Chat refers to any type of online communication that offers a real-time transmission of text messages from sender to receiver.
E-mail, short for electronic mail is a method of exchanging digital messages from one person to another.
According to Wikipedia, “online chat may address point-to-point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to many receivers and voice and video chat, or may be a feature of a web conferencing service.” Online chat is not only limited to text messages but can also include voice conversations and video conferencing. Online chat can also refer to anonymous chatrooms that people join and chat with multiple people at the same time. Chatrooms are virtual online room also called a channel, where people with similar interests can meet and chat with each other.
Chatrooms can be created by any one on any website that allows chatting services. Chats can be specifically related to something, such as games, history, etc. This allows people with similar interests to come together and share ideas and meet each other. Instant messaging is another form of online chatting that allows users that know each other add the other person’s username and then start a real-time conversation with them. Many times instant messaging is linked with e-mail addresses. Popular instant messaging includes AIM, Skype, GTalk, Windows Messenger, WhatsApp, etc.
E-mail, short for electronic mail, is a digital form of an actual mail, now referred to as ‘snail mail’. Email is a method of exchanging digital messages from one person to another. Email requires a recipient and an author; the author would write up an e-mail and send it to the recipient. For email, the person would have to sign up for an email service from many free email providers. During sign up, the person would be required to select a username that would then become their e-mail address. For example, if someone was signing up with Gmail for email services and they selected the username
‘xyz’, then their email address would be xyz(@)gmail(dot)com. The person would then acquire the email address of the person he/she wants to send an email to. They would write up the message and send it to the email address.
