However, over the last couple of years, Google Talk and Voice applications
have been merged with Hangouts, which now serve
as its unified messaging app. This impressive app, still
in its infancy stages, is capable of recognizing DVDs, books, landmarks, artwork, logos,
businesses, barcodes, contact information, products and even text.

So not only is Whatsapp much quicker than regular texting as it is online and real time, but it also free of cost, a free
service to use on your smart-phone.