Messaging and Internet calls in difficult conditions: how do five mobile messengers digest GPRS / EDGE?
Despite the fact that the users of the whole world have more and more opportunities to connect to the broadband mobile Internet, sometimes they have to face situations when the speed of mobile Internet access leaves much to be desired: 3G is turned off, and the maximum that remains to be expected is on GPRS / EDGE. This, for example, can happen with a large load on the network, in conditions of low coverage. And considering the vast expanses of Russia, somewhere 3G is even simply absent. Therefore, it was interesting to see how mobile messengers will behave on the “narrow channel”. Four well-known industry leaders - Line, Skype, Vider and WhatsApp, which have already passed the 100 million installations stage, made the company a new Converse messenger, during the development of which particular attention was paid to working in conditions of a limited data transmission channel.
If Line, Skype, Vider and WhatsApp no ​​longer need presentation, then we ’ll dwell on Converse .
The application is free, available for download on Google Play. In the near future, it is planned to release the program for iOS devices. The size of the installation package is 24 MB.
During the first launch, the user is prompted to go through standard registration: enter the phone number to which the SMS code will be sent. The user's ID (first name / surname or nickname) is taken from the Google account, and can be changed later.
The main menu is presented in four tabs: text chat (SMS integration is present), call manager, contacts (all contacts from the phone book are pulled up, when you press the “C” button, you can display only the contacts of Converse users), user’s service tab in which you can change your picture. The prompts that appear at the first start and drawn by hand - in the style of Doodle Jump allow you to familiarize yourself with the program menu.
In the “Profile” tab you can replenish your Converse account (all new users are automatically credited with it $ 2), invite a friend / acquaintance to Converse via SMS and not only, change a few settings and, finally, use feedback from the program's developers. In general, everything looks simple.
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Now a few words about the features of the program, which can be used now.
First, Converse allows you to bind several phones to one account. Due to this, for example, only one family member can pay for calls, but all family members will use it. This chip can be useful on vacation.
Secondly, the possibility of flexible use of the program on several devices is realized, when the chats on one will be automatically duplicated on the other. The function works more intelligently than in Skype, as a result, there is no need to re-browse the chats on the tablet, if before, for example, the conversation was conducted on a smartphone.
Thirdly, the cost of the call is displayed during a call.
Video calls while in Converse do not work, but this is the prospect of the near future.
We return to testing. It was conducted as follows: all five programs were installed on the phone, 3G connection was forcibly disconnected. At the same time, the “Data Limit in Background” mode was activated - so that the narrow channel would not be divided between different programs, like the Internet, and each of the instant messengers would use the channel provided to it completely. Such a kind of indulgence.
Typical parameters of a restricted channel are shown in the screenshot below.
According to the legend, the user who was in the GPRS / EDGE network was required to send a message or make a call to a smartphone connected to broadband access to the Network. With this approach, only one bottleneck arises - on the side of the caller, and it is much easier to evaluate the capabilities of a program in a narrow channel.
Each program estimated the download speed of the application itself, the speed of the text chat, the quality of voice communication, and the file transfer time of 150 KB.
The overall result of testing: not all messengers normally digest a narrow channel. And the specific results are as follows.
For ease of comparison, all test data is summarized in the table:
Converse
If Line, Skype, Vider and WhatsApp no ​​longer need presentation, then we ’ll dwell on Converse .
The application is free, available for download on Google Play. In the near future, it is planned to release the program for iOS devices. The size of the installation package is 24 MB.
During the first launch, the user is prompted to go through standard registration: enter the phone number to which the SMS code will be sent. The user's ID (first name / surname or nickname) is taken from the Google account, and can be changed later.
The main menu is presented in four tabs: text chat (SMS integration is present), call manager, contacts (all contacts from the phone book are pulled up, when you press the “C” button, you can display only the contacts of Converse users), user’s service tab in which you can change your picture. The prompts that appear at the first start and drawn by hand - in the style of Doodle Jump allow you to familiarize yourself with the program menu.
In the “Profile” tab you can replenish your Converse account (all new users are automatically credited with it $ 2), invite a friend / acquaintance to Converse via SMS and not only, change a few settings and, finally, use feedback from the program's developers. In general, everything looks simple.
')
Now a few words about the features of the program, which can be used now.
First, Converse allows you to bind several phones to one account. Due to this, for example, only one family member can pay for calls, but all family members will use it. This chip can be useful on vacation.
Secondly, the possibility of flexible use of the program on several devices is realized, when the chats on one will be automatically duplicated on the other. The function works more intelligently than in Skype, as a result, there is no need to re-browse the chats on the tablet, if before, for example, the conversation was conducted on a smartphone.
Thirdly, the cost of the call is displayed during a call.
Video calls while in Converse do not work, but this is the prospect of the near future.
Testing method
We return to testing. It was conducted as follows: all five programs were installed on the phone, 3G connection was forcibly disconnected. At the same time, the “Data Limit in Background” mode was activated - so that the narrow channel would not be divided between different programs, like the Internet, and each of the instant messengers would use the channel provided to it completely. Such a kind of indulgence.
Typical parameters of a restricted channel are shown in the screenshot below.
According to the legend, the user who was in the GPRS / EDGE network was required to send a message or make a call to a smartphone connected to broadband access to the Network. With this approach, only one bottleneck arises - on the side of the caller, and it is much easier to evaluate the capabilities of a program in a narrow channel.
Each program estimated the download speed of the application itself, the speed of the text chat, the quality of voice communication, and the file transfer time of 150 KB.
results
The overall result of testing: not all messengers normally digest a narrow channel. And the specific results are as follows.
- Converse : the only program that allowed you to make a voice call. Of course, he was not of perfect quality, phrases sometimes were interspersed with long pauses, but, nevertheless, there were no communication breaks, and the essence of the conversation was not lost. The work of the text chat can be estimated at the top four with a plus - it works fine, but a little slower than that of Line, Viber or WhatsApp. Finally, the messenger sent a reference file of 150 KB in a minute and twenty seconds - also a good result, since Skype did not even work as a text chat, and the transfer of the file to Viber took infinite three and a half minutes.
- Line : I liked fast launch, fast text chat and fast file transfer (second place after WhatsApp), but in terms of voice calls, the instant messenger took up a defensive position - he reported an unstable connection and network problems.
Naturally, talk, using GPRS / EDGE and Line, did not work.
- Skype : perhaps the most ponderous customer confirmed his “ponderousness”. The longest download time (15 seconds), and the inability to either send a text message or make a call is the result of the interaction between Skype and GPRS / EDGE connectivity. Even to get through to the corporate service of communication check failed.
- Viber : This popular messenger was disappointing - voice calls did not work (there was a very interesting situation when a call was received on one device and it seemed that the call time went on, another screen showed that the call was still on and the phone was not picked up), the reference file was sent very long, the speed of the chat is inferior to that in Line and WhatsApp.
- WhatsApp : And this program, on the contrary, pleased: chat is bright, files are transferred quickly. She would have voice call support ...
For ease of comparison, all test data is summarized in the table:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/218043/
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