Samsung ChatON Messenger Can Recall Messages; Additional Features Added

ChatON, a mobile messaging service was introduced by Samsung in 2011. This service has a presence in more than 120 countries in 62 different languages.

The latest news is that Samsung has updated its messaging service ChatON in version 3.5 which has some interesting features to offer. This update is expected to elevate ChatON in the highly competitive mobile messaging market. ChatON is currently available on Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and desktops.

In addition, the new features are expected to popularize this messaging app, which is in direct competition with Facebook's WhatsApp. The timing could not be any better because WhatsApp went through a series of major outages from the time Facebook acquired them for a whopping $19B.

What is New?

Samsung is now letting its users to delete (or recall) sent messages, similar to Snapchat. For those unfamiliar with Snapchat, it is a messaging app that makes your message self-destruct in 10 seconds.

Users of ChatON will now be able to delete messages exchanged in chat rooms after they've been sent and read. This is achieved by tapping on the sent message and selecting the 'Recall' option. Once the message is deleted, the message recipient will receive a notification stating that the message has been deleted/recalled.

Additional Features

1. ChatON's latest version provides location sharing options to let your friends know your whereabouts in real time. Samsung partnered with Glympse to incorporate this location sharing feature in their messenger.

2. Samsung has improved their file sharing feature. Users can now send files up to 1GB with this new version.

3. The group chat feature has been revamped; the capacity has been increased to 1001 from 200 persons.

4. ChatON version 3.5 comes with an improved translation feature and it can now support Arabic, Turkish, Farsi and Hindi.

5. In addition, users can receive both SMS/MMS and ChatON messages from the same sender in the ChatON app.

According to CNet, ChatON signed-up more than 100 million users by the end of 2013.

Jaehyun Park, Senior Vice President of Media Solution Center in Samsung said, "ChatON will offer more differentiated messaging features to improve user convenience and focus on supplying various content to enhance global competitiveness."