Are there any instant messaging apps that support Markdown and LaTex?

Question

I am a college student, and we come across situations where we need to discuss homework and concepts that we have to learn. We traditionally use WhatsApp, but that's not really a good enough app, as it doesn't support MathJax. It looks quite ugly to see a "\int_{2}^{3}{\log{x}}" in the WhatsApp chat.

I am in requirement of an app that:

1. Supports Markdown and LaTeX
2. Downloadable from Google Play (or at least a safe link)
3. Instant messaging, no delays (complicated MathJax may take some time, so that's okay)

Answer 1

I would suggest you telegram https://telegram.org/ with a LaTeX bot. You may start with an InLaTeX bot https://telegram.me/inlatexbot

Once you added the bot, type

@inlatexbot $$x^2$$

to the person you want and the bot will render your markup to an image and send it. Note, that after the first time you won't need to type "@inlatexbot" in full, it will suggest you a dropdown once you type "@".

You also might want to look at other telegram TeX bots, there are several.

Overall, telegram is just like whatsapp, but has more features. And it is also quite popular, so it won't be much of a problem to switch to it. Of course it has group chats, etc.