According to Wikipedia, communication is the act of purposeful information exchange between two or more participants in order to convey or receive intended meaning through a shared system of signs and semiotic rules.
Communication has been made easier and faster through chat platforms. It is way better to send that private message to loved ones as well as important information regarding health or on going situations which will be forwarded and forwarded until it goes viral.
Chat platforms and messaging is the second largest medium of communication in the world most especially because it happens in real time. This means that these messages are gotten immediately. Some applications even allow for the use of offline messages so that users can still access their messages when they are not online. Every new application has distinct features that makes it better than the other and people take advantage of this opportunity to interact with one another. The best feature is that it has a two way interface. This does not mean that chat platforms do not have disadvantages, though. One of such is the feeling of uncertainty about the person that you are chatting with especially with the security risks that comes with the internet.
Deepak Ravindran, the founder and CEO of Lookup, stated that instant messaging and chat applications continue to show impressive growth patterns with WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat among others reporting more than 100 million new active users over the past 12 months.
From WhatsApp to BBM to Facebook chat to Snapchat and Wechat, long gone are the days of snail paced postal mails. The use of chat platforms has in fact changed the way we communicate. It has helped in building and learning through chat groups, sending group messages, sharing views about a particular topic as well as advertising various products and entertaining the masses. When it comes to the chat platform, Nigeria is among the top users. This is no surprise as Nigeria continues to lead Africa in the use of the internet. Much of these are deployed in searching, sharing, and communicating. Of course, there is the commercial and political side to this. Social media marketing and the emergence of the current President of Nigeria is largely owed to chat platforms.
History of Chat in Nigeria
Quite a number of chat platforms hold sway in Nigeria now, but going down memory lane to see how it all began will be worth our time.
In the Year 2007, the Application 2go was topping the list of Nigeria’s chat platforms. 2go was and still is a free mobile social networking application developed by 2go Interactive.
Now, fast ward to 2016, and you have many big players. Others include Facebook messenger, Viber, Blackberry Messenger, etc. Every Smart phone is equipped with the ability to use various forms of these budding social media chat platforms. The fact that they are mostly free are makes it more appealing.
Nigerians use these chat platform much the same way the world use them. Those who prefer take privacy more important opt for the BBM chat platform above the use of WhatsApp.
Viber one of the leading messaging and calling application with more than 664 million users on Tuesday 19
th 2016 announced that it has opened its latest social channel 'public chat' to partners in Africa and Middle East. This means that more chat platform will still be developed and more will still be in use because the advantages of its use trumps the disadvantages. It is safe to say that chat platforms have come to stay as it is one of the major ways people in the world especially in Nigeria use in communicating.
