BlackBerry has BBM, iPhone has Facetime, Android has…

For the past couple of months Research In Motion has been telling the world about their BlackBerry Messenger service.  During the same period we’ve seen Apple tout their new iPhone 4 and Facetime.  Missing from the conversation is what Android offers to their customers.

So I thought I’d ask the Techvibes community the following question:

BlackBerry has BBM, iPhone has Facetime, Android has…

Here are two of the many suggestions I received:

  • GTalk.  Very similar to the Google Chat function in your Google email.  The great thing about GTalk is that it’s not exclusive to Android but available on smartphones running other OS’s.  Single and group chats are also available.

  • Google Latitude.  This must be one of the coolest Android apps available as it takes advantage of chat and location-sharing technology.  This app allows the user to share their location with other users, track friends’ movements and trigger calls, emails and IM conversations directly from Latitude’s user interface.

There is also the very inclusive and very popular Twitter.  Using a free Twitter client like Hootsuite Lite (Android) captures many of the same features that a traditional “chat” app provides.

I know there are more Android apps that compete with BBM and Facetime.  What are your favourites?

 

 

 

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