Two chat apps hit refresh

With the year coming to a close, it's only fitting our social networking companions re-invent themselves in sync with the change in calendar. To continue its appeal and make the chatting experience enjoyable and user-friendly, the Facebook Messenger and WeChat have come up with new features, including collaborating with other apps.

WeChat is attempting an inventive and dynamic approach to communicating with stickers, which is its most valuable feature. It has joined hands with another free app, StickerMe (right), which allows you to personalise stickers with photos. All one needs to do is follow some simple steps, including selecting a face shape, uploading your photo, resizing it, and allow StickerMe to transform the expression to fit a variety of entertaining sticker templates.

This takes a little time but the results are both fun and innovative. The animated stickers generated of one's photo add to the interactive element of the chat app, once it is shared through StickerMe. Not only this, the animated templates on StickerMe are constantly updated according to the occasion, like New Year-themed templates to wish friends and family. Altogether, if one has the patience, these stickers can enliven chatting.

The Facebook Messenger has transformed and the updated version has some exciting promises. The Messenger 3.0 has undergone a vigorous user interface transformation, which makes it easy to navigate, view recent conversations and the contact list. The new feature it boasts is its ability to sync phonebook contacts in the Messenger list, enabling one to communicate with even those who might not have uploaded the Messenger app. These people, who could be easily identified as those not having the little messenger icon against their names, would receive your chats and messages in their Facebook inbox.

Also, the upgraded Messenger 3.0 gets multimedia-friendly, allowing you to attach photos, videos and voice messages, giving a stiff competition to other apps like Whatsapp and Line that also boast these features. The new-look Messenger also comes with a wide variety of stickers, including the 'Like' as well as 'Dislike' buttons.

The world of socialising through chat apps has just hit refresh and is beckoning all to join the tide. They only re-iterate the fact - change is the law of technology.