The last time Samsung released a messaging application as its own alternative to the many messenger applications that were on the rise back then, things didn’t turn out as they were intended. Despite posting impressive install figures thanks to it being pre-installed on Samsung’s best-selling Galaxy smartphones and a whole range of “Chat” feature phones, ChatON never really caught on. It did not have enough active users to take on Messenger, iMessage, BlackBerry Messenger, Whatsapp, WeChat, Kakao and others. The company ended up discontinuing the application and embracing BlackBerry Messenger.

Socializer Messenger, a new application from Samsung that was silently released on the Google Play Store towards the end of August, is the company’s latest attempt at hacking the burgeoning messaging apps space. The clearest sign of the potential in that space is the Facebook-owned WhatsApp which now boasts of 900 million monthly active users.

To make Socializer Messenger possible, Samsung turned to another upcoming messaging application that is one of our favourites thanks to its extensive functionality and features, Telegram Messenger. Socializer Messenger is based on Telegram’s open source platform. Actually, as we found out, at face value, Socializer Messenger is just Telegram. Upon setting it up (by entering your cellphone number and validating it) it even picks up all your conversations from the Telegram application itself.

Spot the difference

There’s no difference between having it and having the Telegram Messenger application on the phone. To avoid redundancy and probably save on some space as well, you’ll have to choose one. For now, we’d recommend the Telegram Messenger app itself over Socializer Messenger. As you can see in the screenshots below, Socializer is a step behind Telegram itself. One of the most recent features added to Telegram was the ability to also view shared links separately as has been the case with multimedia and other files. It’s great though for those who’ve never tried out Telegram and for developers who get a chance to develop applications that work within it.

Telegram currently has over 60 million monthly active users who send over 10 billion messages daily.

Will we get to see Socializer Messenger pre-loaded on future Samsung smartphones?