The largest messaging app in China, WeChat offers users a variety of capabilities beyond messaging, including file sharing, voice and video calling, and even mini-games. The downside to the app is that its users lack privacy, which explains why the U.S. government is considering placing restrictions on WeChat for national security reasons.

As uncertainty surrounds the restrictions that U.S. users of WeChat may soon face, people are looking for WeChat alternatives to help stay in touch. Below are our three favorite alternatives to WeChat.

WhatsApp

Like WeChat, WhatsApp has a large number of users (over 2 billion). You can use WhatsApp to chat, share files, and have voice and video calls. You can also set an image or video Status that lets your friends and colleagues know how your day is going.

The downsides to WhatsApp are that the images and videos that people share go directly into the multimedia library of your phone, which can get annoying. And the number of users allowed on a group video call at one time is eight.

AirSend

AirSend is the best new way to chat, share files, and have voice and video calls. The app’s additional capabilities — screen sharing in calls, file storage and organization, and task management — make it particularly useful in ways that WhatsApp and Skype cannot compete. You can also make each messaging channel special by customizing the chat background and logo.

The downside to AirSend is that there is no place to post status updates in your profile, and it currently lacks fun GIFs and a wider variety of emojis.

Skype

There’s a reason almost everyone has heard of Skype. Before Zoom came along, Skype was the gold standard of video conferencing apps. The reason Skype makes it on our list (and not Zoom) is because it has the messaging components and capabilities that Zoom lacks.

With Skype, you can send messages, share files, have online voice and video calls, and even make calls to phones. It also comes with a big GIF library to make chatting a little more fun.

The downsides to Skype are that it costs money to communicate with people who don’t use the app and that voice and video call quality can be spotty at times.

As you can see, there are a variety of good alternatives to WeChat, so there’s no need to fear even if usage is restricted in the future.

Between WhatsApp, AirSend, and Skype, the WeChat alternative that will work best for you will depend on what you need a messaging app for. If you want an app purely for casual or social use, either WhatsApp or Skype might be the one for you since you can post status updates and use a variety of fun GIFs and emojis to communicate your feelings. If you need an app for business use as well as casual use, then AirSend is the way to go with its additional capabilities that will make your life easier.

AirSend is a versatile digital workspace to share files, send messages, and complete tasks. Click here to see how AirSend can help you.

Do you ever have struggles with learning how to delete messages on GroupMe? Or perhaps, how to search for messages or join a group on GroupMe? The main question we should be asking ourselves is why GroupMe is challenging to use? Is there not a better alternative? Well, yes, AirSend. AirSend answers all the questions users ask of GroupMe and more. In this blog post, we will give a detailed comparison of AirSend and GroupMe. But before we begin, let’s talk about what type of qualities should be in a chat app. 

What Qualities Should Be in a Chat App? 

Chat apps are great for talking with friends and family. Chat apps should be user intuitive, clean, and visually appealing. The goal when using a chat app is to maintain that connection we have with others. Chat apps need several attributes to preserve relationships. Characteristics, such as: 

• User friendly
• Clean design

People want to use an app that makes them feel good. An app that makes connecting with others more comfortable. Attributes as the ones stated above are the keys to having a successful chat app. Not only is the app easy-to-use, but it is also aesthetically appealing- so why wouldn’t you use the app? We are going to look at AirSend and GroupMe in each respective category of quality.

User Friendly

AirSend

What do we mean by user friendly? Well, the platform should be easy-to-use, with no questions of “How do I use this? What does this button do?” Anything and everything in the chat app should be readable, clear, and easy-to-understand. We believe that AirSend is successful in this category.

With AirSend, users can easily send messages with our large text bar located at the bottom. Additionally, it is super easy to upload images with the paperclip icon. Furthermore, and what we consider to be the best is that users can easily find their files and photos with the large file tab. Friends can easily create and organize folders and share memes of cats. At the same time, friends can easily hop into their family channel and share family photos and plans for dinner through a video/audio call.

Or, if you are a student, AirSend would be perfect for a collaboration tool. Students can:

• Hold project meetings with our built-in video/audio calling
• Create tasks
• Customize their workspace
• Talk with other students in your class
• Upload important assignments, rubrics, and lecture notes

Finally, AirSend is super easy-to-use both via mobile app and web. Best of all, unlike GroupMe, users won’t have trouble signing in or adding friends/families to channels. Instead, everyone will stay connected all the time. 

GroupMe

GroupMe, on the other hand, is a bit more complex to use. While switching between channels is easy, carrying a conversation is not. With GroupMe, there is a compact design, making things hard to find. For instance, the app isn’t clear when it comes to finding members in a channel, muting a channel, finding your gallery, or even changing your group avatar/name. With GroupMe, there is a lack of distinct features within the app, making it difficult to understand the potentials the app could do.

Additionally, there is a new Skype integration within the app. Having Skype integration means leaving the GroupMe app to have a call within another chat app. This Skype integration can appear confusing for some users- because why use a chat app that uses a calling integration within another chat app? 

Unlike AirSend, there are currently some difficulties with using the web version of GroupMe. Finally, according to some users, notifications fail to alert users of new messages. Next, let’s take a look at both apps from the perspective of a clean design.

Clean Design

In terms of a clean design, a chat app should carry: 

• Clear and easy-to-find features
• Visually appealing design- beautiful color matching
• An organized layout

AirSend

AirSend fits all these attributes. With AirSend, users can easily find their tasks, files, notebook, and text bar. Having this organized design makes these features easy-to-find, build connections with others, and collaborate with peers. 

GroupMe

With GroupMe, there are a few complexities to its design. Because everything is compact, there is a claustrophobic feeling when using the app. Every feature is organized into hard-to-find sections.

Additionally, the different color messages of blue and white are unappealing. Finally, there is a non-professional look to GroupMe’s overall design. Having a non-professional look is suitable for casual conversation. However, if you are talking with professors or holding virtual presentations, it would be nice to have a professional and straightforward design. 

Conclusion

Both platforms are right to use for what they are designed to do. However, looking from a more in-depth perspective of being user friendly and clean design, it is apparent that AirSend may be the better choice.

With AirSend, friends, families, and students can chat all in one place. Students can chat with families, while also chatting with friends, while also hosting a project meeting. Further, getting work done through AirSend is very easy due to its organized layout of tasks, file management, and notebooks.

How to Leave us Feedback

We are always seeking to improve our product, so all feedback is appreciated. To find out where to leave comments and/or suggestions, you can visit our public channel or visit us at our support page.

AirSend is a versatile digital workspace that allows users to share files, send messages, and complete tasks. See how AirSend can help you.

We are back with another blog post on How to Build an Online Community with AirSend vs. Discord. We recently wrote about Discord vs. AirSend: Roles and Permissions Explained, which you can read about by clicking here. In this blog post, we will be explaining how to jumpstart your community with a basic setup of your community through AirSend and Discord.

When creating a community, it is important to consider the following:

• Choosing your niche
• Choosing the right platform

Picking your niche is easy, however, when choosing the right platform, things can get a little tricky. There are many factors to consider when choosing the perfect platform to host your community. Factors, such as:

• User friendly
• Visually appealing
• Welcoming

Now that we’ve covered what factors and considerations need to be taken into creating a community, let’s talk how to design your community. Let’s begin with AirSend.

AirSend

AirSend is a great platform to build genuine relationships through an intimate conversation space.

With an AirSend community, users can experience:

• Clean and organized design
• Full control over your community
• Deep connections and profound conversations

Here’s how to build a community with AirSend.

How to Build a Community with AirSend

Step One: Creating a public channel

1. Type your community name in the “channel name” section.
2. Provide a description for your community in the box titled, “channel description”
3. Check off “make channel public”

Step Two: Customize your Community with Logos and Backgrounds

Found in your settings, users can customize their community with a background and logo. Here are the steps:

1. Go to your settings (marked as the three-geared icon)
2. Click on the “customization” tab
3. Upload your background and logo image

Step Three: Customize your Community with a Built-in Guidebook

Your bulletin board/guidebook is the golden area to advertise what your community is all about. Here are the steps to customize your community:

1. Click on the pencil icon to edit your guidebook
2. Upload your pictures and links
3. Customize your community with different headings

Step Four: Customize your Folders

Having folders is a great way to keep track of anything mentioned in your community. Instead of scrolling through so many conversations, find the thing you are looking for through a designated folder.

To create your folders:

1. Click on the three dots located on the right-hand side
2. Click “create folder”

Once you are done creating your folders, the last task is to assign member roles.

Step Five: Assign Member Roles

After adding your final cosmetics to your community, it is time to assign member roles. Providing roles allow for stability and organization within a community. The roles AirSend offers are:

• Viewer: Read messages, wiki, and download files
• Collaborator: Post messages, read wiki, files, and actions
• Full Collaborator: Post messages, edit the wiki, and upload files and images
• Manager: Same as a full collaborator and manage users
• Admin: Full control of the channel and change member roles

The great thing about designing a community with AirSend is that it takes no time at all. With our user-friendly platform, communities can build close conversations through clean designs and intimate conversation space.

Discord on-the-other-hand is a more complex platform. Their platform is known for its unlimited customization, which can be a good thing and a bad thing.

How to Build a Discord Community

Discord takes the approach of dynamic user roles. What we mean by dynamic user roles is customized user roles. On top of that, users can customize channel preferences, add bots to run and stabilize servers, make private channels, and many more. However, with many customizations comes many complexities. And with many complexities come some difficulties in using Discord. One difficulty that is apparent when using the platform is its use of customized roles.

For example, Server A has specified permissions for its members. Members have permission to:

• Post in channel
• Share files
• Invite other members to the community

Now, let’s say we want to join another community, Server B. Because there is full-fledged customization, creators of the server can check off specified permissions for their roles that may be different from other servers. In Server B, members can have permission to:

• Post in Channel
• Share files
• Add reactions

But they cannot invite other members to the community like Server A can. Members cannot view what permissions they have. Now, imagine this with higher roles.

Let’s say there are Moderators in Server A and Server B. Server A has specific permissions to kick members out. In Server B, those same moderators from Server A do not have the permission to kick members out. This is not apparent to the moderators, thus confusion and complexities are formed.

Having customized roles is not always a bad thing. For some this can be a huge plus. It is also important to note that having so many ways to customize a Discord community also means having to spend a lot of time getting it ready.

Here is how to set up your basic Discord community.

Step One: Create a Discord Community Server

1. Click on the large green plus icon in the bottom left-side panel
2. Click on “create a server”

After creating your server, it is time to name your community and upload an image.

Step Two: Customize your Community- Name and Server Image

After creating a server, Discord will ask you what to name your server. Once you created a name for your server, go to your server settings to upload your desired image. Once you upload your community image, it is time to customize your user roles according to the Discord community you want to create.

Step Three: Assign Customized Roles for Your Discord Community

Once you are in the sever settings, click on the button labeled as roles. The image above should be what you are currently seeing. In the image above there is a yellow box. In the yellow box is a plus icon. Click on the plus icon to create new roles.

In the green box, are all the functionalities a role member can have. Each role has customized permissions to a channel. And each role carries a customized name. These names can range from Admins, Community Manager, Mods, Helpers, Servers Guide, etc.

Once all your roles are established, the next step is to create all your channels.

Step Four: Creating Channels

Noted in the image above is a Discord community. As one can see, there is a list of channels and audio channels. Normally the standard channels to have in a Discord community are:

• Announcements
• Rules
• General
• Private Channels
• Extra channels that apply to the community

To create channels, click on the small plus icon next to “text channels” and “voice channels.”

When you create a channel, Discord will ask if you want to create a text channel or a voice channel. After you selected your channel type, you will need to input a channel name.

As mentioned before, users can create private channels. Private channels mean member access-only. In other words, an admin-only channel means only admins can view the channel. The same thing with moderator-only channels. Only moderators can view the channel.

Having multiple channels is both good and bad. The great thing about having multiple channels in Discord is that it ensures organized communication. The bad thing is that if you are a small group of friends, organized communication is not necessary- especially for people who do not prefer extensive customization options.

The Dilemma with Discord

The dilemma with Discord is that sometimes it can be a mental overload for people. The Discord community server can be a lot to handle with choosing various customized roles and setting up customized channel preferences.

Further, Discord is not perfect for small communities. Small communities only need one stream of conversation. Not a platform that has a plethora of channels that carry different conversations.

For example, let’s say a group of friends decide to set up a group chat. Because Discord offers unlimited channels, most users feel the need to create subject-oriented channels.

For instance, having a group of channels labeled fitness and adventures. The text channels would be labeled as hiking, images, online workouts, yoga, and strength training. Then you would have audio channels labeled as workout rooms one, two, and three.

Then you have another group of channels labeled as food adventures. Several text channels could include recipes, images, and city-based restaurants. Because of the multiple subject-oriented rooms, it can be difficult for users to decide which channel they want to use for an ongoing conversation.

For instance, having a conversation about restaurants that transition to the topic of recipes would suggest a user might want to switch to the recipe channel. And if they don’t switch, what is the point of creating the various channels in the first place?

After your channels are set up, it is time to set up your channel preferences.

Step Five: Setting Channel Preferences

Yes, setting up channel preferences. Not only do you get to set up customized member roles, but you also can set up specific permissions for each member in each channel.

Hover over the channel you want to set preferences for. Once you hover over the channel, there should be a small gear icon located to the right of the channel name. Click on that.

Next, click on permissions. To customize permissions for each member, click on the small plus icon under labeled as roles and members. In the image below, roles and members should be in the green box. There will be a drop-down menu that appears with a list of roles.

You will have the ability to customize channel permission for each role. The customized preferences can be different for each channel you created.

Now that your basic community is set up, it is time to promote your community.

Step Six: Promoting your Community

You can even how to make a Discord server public by following these easy steps. This can give your community a wider reach.

Now, if all these steps that I mentioned confused you, don’t worry. We made a video that shows you how to create a community with AirSend and Discord.

How to Create a Community with AirSend and Discord

Summary

Ultimately, both platforms are great to use to start your community. If you want something easy to maintain with a clean design, AirSend is the choice. However, if you want a platform with the bells and whistles attached, creating a Discord community may be the wiser choice.

With the increasing prevalence of remote work and improvements in technology, digital sales rooms are becoming more and more common. A digital sales room is a digital space where sales people collaborate with team members and communicate with potential customers.

In an ideal digital sales room, sales people can send messages to potential clients, have voice or video calls on the spot, share files, and have everything in one place to easily keep things organized. With these capabilities readily on-hand, sales people are able to make more wins from their sales proposals and can create long-term value. They are also better able to visualize and manage the full customer decision journey.

The rest of this blog post will show you how to set up and use AirSend as a digital sales room.

Step 1: Create a Channel Template for Potential Customers

Make a channel template with all of the files and Wiki information that every potential customer needs to get started. That way you don’t need to waste time copying and pasting canned email messages and attaching the same PDFs or PowerPoints over and over again.

Step 2: Duplicate the Channel for Each New Lead

After you have your channel template, you can then duplicate the channel for each new lead.

Step 3: Easily Take Your Leads Through the Customer Decision Journey with Messaging, File Sharing, and Voice and Video Calling

Within each customer channel, you can receive and answer questions, share additional information, and jump directly into a voice or video call. You can complete the entire sales life cycle within the AirSend Channel.

As you can see, you can use AirSend to create a digital sales room that allows sales people to easily manage their customer communications and collaborate with each other.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here.