second, Google gives you options to turn the collection off, or delete archived data. And third, access to all this information is password protected. But once you get past the login screen, the amount of information there is staggering.
The idea that all of this data exists as a mass of ones and zeros deep in a server farm in California, being studied by disinterested robots to serve up better search results and more relevant ads, is something most of us can process in the abstract.
But the fact that it is all viewable right now, on a user-friendly Web page complete with its own search service (yes, you can run Google searches on your own web history), is something else entirely. For example, I searched for every website I’ve ever visited containing the word “octopus.” And yes, the results were wonderful.
Of course, if somebody else managed to access my Google Dashboard — and the chances of this happening are well above zero — they could search for things far less innocent than an eight-tentacled sea creature. The bad possibilities seem endless, from digital blackmail to much deeper forms of identity theft.
For example, how many people with even marginally public profiles, or aspirations for public office, would happily hand over a few hundred dollars in virtual ransom money to a hacker who agreed not to dump our entire web browsing history online and publicize it?
And how many husbands or wives would pay more to prevent a significant other from getting a package of edited highlights in the mail? Perhaps an address frequently searched for on Google Maps, or visited with a location-enabled Android phone? Any bosses out there who might stump up some cash to prevent their late night web-surfing habits from becoming an email sent to the entire office?
There’s another side to this, of course. In the long run our online histories will become one of our most cherished forms of memory, in some ways far more powerful than anything our brains are capable of. Gmail was one of the first Google services we signed into, and that was less than a decade ago. The Chrome browser has been around less than half as long. Our web histories are still young.
Give them another ten years and they will paint a picture of our past — of who we were — more detailed than any memory. Imagine thinking back to a specific day 20 years ago, and seeing the people we spoke to that day, what we spoke about, how they looked, the links they sent us, the things we said about them. We’ll be able to see the places we were on that day, and the photos we took on our phones, and the people we were with.
Maybe Google’s All Seeing Eye will eventually know things about us — patterns, gradual changes, small habits — that even we aren’t aware of. It might see the worst of us, but it could also see the better.
Philip K. Dick hinted at this in A Scanner Darkly, a 1977 novel well ahead of its time on matters of the surveillance state. Reflecting on the omnipresent surveillance devices that surrounded him, the protagonist wonders (see here for the beautifully-done movie version):
“What does a scanner see? he asked himself. I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive infrared scanner like they used to use or a cube-type holo-scanner like they use these days, the latest thing, see into me— into us—clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can’t any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone’s sake, the scanners do better. Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we’ll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.”

Here’s to hoping Google, and others, help us see clearly. They certainly have the data to do so — and this is based on what is being stored prior to the age of wearable computers in our glasses, self-driving cars, or the “internet of things”. As time goes on, our Google Dashboards will tell us more and more about who we are, and who we were.

http://muslimvillage.com/2013/08/10/42421/what-google-knows-about-you/

Doing Business in Indonesia ?

Market Overview

• Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy and has delivered consistently high annual growth exceeding 6% in both 2007 and 2008. Growth of between 2% and 4.5% is expected in 2009.
• The consumer market continues to grow in the world’s fourth-largest country. There are more than 237 million citizens, 50% of whom are under the age of 30.
• GDP per person exceeds its ASEAN neighbors such the Philippines and Indonesia has a GDP per person three times that of Vietnam. Indonesia is a thriving democracy with significant regional autonomy. It is located on the world’s major trade routes and has extensive natural resources.
• It is a top-ten market for U.S. agricultural products and within the top 30 overall markets for U.S. exports. Indonesia has ratified the Cape Town Treaty, which gives U.S. aircraft exporters access to financing through international protection and registration of financial interests.

Market Challenges

• The business environment in Indonesia is challenging. U.S firms often find it difficult and time consuming to enter the market.
• Although improving, rule-of-law issues persist. Dispute settlement mechanisms are not highly developed. Local and foreign businesses cite corruption and ineffective courts as serious problems. Business and regulatory disputes, which would be generally considered administrative or civil matters in the United States, may be treated as criminal cases in Indonesia.
• Competition from companies from Singapore, China, Japan, Malaysia and other regional players is intense.
• Deregulation has been successful in reducing some barriers by creating more transparent trade and investment regimes, but the bureaucracy can be cumbersome.
• The Rupiah has depreciated by approximately 20% against the U.S. dollar since January 2008, making U.S. exports relatively more expensive.
• The public trade statistics may significantly understate market opportunities and trends due to the large numbers of shipments that are recorded as U.S. exports to Singapore but which ultimately enter Indonesia via Singapore.

Market Opportunities

• Important opportunities exist in mining and agribusiness equipment and services.
• The aircraft market favors U.S. products. Aircraft, replacement parts and service are valuable and significant markets.
• Telecommunications technology and satellites remain excellent areas for American products and services.
• The expansion of banking to previously underserved customers offers software and systems opportunities.
• Education and professional training, research, medical equipment and high-quality American agricultural commodities all retain their market edge even with premium prices.
• Emerging opportunities include palm oil biofuel processing and refining.
• U.S. franchises continue to attract Indonesian demand.
• Growing markets include: renovation and construction of regional and municipal infrastructure and water systems, military upgrading, safety and security systems and protection of sea-borne traffic.

Market Entry Strategy

• Although it may be possible in some cases to sell directly to the Government or state-owned companies, local services of agents, local offices or distributors are often critical to successful project development and to assure timely delivery, installation and follow up service needs. Most government procurement decisions favor proven providers or assurance of service based on long-established relationships.
• Small- and medium-sized U.S. firms entering the Indonesian market increase their likelihood of success with strong local agents or distributors. The U.S. Commercial Service Jakarta helps U.S. companies identify and qualify potential Indonesian representatives.
• U.S. companies must visit the Indonesian market in order to properly choose an appropriate agent or distributor. Appointment of a representative requires care, since it is difficult to get out of a bad relationship. Qualified representatives will not take U.S. principals seriously unless they make a commitment to visiting the market on a regular basis. Patience and presence are key success factors.
• Key factors affecting purchasing decisions in Indonesia are pricing, financing, technical skills, and after-sales service. Firms should be prepared to invest capital and manpower into making their local representative a first-class service provider.
• Indonesian non-financial firms obtain nearly 50% of their financing from abroad via loans, bonds, and other credit thus Indonesian exports often depend on trade financing. 

http://export.gov/Indonesia/doingbusinessinindonesia/index.asp

Mobile Messaging App Face-Off: WhatsApp Vs. Viber Vs. WeChat

By Brian. Filed in Tools

This is the generation of ‘smartphone holders’. Yes we are talking about you. If you are reading this, chances are your smartphone is no further than 3 feet from you and you sometimes hear custom notification alerts for your email, messages and updates even when nothing new came in.

For most of us, we have forgone the use of SMS and calls and have depended instead on messaging apps for most of our communication needs. All messaging apps are not created equal. Some are better than others, but the question is which is the best?

We’re here to help you answer that by comparing what we feel are the 3 best messaging apps (so far) out there: WhatsApp, Viber and WeChat. In this showdown, we will be looking at these apps in 5 categories, listed below in no particular order.

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1. Supported Platforms & OS

Let’s first take a look at the platforms, mobile OS and devices each app supports.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is supported on the iPhone on iOS 4.3 and above, and Android phones 2.1 and above. However, you cannot download it on the iPod, any tablet of any OS or on jailbroken or unlocked iPhones (or maybe you can but it won’t be optimized for it).

WhatsApp also works on Blackberry OS 4.6 and above, Windows Phone 7.5 and above and a widerange of Nokia S40 and S60 phones. However, it is found lacking in the desktop support department.

WhatsApp is a paid app, going for a one-off $0.99 for iOS, while on other phones, it is free for a year and will cost $0.99 per year of subsequent use.

Supported Platforms: iOS | Android | Windows Phone | BlackBerry | Nokia S40 | Nokia Symbian

Viber

Viber is supported above iOS 4.3, Android OS 2.0, Windows Phone 7, as well as on Blackberry OS5 and OS7, Nokia S-40 and S-60. Viber also works on Bada and has recently been made available for desktops (Mac OS 10.7 and above, Windows) via Viber Desktop. This means that you can make a call to friend who has Viber on their computer.

Viber is a free app with no ads so if you are allergic to ads, you are going to love Viber.

Supported Platforms: iOS | Android | Windows Phone | BlackBerry | Nokia | Bada | Windows |Mac

WeChat

WeChat is supported above iOS 4.3, Android OS 2.0, Blackberry OS 5.0, Windows Phone 7.5 and until recently Nokia S40 (beta). To add to that the Web Chat feature lets you chat with a friend on the desktop browser; linking is done with your device via QR Codes.

Web Chat also lets you send files to your device and there is a handy browser plugin called Web Grab that lets you shake webpages from your desktop browser into your phone.

Like Viber, WeChat is also a free app.

Supported Platforms: iOS | Android | Windows Phone | BlackBerry | Nokia | Web WeChat

Conclusion

All 3 messaging apps are supported on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Nokia. However, WeChat has a web app which allows you to send WeChat messages from your browser.Viber also offers cross-platform desktop solutions for both Windows and Mac letting you not only text friends on smartphones but also make calls to them.

We would say Viber is a few steps ahead of WhatsApp and WeChat, in terms of supported platforms.

2. Messaging & Communicating Features

Now we’ll take a look into each app and what they have to offer.

WhatsApp

With the use of an Internet connection you can send text, photos, video clips, your location data (that opens up on Google Maps), audio clips as well as a friend’s contact to another friend via WhatsApp. It does not however support voice calls.

(Image Source: Pankaj Chhabra)

WhatsApp also allows group chat (max: 30) and the use of a massive pile of Emoji.

Viber

Viber has voice calls using 3G or Wi-Fi on top of being able to send text, photos, videos and location data. With the recent update of Viber Desktop, you can even make calls to a friend on a desktop.

To have Viber work on your desktop you need to first have Viber on your smartphone. Once it is set up, you can even swap an ongoing Viber call on your smartphone to the desktop and back, seamlessly.

Its built-in custom emoticons and stickers (larger versions of emoticons) are something extra for users who prefer using images while chatting. Group chat is supported for up to 39 people.

WeChat

Apart from sending text, pictures, videos, audio clips, location data and contact details, WeChat also supports Video Calls, and also Live Chat where you can communicate with a friend in a walkie-talkie fashion. WeChat is also the only app with a few social add-ons that let you make new friends randomly.

Look Around lets you make friends with people by proximity. Shake is the roulette style of engaging with a random stranger and if you aren’t big on talking, just use Drift Bottle to cast messages into the open sea in WeChat for others to read. If you don’t want to use these social add-ons you can disable them under Settings > Feature.

Group chats can be initiated via QR codes which you can email up to 40 friends to join in and chat. And it also comes with built-in stickers and custom emoticons for you to use.

Conclusion

All 3 apps allow you to send text, photos, videos and location data – ‘basic functions’ as it is also found in other messaging apps. You certainly can have more fun on WeChat as it comes with a wide variety of communication and social features built to expand your networking circles.

Viber and WeChat also support voice calls if you want to make free calls with your friends or family members, however, if you just want to contact your friends via text messaging, WhatsApp will suffice.

3. Privacy & Security

These apps use the contact list on your device to determine which of your contacts are already using the app so you can begin chatting with them. Here’s how they work.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp requires a valid phone number to register for the service. When it is registered on your device, WhatsApp will scan your device’s contact list to determine who are already on WhatsApp. You can send messages to WhatsApp friends without any sort of ‘contact approval’.

This also means, whoever has your number can also WhatsApp you but you can block them by going to Settings > Chat Settings > Blocked. This will ensure that you do not receive messages from them. Others can also see when you’re online or the last time you used the app, but you can turn this feature off under Settings > Chat Settings > Advanced.

The 2 green ticks in a personal (not group) conversation determines if your messages have been delivered to them, but you have no way of knowing if they have read your message or not.

WhatsApp only works on one number and one device although there is an option to re-register a new phone number to your existing WhatsApp account. WhatsApp encrypts your messages as you send it so it is harder for the message to be intercepted by a third party.

Viber

Like WhatsApp, you’ll need a mobile number to validate Viber; the access code is sent via SMS. Viber instantly integrates with your own contact list on your device so you can message them via the app. People with your contact number can see if you’re currently online, or the last time you opened up Viber. You can turn this off under More > Settings > Online Status but note that doing this means you can’t see their online status too.

Viber uses Google Analytics to track information like IP Address data storage and maintenance services (among others) of its users. If you don’t like this, you can turn it off at More > Settings >Collect Data.

WeChat

Like the former two, WeChat also requires a mobile number and will notify other users that you are on WeChat. It will then scan your contact list but in order to begin chatting with people, you’re required to send them a contact request by tapping the Add Contact button. They’ll then have to approve your request before you can start chatting.

When you use WeChat’s social add-ons, WeChat users who are not on your contact list cannot see your phone number. If you don’t like to share your phone number but want to chat with these users, you can use a WeChat ID or QR Name Card to mask your identity.

There are many privacy options for Friend Verification, Block List, Moments Feed and more. You can change all of these under Settings > Privacy to ensure your information is safe.

Conclusion

Although you can turn off Google Analytics on Viber, it poses a privacy issue for those who don’t know about this default data collection mode (but now you do).

WeChat offers a lot of social features but provides privacy settings to disable them, and the requirement of adding a contact means random people cannot message you. But if you purely want a messaging app just to contact the friends you already have on your Contact list, for free, then stick with WhatsApp.

4. Backup Options

Before you commit to using a primary messaging app, you should think about the backup options available on each app to keep your precious messages.

WhatsApp

The backup process on WhatsApp is different on each device but essentially the chat history is saved on the device on a daily basis for Android, Windows Phone and Nokia. To transfer all your chat history to another device (imagine that you got a new phone) on the same OS, you can manually backup your chat history before transferring it to your second, newer device.

For the iPhone and Blackberry you can opt to email your conversation to yourself to store as a makeshift chat history. This also works on the Windows Phone.

Read Also: How To Backup WhatsApp Chat Log From iPhone To Computer

Viber

Viber has a simple backup feature where it will compile each conversation you have into separate .CSV files. It will then zip all these conversations and attach it onto an email which you can send out (to yourself).

However, only text is backed up, all your audio and video clips aren’t. This is good for storing your messages on your computer but doesn’t allow you to restore it to a different device.

WeChat

WeChat has the best backup options that easily allows you to transfer your chat history to another device. It allows you to select the conversation history you want to save to their server for 7 days. You can set a password to back it up. Once you’re logged into another device, you can tap on ‘Restore’ to get all your messages back. There is no option to export your chat history though.

Conclusion

It boils down to your needs, if you find yourself changing devices a lot then WeChat gives you the option to easily do that without losing any chat history. Viber keeps it simple by backing up only text (no media) and if you are opting for WhatsApp, we suggest you have a look at their FAQ page for more backup instructions for your OS and device.

5. Popularity Counts

It would appear that WeChat has the most functionality and features to offer among the three while Viber has more support on more platforms, leaving WhatsApp as only a basic messaging app that works for smartphones (and one you have to pay to continue using).

But ask around and it’s probably that more of your friends are using WhatsApp rather than WeChat or Viber.

WhatsApp had the advantage as it was released earlier than the other two apps, hitting the smartphones in September 2011, while Viber was released in Dec 2012 as a direct competitor to Skype. Both reported having 200 million users in April and May of this year. In comparison, WeChat may have 400 million registered users but only around 50 million of them are outside of China.

Which Is Right For You?

If you want to meet new people for business or leisure, then WeChat is definitely for you. It is almost like a standalone social network app which allows you to connect with people outside of your contact list and is enjoyed by many teenagers. It’s Hold to Talk feature is also gaining popularity as some people like to communicate by talking instead of the slower text messaging.

You would like Viber if you’re constantly working on a Windows or Mac computer as you can quickly send messages to friends on smartphones, without having to pick up your mobile device. It’s also great for business purposes with its ability of high quality voice calls.

However, WhatsApp is still the app to have mainly because most people have this "old" app. But due to its limited functionalities and it being a paid app, you may need to find alternative methods to contact your friends. What good is a messaging app if you paid to use it but your friends don’t want to? It’s always good to install a free alternative just to keep close contact with buddies.

Conclusion

As a conclusion, these 3 apps are amazing tools for communication offering more than a regular SMS service, without the need to pay for sending messages. However, these messaging apps may face competition from the rise of Facebook Messenger, Hangouts (formerly known as Google Talk) and Skype which could possibly replace these apps later on.

Would you want us to pit FB Messenger, Hangouts vs Skype? And which messaging app are you on? Let us know in the comments.

Recap: Comparison Table

Here’s a quick recap neatly packed for your reference:

	WhatsApp	Viber	WeChat
Supported OS	iOS Android Windows Phone BlackBerry Nokia S40 Symbian	iOS Android Windows Phone BlackBerry Bada Nokia	iOS Android Windows Phone BlackBerry Nokia S40
Price	$0.99 (iOS) $0.99/year for other devices	FREE	FREE
Communication Features	send text, photos & videos location data audio clips contact details	send text, photos & videos location data make voice calls	send text, photos & videos location data audio clips contact details make video calls Live Chat (Walkie-talkie)
Desktop Compatibility	—	Mac & Windows desktop app Text & video calls	Supports Web Chat with desktop browser Transfer files to device
Social Add-Ons	—	—	Moments Feed, Look Around, Shake, Drift Bottle
Emoticons	Standard Emoji keyboard	Custom emoticons, Stickers	Custom emoticons, Stickers
Group Chat	30 Participants	39 Participants	40 Participants
Backup Options	Manual backup and restore only for Android, BlackBerry and Nokia	Basic text backup attached to email	Easy backup and restore, cross-platform
Reported Users	200 million active users	200 million registered users	195 million active users
Customer ratings on Apple App Store(May 2013)	99k ratings, 4.5 star average	76k ratings, 4.5 star average	11k ratings, 4.5 star average

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/whatsapp-viber-wechat-comparison/