On Wednesday users suffered a shutdown of some of the worlds biggest social networking sites, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. 

It was reported that the shutdown affected people globally with the outage lasting about 10 hours in some countries. 

South Africans who love the messaging app WhatsApp were left unable to send voice notes, pictures and some could not even log onto the app. 

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Now, this begs the question, what will happen the next time we face a shutdown? Well, it’s simple, you need to download an alternative messaging app, and luckily there are quite a few to choose from.  


Here are a few to consider: 

Viber

Fairly popular due to its encryption and secret chat feature, Viber is often installed in phones as a secondary app.

Viber is especially popular in countries like Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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WeChat

WeChat isn’t just a communication app, but also a social media app and a digital payment method.

It also has features that let you find new friends nearby, as well as a GPS function.

While WeChat is most powerful in China, the app has users outside of China.

It is recorded that there are more than one billion WeChat users. 

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LINE

LINE is recorded to have 203 million users worldwide and is especially popular in Japan and Taiwan.

In addition to messaging, LINE offers free voice and video calls, as well as social groups, stickers, timelines, and even games.

Telegram

While Telegram has grown slowly in its popularity being fairly new in the messenger app market, Telegram is the primary messenger app in Iran, Uzbekistan, and Ethiopia.

Telegram has around 200 million users worldwide.

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Skype

Skype recently merged its contacts with old MSN or Hotmail accounts and its contacts, connecting you to some pretty longtime friends. Nostalgia aside, Skype is not only a great way to call for free, it also allows for text messaging with your contacts. Unlike WhatsApp, you’ll have to approve contacts before you can start sending messages but its reliability and stability makes it a suitable replacement.