Before smartphones, texting your friends was a simple affair. You typed out a 160-character SMS, hit send, and that was that. These days we have rich media, emoji, location sharing, group chat, reactions, video calls, and much more. But with those advancements comes a compromise: there are loads of different messaging apps to choose from. Our cover story this issue seeks to explore the very best chat apps, helping you decide not only which ones you should install, but which one you should convince all your friends to use too.
We’re also concluding our buyer’s guide series (at least until some new models get released) with a full debrief on every type of Mac currently available, and how to figure out which one would suit you best. Add to that a look at Apple’s possible folding phone future, how to see what personal data Apple stores about you, and much more besides.
Happy reading!
Tom Rolfe
Swipe Editor