Reliance Jio Chat Hands-On Review: The Next WhatsApp in Evolution?

It’s the age of instant messengers. People hangout more on IMs today compared to social media networks. The reason behind this adaption might be the evolved features of instant messaging.

It was 8 years ago when I bought my new Symbian S60 device, I installed all the IM apps that are available on it. No one except a few used to use those apps including WhatsApp. I used to ask my friends who had Symbian devices if they had WhatsApp installed on their handsets. The most of the replies I got were “what’s that?”, some were “No bro! I use Gtalk” and a very few replies had this phrase “Yeah! But I find it no useful”

Later, WhatsApp evolved with more features with time including the recent voice call feature and materialistic design update. Users increased, popularity gained.

What is Jio Chat?

Jio chat is an instant messaging application developed by Reliance communications with extra features that were lacked in WhatsApp and many other IM applications.

With all the features of a typical instant messenger application and some extra features that they are lacked, Jio chat seems like another WhatsApp in evolution. Let’s take a look at the application and see what it has got.

Registration with mobile number is common

Just like WhatsApp and other similar IM applications, the registration or account creation process is the same. You enter your mobile number, get an SMS verification code and proceed by confirming it.

Setting up the profile info

Setting up your profile information is no different from WhatsApp. You will just have to enter your name, select the gender, choose a profile picture and start using the application.

Chats

The chatting interface looks more like ‘Hike’ and ‘We Chat’ with doodle background.

There available very different chat stickers to express their feelings perfectly. You can also download a lot of free stickers online by clicking the ‘+’ sign.

Voice calling

Jio chat comes with a voice calling feature, which is seen in most of the chatting applications these days. Features like this are needed in order to put a check on the increasing call rates by telecom operators.

Video calling

You can also make a video call on Jio chat. the ability to make video calls in group chat is a cherry on the cake.

Public channels

This is an interesting feature on of Jio chat which allows us to subscribe to public broadcasts. We have seen this feature back in ‘We Chat’ at first and it seems like Jio chat is going to cover up all those features packed in one application.

Chat settings

You can control the alerts & notifications, hide private conversations, set a ‘do not disturb’ time slots, enable or disable ‘last seen’, delay sending of messages using this application.

Personalization

Jio chat allows you to change the color scheme of the application and chat background. Even the font size can be changed according to your visibility and requirement.

Security and privacy

You can blacklist contacts and safeguard your privacy. Numbers added to backlist once can be removed and can be re-added later.

Free SMS & chat delays

You can even send free SMS to your contacts when they are not shown up in Jio chat. You can also control the delaying time of chat message sent. But you cannot delay messages in order to schedule them. The maximum delay allowed is 3 seconds.

Share files and apps

This feature makes Jio chat stand out the new and best among the IM applications. You know well that you cannot share files, documents, and apps via WhatsApp, but you can share all those with Jio chat. I love this feature and it then becomes a chat application for businesses too.

Verdict

Jio chat is an all-in-one application with trending features like voice calling, video calling and ability to subscribe to broadcasting channels. I personally love the file, document, and apps sharing feature which is not seen in popular chat application like WhatsApp.

It might take some time for people to recognize this newbie application. You remember my story with WhatsApp on an S60 device right? Yeah, that’s what I mean.

Don’t forget to share your experience with Jio chat in comments below.