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Telegram
All
37
Experiences
Pros
28
Cons
8
Specs
Top
Pro
Free and convenient large file sharing
Copy/paste videos, gifs, images, geolocation, documents, and even executable files. Drag over files for practically any time up to 2GB in size. Images can be compressed, too.
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Top
Con
Not fully open source
Telegram has an open API and protocol free for everyone, but the backend software is not open source. Therefore 100% privacy can not be evaluated.
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Top
Pro
Free of cost
The application is available free of cost.
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Top
Con
Can only be used with a phone number
It is not possible to activate and use Telegram by mail etc. You need a phone number.
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Top
Pro
Privacy focused
In addition to the end-to-end encryption [only in secret chats] that provides privacy to communications, the app also includes self destructing timers for chats, and the ability to permanently delete messages, yours and theirs, from your and their devices.
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Top
Con
Only "Secret Chat" messages are encrypted end to end
The only way to get end-to-end encryption (client-client) using Telegram is to use the Secret Chat function, anything through the service is server-client encrypted. Also secret chat is only implemented in the mobile apps, meaning there is no way to encrypt messages end-to-end when using the desktop client or the web browser client.
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Top
Pro
Media messaging
Videos, gifs, images, geolocation, and documents.
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Top
Con
"Secret Chat" feature is not available for desktop client
Secret chats with end to end encryption are only available on mobile apps.
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Top
Pro
Channels for one way broadcasting
Broadcasting channels suitable for announcing things.
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Top
Con
No source code sintax highlighting
Telegram does not have source code syntax highlighting, making it difficult to share code snippets.
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Top
Pro
Beautiful UI
Very customizable with a lot of clean looking options.
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Top
Con
Does not work for visually impaired
Doesn't work for visually impaired.
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Top
Pro
Possible to send photos and videos without compression
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Top
Con
Does not support spherical 360° photos
Spherical 360° photos becoming more popular these days, but Telegram does not support such format.
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Top
Pro
Supergroups of up to 200,000 people
In Supergroups, anyone along with admins can delete their messages from all sides. A message can be pinned to the top. All of the user's messages can be deleted by an administrator, and they can be banned and reported as well. Supergroups can have a public link (outside of Asia, due to high spam volumes), which is also a username.
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Top
Con
Does not support text messaging
You can NOT make it your default text messaging App.
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Top
Pro
Two-step verification
You can set up an additional password to your account, which can be reset by your email. You don't have to use an email if you do not want to. If you lose access to your email or forget your password, you will be able to reset it via text message if your account is over seven days old and will receive it within a week (in case you recover anything before then).
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Top
Pro
Secure
Telegram uses an open source MTProto encryption protocol that provides complete end-to-end encryption for secret chats. To show off their confidence in the protocol the company behind Telegram has organized $200,000 and $300,000 challenges to break the encryption. So far there have been no winners.
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Top
Pro
Saved messages
You can write messages to yourself. You can write some notes, add links, and see everything across all your devices.
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Top
Pro
Cloud chat keys are kept in different jurisdiction
Even though encryption used for cloud-based storage (e.g. Gmail, Facebook, iCloud) may not be as secure as end-to-end encryption or zero-knowledge storage, Telegram does the most that it can by holding keys to chats in different jurisdictions, requiring intergovernmental cooperation to obtain the keys. This is aside from whatever other security measures have been taken, of course.
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Top
Pro
Multiplatform native client apps
There are native desktop, mobile and web client apps, that are optimized for speed and are light on memory usage.
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Top
Pro
Open source client apps
Client apps are open source, making whole service more trustworthy.
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Top
Pro
Unlimited storage
Unlimited number of files can be stored forever on the cloud. You can upload files up to 1.5 GB each.
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Top
Pro
Voice and video messages
You can post voice and video messages if you are too lazy to write text messages.
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Top
Pro
Group Voice Chat
This Discord-like feature adds to the interactivity of the application.
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Top
Pro
Pinned Messages
You can pin messages to the top of groups or supergroups so members will see them when opening the group.
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Top
Pro
Self-destruct messages
Messages in individual chats can be set to self destruct on a timer. They will disappear after the timer expires. Messages in all new chats can be set to self-destruct with a global auto-delete timer in Settings > Privacy and Security > Auto-Delete Messages.
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Top
Pro
Edit or delete messages after sending them
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Top
Pro
Banned in China
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Top
Pro
Save time with inline bots and link previews
Unfortunately, on the desktop videos don't play, but images are viewable without visiting popular websites like imgur and Instagram. You can play YouTube videos and others within the app, so you don't need to embed code or anything. With inline bots, such as @gif, @pic/bing, @vid/YouTube, etc, you can look things up without leaving the client or chat that you're in. Simply type the name and some keywords and wait for the results to load.
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Top
Pro
@mentions
You can ping people to get their attention by @mentioning them.
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Top
Pro
Desktop app handles HiDPI
The desktop app has a built in setting to scale the UI of the app up to 200% which allows for those with 4k monitors/screens to use the app without scaling issues.
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Top
Pro
High quality calls
Uses the latest GPL audio codecs, such as Opus, an adaptative high-quality codec that supersedes AAC at any bitrate.
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Top
Pro
Customer support is within the app
Although it's volunteer based, but still pretty top-notch if available, which it tends to be.
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Top
Pro
Large groups can have channels called 'Topics'
Topics are now available in groups of 100+ members and have a sleek two-column layout and new buttons to quickly navigate. A default topic called General is now in every topic group, holding the group’s service messages and previous message history.
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Top
Pro
Popular in the USA
On SimilarWeb you can see that Telegram is on the top 15 among all communication apps.
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Specs
Platforms:
Web, Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, macOS, BSD, Windows phone, UWP
Publisher:
Various companies affiliated with Telegram
File Size:
2048 MB
End-to-end encryption:
Secret chats
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Experiences
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1185
282
Discord
All
32
Experiences
Pros
22
Cons
9
Specs
Top
Pro
User friendly
Discord follows the same type of interface design popularised by Slack, which is extremely clean and attractive, and doesn't clutter the interface with unnecessary chrome and cruft.
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Top
Con
Proprietary software
Discord is closed-source, meaning their code isn't available for inspection or reproduction
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Top
Pro
Free for unlimited users
Unlimited amount of users.
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Top
Con
Based on Electron = eats a lot of ram
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Top
Pro
Can be used in browser
Users can invite others to join a Discord channel via a web link, which means no installation is required to use the software - which is one of the big typical barriers to entry for social software.
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Top
Con
Some functions cut out and available only with "Nitro" subscription
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Top
Pro
Good 1-click invite system
Discord allows inviting people to a specific channel with a link. Links can be set to expire. Low effort/passive invite mechanics.
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Top
Con
Developer's previous company was sued for privacy violations, among other things
See: http://classactionlawsuitsinthenews.com/class-action-lawsuit-complaints/openfeint-green-international-privacy-class-action-lawsuit-complaint/ https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/closing-letters/openfeint-inc Discord's privacy policy also states that while they might not sell your data, a company they get sold to will quite possibly attain said data and thus may be in "more" shady hands.
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Top
Pro
Easy setup
You can quickly send invites to people and they can join in using the web client without having to create an account or install the app.
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Top
Con
No self-hosting avaliable
Discord is wholly hosted by Discord (the company), you cannot run private instances, and all servers are hosted on their infrastructure. For most people, this won't really impact their usage.
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Top
Pro
Has low-latency VoIP support
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Top
Con
Not a generic "team chat" tool
All the UI and the features are aimed specifically at communicating with your gaming team/clan.
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Top
Pro
Supports video and text communication
Behaves and looks like Slack for regular text channels, but with the ability to create voice channels as well
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Top
Con
Very unstable on Linux
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Top
Pro
Numerous controls for setting member roles.
Deny access, Deny write message, Allow read messages etc.
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Top
Con
Anti-privacy license terms
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Top
Pro
Ability to create bots
Discord provides an API for creating custom bots.
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Top
Con
Can change "Now Playing" status to something inappropriate
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Top
Pro
Open source bots and management tools
Discord has a wide variety of bots for things from airhorn noises to automated server management, to leveling systems for chat. The bot API is open and there are dedicated sites for finding bots.
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Top
Pro
Game integration
Discord shows which game each user is currently playing, which among other things helps users to form PUGs with minimal hassle.
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Top
Pro
Dark theme out of the box
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Top
Pro
Familiar for Slack users
For those that are used to the way Slack (a similar chat client) works, Discord will be familiar in its use, which lowers the learning curve quite a bit for those that have switched or tried Slack before.
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Top
Pro
Low effort invite mechanics
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Top
Pro
Android app has push notifications
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Top
Pro
Syntax highlighting and Markdown support
The support is limited but still exists. It's a killer feature for dev teams.
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Top
Pro
DDoS mitigation
Discord prevents users from being DDoSed out of games.
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Top
Pro
Targeting of roles
Targeting roles allows for quickly requesting someone from a group e.g. artist, moderator, etc.
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Top
Pro
Ability to thread channels
Ability to create channel categories for channels to sit inside of.
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Top
Pro
Friendly payment policy
Free account have no tangible restrictions. Premium account is just a way to say "thank you" to developers. And it work for all servers of discord (not as in slack). And it can be purchased by one who wants. In contrast to Slask, where all active members of the server should be "premium".
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Top
Pro
Language localization
Have localization for many language, including Russian.
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Top
Pro
Does not allow NSFW related things to be posted unless in a NSFW channel
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Specs
Platforms:
Web, Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android
Search:
Yes
Videoconferencing:
Yes
Audio recording:
No
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1446
474
Zulip
All
9
Experiences
Pros
6
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Helps keep track of different conversations
Instead of rooms or channels Zulip is built around topics. This allows you to have multiple conversations at the same time without conversations interfering with each another. It also allows you to reference conversations without clutter.
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Top
Con
No End-to-End Encryption
Not even for private one-to-one messages, let along group chats.
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Top
Pro
Free and open source software
Zulip is free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license.
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Top
Con
Takes some getting used to
As most chat software uses the concept of channels or rooms, getting in the habit of splitting each topic off in a separate category can require some getting used to and discipline.
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Top
Pro
Easy asynchronous conversations
Its threaded model helps people working in different timezone's communicate effectively.
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Top
Pro
Apps for every platform
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Top
Pro
Hosted or on-premise
With data export tools so you can migrate.
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Top
Pro
Intuitive interface
I struggled with Slack, never finding the settings I like to adjust. With Zulip never had such issues.
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Specs
Platforms:
Web, iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, Linux, terminal
License:
Apache 2
Hosting options:
Hosted and Self-hosted
Service integrations:
Yes
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Experiences
Free/Paid
33
5
Signal
All
16
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
5
Specs
Top
Pro
Provides security and privacy
Signal uses an advanced end to end encryption protocol that provides privacy for every message every time.
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Top
Con
Needs access to your phone number and contacts to work
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Top
Pro
Free and open source
Signal is free and open source software, enabling anyone to verify its security by auditing the code. It's the only private messenger that uses open source, peer-reviewed cryptographic protocols to keep your messages safe.
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Top
Con
Single device
Signal can only be registered to one mobile device at a time. But you can link Signal to Signal Desktop.
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Top
Pro
Supports encrypted group chats
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Top
Con
Servers hosted in the US
A security risk due to National Security letters, which require giving up data to the US state, and making it illegal to disclose that.
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Top
Pro
Has a desktop app
Signal Desktop can be used on multiple devices and has most features of the Android version, although it still requires you to register with your phone.
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Top
Con
Unreliable notifications
Sometimes messages won't be received if the Signal app has been closed for a long time or hasn't been opened after booting the device.
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Top
Pro
Supports sharing of various different media types
Signal supports: emoji, pictures, videos, audio, contacts, any location and GIF.
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Top
Con
Poor support
Their E-mail adress for support are not working. They have a Community support on here. Sometimes if you need a support, you need to create an account on their forum and need to share a topic and wait for long time.
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Top
Pro
Note to Self feature
Allows you to "send: messages to yourself and sync to desktop so you can use Signal as a kind of encrypted Pushbullet alternative
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Top
Pro
You can easily view all media exchanged
You can easily view all media shared in the chat without scrolling back to when it was shared.
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Top
Pro
Annonymous Sender (Encrypted)
The sender credentials can be encrypted with the rest of the message, leaving only the recipient address readable by the Signal server. Even if Signal wanted they couldn't see who is talking with who by this mean.
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Top
Pro
Works everywhere in every country
Unlike most messenger apps, Signal works reliably in all countries by securely circumventing internet censorship.
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Top
Pro
Recommended by Edward Snowden
Edward Snowden uses this messenger and recommends it to everyone who is concerned about his privacy.
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Specs
Platforms:
Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, Mac OS X
Publisher:
Open Whisper Systems
End-to-end encryption:
Yes
Media:
images / audio / video / files / contacts / GIFs / location
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Experiences
Free
687
181
Element (formerly Riot)
All
16
Experiences
Pros
15
Specs
Top
Pro
Bridges to other networks
You're not confined within Element's or even Matrix garden, and you don't have to make users of other networks switch to Matrix.
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Top
Pro
Markdown support
Code snippets in chats can be highlighted with Markdown.
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Top
Pro
Simple interface
Element has a very simple interface, adding the ability for more inexperienced users to use it.
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Top
Pro
VOIP and Videoconferencing
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Top
Pro
Supports encryption
Element allows for fully encrypted text, voice, and video chatting.
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Top
Pro
Widgets support
Want to watch that flick at YouTube and discuss it at the same time? Have Grafana graphs stacked above your DevOps team chat? Collaboratively edit Google Docs and chat over without switching applications? This is possible with Element.
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Top
Pro
Decentralized
An open network for secure, decentralized communication.
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Top
Pro
Self-hosting and federated network
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Top
Pro
Libre/open source
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Top
Pro
Search
Search messages in your current room, or all the rooms you're in. Not subject to a message history limit like Slack.
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Top
Pro
Cross platform
Web browser Linux OS X Windows Android iOS
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Top
Pro
Large existing community
With public rooms for many people, and you can create your own and let people from the community join.
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Top
Pro
Etherpad real-time document collaboration
An easy to activate integration that allows multiple authors to edit a document simultaneously.
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Top
Pro
File Sharing
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Top
Pro
Supports text, voice, video
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Specs
Platforms:
MacOS, Windows, Linux, Android, Browser, iOS
License:
Apache License 2.0
Publisher:
New Vector Ltd
End-to-end encryption:
Yes (optional)
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Experiences
Free
792
103
Skype
All
21
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
10
Specs
Top
Con
Plagued by bugs on all platforms
Crashes and other bugs are prevalent on Android, Windows and other platforms.
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Top
Pro
Easily connect with others due to how popular the service is
There's a good chance that whoever you're trying to reach has Skype already set up and familiar with it, avoiding the hassle of installing and getting to know new software.
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Top
Con
Subpar video quality with more than 5 users
Skype has significant problems with multiple users and video quality. Skype recommends that a max of 5 users group chat as video quality is severely affected. Even webcams tested with other chat services showed lower quality when used with Skype.
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Top
Pro
Screen sharing
You can show your whole desktop, a select part of the screen or a specific window over Skype.
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Top
Con
Not a feasible alternative as a professional team chat
Missing key feature such as centralized mgmt, centralized billing, data retention policies, ...
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Top
Pro
Cross-platform
There's software for Windows, Mac & Linux and apps are available on iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone.
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Top
Con
Poor quality when screensharing
It is not possible to manually set resolution or bitrate, and Skype often defaults to a resolution so low that text is unreadable. It is also not possible to transfer control over mouse and keyboard.
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Top
Pro
Group video for free
You can hold video calls with up to 10 people.
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Top
Con
Slow filesharing speed
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Top
Pro
Available on Linux
A stripped down, minimalist version of Skype is available for Linux.
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Top
Con
Owned by Microsoft
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Top
Pro
File sharing
Skype allows you to send any files (MP3s, images, text, etc.) by simply dragging and dropping then in the chat window making it simple to share things with colleagues.
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Top
Con
Obnoxiously large ads
Ads take up over 25% of the usable space.
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Top
Pro
Cheap fixed phone number
Starting at $5/mo you can get a Skype number.
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Top
Con
Poor Linux support
The version available for linux users is quite outdated, and does not support some of the newer functionality, such as the free group video calling and screen sharing.
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Top
Pro
Send SMS and make regular calls
With Skype Credit bought or a subscription, you can send SMS and make direct calls.
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Top
Con
Requires both ends to be online (if neither end is using a cloud-enabled device)
Messages are sent and received only when both ends are online, if neither end is using a cloud-enabled device. In this case, if you are online 9-17 and your recipient is online 18-3, messages will never be delivered.
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Top
Pro
Group chat with archive / records
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Con
MIcrosoft (Skype's owner) actively assists eavesdroppers
On the other hand, if you lose your copy of one of your conversations, you may be able to get a copy of it from your government with a little bit of luck and a public records request.
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Top
Pro
Powerful 1:1 chat and also group chat
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Specs
Platforms:
iOS, Android, WP, OSX, Windows, Linux, Web. Blackberry. Chrome OS. BSD, iPadOs
Publisher:
Skype
File Size:
Varies with device
Required Android Version:
6.0
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119
161
Mattermost
All
16
Experiences
Pros
9
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
Can be self-hosted
You don't need to rely on someone else's servers, you can host Mattermost on your own server.
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Top
Con
No easy End-to-End Encryption setup
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Top
Pro
One-line Docker install
With Docker set up, you can install Mattermost with the following command: docker run --name mattermost-dev -d --publish 8065:80 mattermost/platform For other cases, installation instructions can be found here.
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Top
Con
Features not available out of the box
Difficult to setup the many features it offers. The easy docker installation is for the application only, not it's feature sets. Requires a license for full-set of features.
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Top
Pro
Similar to Slack
Almost all features of Slack are available in Mattermost.
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Top
Con
Centralized
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Pro
Free - OpenSource
You can download and use it as free for self-hosted server.
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Top
Con
Poorly made iOS app
Built natively using React it suffers from unresponsiveness, input lag, and sometimes broken services. Coupled with a bad user experience.
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Top
Pro
Mobile apps for android and iOS
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Top
Con
Poorly made Android app
The Android application is just a badly wrapped web-view which does not perform well and has no form of offline caching whatsoever.
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Top
Pro
You can change theme
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Top
Con
Self-Hosted
This doesn't work for every type of company. Mainly great for those concerned with privacy, security, compliance and control of your data/information.
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Top
Pro
Desktop app for MacOS, Linux and Windows
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Top
Pro
Browser notifications
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Top
Pro
Mark-Down support
Yes, it supports markdown.
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Specs
Platforms:
Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS, Linux
License:
MIT
Hosting options:
Self-hosted
Service integrations:
Yes - Atlassian, Webhooks, Chatbots, Extensions
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Experiences
Free / paid
113
34
Rocket.Chat
All
20
Experiences
Pros
6
Cons
13
Specs
Top
Pro
Free and open source
Rocket.Chat is available for free. It's licensed under the MIT license with source code available on GitHub.
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Top
Con
Developer support is non-existent
Can't even create a clean Ubuntu VM with a working developer install. Unresolved dependencies; fails to build. Docs are terrible; actual devs don't respond to questions; error messages are near-opaque. DO NOT RECOMMEND.
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Top
Pro
Native apps for all major desktop and mobile platforms
Rocket.Chat has native apps for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android.
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Top
Con
Web client loses images
In chat rooms with images, before very long, images start to become empty boxes. Useless to pass around visual information
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Top
Pro
Supports a wide variety of authentication methods
In addition to the usual email / username + password combination, Rocket.Chat supports authenticating via Facebook, Github, Gitlab, Google, Linkedin, Meteor and Twitter accounts.
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Top
Con
No theme customization
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Top
Pro
Understands markdown better than Slack does.
Links work properly, for instance, with square brackets followed by parentheses.
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Top
Con
No chat audit for enterprise
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Top
Pro
Very active and helpful community
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Top
Con
Poor security implementations / protocols
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Top
Pro
Video conferencing support
Rocket.Chat supports video calls.
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Top
Con
Centralized
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Top
Con
iOS app is poorly made
The iOS application is not native, being just a browser container. This means that the UX is quite poor, slow, buttons unresponsive. At this moment they do not provide a decent experience.
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Top
Con
Android app is poorly made
The Android application is just a badly wrapped web-view which does not perform well and has no form of offline caching whatsoever.
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Top
Con
Privacy settings are absent
Privacy settings for the server are absent, for instance, you don't have the ability to disable registrations, there's no way to control access to the chat.
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Top
Con
Features not available out of the box
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Top
Con
No web browser support
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Top
Con
Email required for registration
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Top
Con
No way to block new registrations
Without the ability to disable registrations, there's no way to control access to the chat.
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Specs
Platforms:
Web iOS Android OSX Windows Linux
License:
M.I.T.
Hosting options:
On premises & On Rocket.Chat
Videoconferencing:
Yes
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151
31
Pidgin
All
8
Experiences
Pros
5
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Support for a wide range of additional chat services
Pidgin not only supports IRC, it also supports plenty of other services such as AIM, Google Talk, MSN, ICQ and plenty of others. This way, you can have all of your conversations in the same app and won't have to deal with multiple chat windows being open.
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Top
Con
Miserable IRC font controls (as of 2.13.0.17)
Does its best to avoid putting sensible default font controls in any place where you can get to it. And when it does grudgingly change it, based on system preferences (not local preferences), it does so in an inconsistent and unpredictable fashion.
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Top
Pro
Free and open source
Pidgin and its code is completely free and open source. Pidgin has no ads and no features behind a paywall.
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Top
Con
No native VoIP support
While there are plugins there is no built in support for VoIP in Pidgin which is time consuming to implement instead of being baked in from the jump.
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Top
Pro
Cross platform
The Pidgin instant messaging client is cross platform, working on Linux, Windows and OSX.
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Top
Pro
Convenient notification features
Like other quality IRC clients, Pidgin features notifications that the user can set in order to have a variety of things happen when the users is mentioned, such as an audio cue or changing the system tray icon.
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Top
Pro
Highly customisable with plugins
Pidgin not only has a large plugin library built-in, but also an array of third party plugins for a variety of functions.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux
License:
GPL
Media:
Video send/receive, Images
Message history:
Optional
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297
81
WhatsApp
All
15
Experiences
Pros
6
Cons
8
Specs
Top
Pro
Straightforward interface
The interface is very simple, fast and easy to use. You can start using it as soon as the app has been downloaded - it does not require setting anything up or registering. You can communicate with anyone in your contacts list that also uses WhatsApp. Includes useful features like seeing when a contact is currently available or typing.
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Top
Con
Shares meta data with Facebook
WhatsApp shares your messaging meta data with Facebook if you do not opt-out in the settings. If you use the same phone number for WhatsApp and Facebook, the profiles can easily be linked. See https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/26000016
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Top
Pro
Widely used
WhatsApp reported 1.5 billion users in 2018. Your friends are most likely already using WhatsApp, so it's easy to get setup.
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Con
Tied to carrier phone number
WhatsApp cannot be used by people without a smart phone with an active cell plan. If your phone is lost or damaged, or if your phone number changes, you cannot get messages sent by friends without them updating your phone number. You cannot send message to them until you are able to get SMS messages at your phone number.
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Top
Pro
Effortlessly builds your contacts by using your phone number as identification
WhatsApp will automatically find all of your contacts currently using Whatsapp and add them to your contacts. This makes it really easy to setup and given that it's the most popular messaging app it's likely that a lot of your contacts are already using it.
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Top
Con
Proprietary
Not open source.
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Top
Pro
Message mirroring on web app
WhatsApp can be used from the desktop via Chrome, Firefox and Opera browsers. Accessing it requires using the Android app to scan the QR code that's presented on web.whatsapp.com.
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Top
Con
Hard to migrate history cross platform
Migrating your chat history from Android to iOS or the other way around is not so simple. In some cases it requires a 3rd party app and in some the only way is to migrate specific chats one by one.
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Top
Pro
Signal protocol
Whatsapp uses the state-of-the-art Signal protocol that ensure strong end-to-end encryption.
See More
Top
Con
Web interface uses message mirroring
To use your computer to send messages your phone must be on with a consistent data connection.
See More
Top
Pro
One-on-one texts can be encrypted
WhatsApp has implemented end to end encryption for messages sent on it's service. Even WhatsApp has no way to read a users messages.
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Top
Con
Single device
You cannot use the same WhatsApp account on multiple devices (e.g. a tablet, a PC and a cellphone). The account is tied to the device with the specific cellphone number. Chat history is deleted when you sign in to a new account, unless you have created a backup.
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Top
Con
No cloud sync
Messages are not stored on WhatsApp server for privacy and security reasons.
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Top
Con
Limitation on shareable file sizes
WhatsApp now allows users to share files of any type, but there is still a 16 MB size limit.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Android, iOS, Web, Mac, Windows, Windows Phone
Publisher:
WhatsApp Inc.
File Size:
100 MB
Required Android Version:
2.3.3 or above
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Experiences
Free
228
192
Contus Fly
All
5
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Scalability
Contus Fly has quick scalability applications from few users to lakhs of users. It performs simultaneously to communicate with the user with online presence.
See More
Top
Con
Group video conferencing
Communicating with a group using video calls on the chat app is an extra feature. You need an upgrade in group video conferencing.
See More
Top
Pro
On Cloud
Host data on a cloud server or on your own premises servers to scale up your instant messaging mobile app's accessibility and scalability.
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Top
Pro
High Profile Technology Stack
Build your chat app with solution powered by Ejabbered, Erlang, Amazon Web Services, MySQL, and much more under the hood.
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Top
Pro
Customization
Hyper-accommodative for quick customizations, scalability, technology updates and integrations.
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10
1
IRC
All
18
Experiences
Pros
11
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Con
Complex and not user friendly
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Top
Pro
Open protocol
The IRC protocol is public and open, it is mature and stable, and has been implemented in numerous projects. This means that it can be used freely, for both open-source and commercial projects.
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Top
Con
Assumes some level of prior knowledge
The features are not discoverable the way they are in other apps and services.
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Top
Pro
Versatile
IRC offers choice. Choice in clients (mobile, desktop, web), in scripts those clients run, in servers and features those servers have. You can even set up your own server.
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Top
Con
You have to "idle" to see what's going on
You will see a blank chat screen at first because there is no recent history kept on servers.
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Top
Pro
Less distracting
Compared to other common solutions, IRC can be ignored when you are occupied doing something else. Most clients don't pester you with sounds or distracting visuals.
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Top
Con
Can be addictive
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Top
Pro
Mentions
Every notable IRC client supports mentions - notifying you when your name is mentioned in the chat. The mentions in IRC are comparably better than Discord. Mentions used in Discord are easily abused; this doesn't happen in IRC. If someone's talking about you, you get a notification in IRC. This doesn't happen in something like Discord.
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Top
Con
Poor multimedia support
Sending anything besides text is not easy or intuitive and depends on the client.
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Top
Pro
Hundreds of avaliable clients
IRC has been around since 1988, so there is a ton of existing software to work with it. Everything from clients, to chat bots, to bouncers is already built.
See More
Top
Con
Advanced functionality is client-dependant
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Top
Pro
IRC networks are not centralized
You can choose your favorite server for an IRC network.
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Top
Pro
No account necessary
No need to sign up for access, confirm your e-mail address. Just choose a nickname and you're done.
See More
Top
Pro
User-friendly
IRC is user friendly if you use something like hexchat or kiwi webchat.
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Top
Pro
DCC
Direct Client-to-Client allows users to share files in a similar way to torrenting.
See More
Top
Pro
Great historic importance
Twitter hashtags came from IRC channel names.
See More
Top
Pro
Upcoming IRCv3 will provide missing features
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Web iOS Android WP OSX Windows Linux
Hosting options:
Hosted & self-hosted
Service integrations:
No
Screensharing:
No
See All Specs
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Experiences
55
21
Viber
All
21
Experiences
Pros
14
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Con
The company evades U. S. tax
The company uses the common practice of tax haven addresses in order to avoid paying US taxes despite being registered in Delaware.
See More
Top
Pro
Desktop apps allow texting, calling and enables transferring calls between devices
Viber has native apps for both Windows and Mac that allow you to send and receive messages from your desktop. You can also use the desktop to make and receive calls. Synchronizes between all devices you are using Viber on. Allows transferring calls between devices.
See More
Top
Con
Proprietary Software
Not Open Source.
See More
Top
Pro
Supports voice calls
Viber has really well implemented voice tech. It has comparable quality to Skype and you can even tranfer calls from your phone to your desktop seamlessly.
See More
Top
Con
No web client
You cannot login from the web to send and receive messages.
See More
Top
Pro
Completely free
Viber uses data connection and the app is free.
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Top
Con
Constantly on
Need apps like Greenify to stop it from being constantly on and active, even if you don't use it.
See More
Top
Pro
Clean interface
The interface is simple, functional and intuitive.
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Top
Con
Constant reminders of messages
If you don't check your messages (say your in a group chat and simply don't check all of them), it will flood your notifications.
See More
Top
Pro
See who of your contacts is using Viber quickly
Viber is tied to your phone number so it can quickly see who else in your contacts list is using the application.
See More
Top
Con
Doesn't sync well
Sync awfully between Phone and PC clients.
See More
Top
Pro
Android Wear support
Viber includes Android Wear support on Android 4.3 or higher and Viber 5.3 or higher.
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Top
Pro
Same protocol as used in Signal
Viber's protocol uses the same concepts of the "double ratchet" protocol used in Open Whisper Systems Signal application.
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Top
Pro
Public chats
It's possible to be a fly on the wall on other group or one-to-one chats that have been opened up to the public. These public chats are often promotional chats with celebrities.
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Top
Pro
Supports video calling over WiFi and data.
Can call friends using voice or video options.
See More
Top
Pro
Combines cellular and data messaging
This has an advantage in that if you text someone who uses Viber it will be free, if not it will just revert to SMS. This means you can replace your standard messaging app with Viber as well.
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Top
Pro
Keys only on device
Starting with Viber 6.0 the encryption keys are stored only on the clients themselves, not even Viber itself has access to them.
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Top
Pro
No need to create an account or add contacts
One of the best things about Viber is how it handles setup and sending messages. Viber uses your existing number as your ID, so you don't need to create a separate Viber account.
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Top
Pro
Supports 200 person group chat
Viber allows creating groups of up to 200 people on the Android version of Viber. It also has a cool "smart notifications" feature to prevent being overwhelmed with notifications if a lot of people are active in a chat group.
See More
Top
Pro
Insight and well documented encryption
Viber has made a documentation available, explaining in great details their encryption system and giving good insight on how it works.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Android / iOS / WP / BB / Symbian / Windows / OSX / Linux
Publisher:
Viber Media S.a r.l.
File Size:
37M
Required Android Version:
2.3 and up
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Experiences
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129
56
AstraChat
All
6
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
Direct connect
See More
Top
Con
No OTR service
Off-the-Record Messaging (OTR) is a cryptographic protocol that provides encryption for instant messaging conversations. Astrachat doesn't include this protocol, that it is often included in other XMPP services.
See More
Top
Pro
Secure
Messages are received from clients using secured (TLS or SSL) XMPP (jabber) protocol.
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Top
Pro
Network efficient
AstraChat is tuned to make very efficient use of the network connection and processor so you can be confident that it will use very little of your battery or data allowance.
See More
Top
Pro
Supports a lot of protocol
RFC-3920:Core RFC-3921:Instant Messaging and Presence XEP-0012 Last Activity XEP-0016 Privact lists XEP-0054 VCARD-temp XEP-0085 Chat State Notifications XEP-0153 vCard-Based Avatars XEP-0172 User Nickname XEP-0184 Message delivery receipts XEP-0191 Blocking commands XEP-0198 Stream Management XEP-0199 XMPP Ping XEP-0176: Jingle ICE-UDP XEP-0136: Message Archiving XEP-0045: Multi-User Chat
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows , Linux , Mac , Android , iOS
Hosting options:
Hosted & self-hosted
Media:
Yes
VoIP:
Yes
See All Specs
Hide
0
33
17
BitlBee
All
4
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Public servers
BitlBee can be used without installing via community-maintained public servers.
See More
Top
Con
Technical
While the help command is informative and includes examples, settting BitlBee up requires a considerable amount of technical knowledge.
See More
Top
Pro
Supports multiple protocols and networks
BitlBee supports: XMPP/Jabber, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, ICQ, and Twitter.
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Top
Pro
Free and open source
BitlBee is available for free and licensed under GPLv2 with source code available on GitHub.
See More
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here
6
0
Chatwee
All
6
Experiences
Pros
6
Top
Pro
Has a free-forever option
A bit less options available but works nonetheless.
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Top
Pro
Real-time media and file sharing
Including YouTube videos and pictures preview in the chat window.
See More
Top
Pro
Plenty of customization options
Chat size, color, fonts, language, log in methods, notifications, emojis, privacy, powerful moderation and many more.
See More
Top
Pro
Single Sign-on
Users, who log in to the site, are automatically logged in to the chat.
See More
Top
Pro
Integrated with 25+ most popular CMS
Developers provide easy to follow, clear plugin installation instructions.
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Top
Pro
Clean design
Chatwee has a clean and easy to use UI. On the left there's a clean and defined user list, each name has a flag next to it. It's also very easy to move from one side of the screen to the other. There's only the most useful information on the screen at any time and the design never feel overwhelming or cluttered.
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6
0
Grove
All
6
Experiences
Pros
5
Specs
Top
Pro
Inline images
Web client embeds posted images.
See More
Top
Pro
SSL for web & IRC clients
See More
Top
Pro
Notifications
You can ping people separately, people online or everyone.
See More
Top
Pro
You can use web or IRC clients
See More
Top
Pro
Integrated services and workflow
Including GitHub, Bitbucket, Heroku and Pivotal Tracker. Also, supports webhooks.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Web iOS Android WP OSX Windows Linux
Hosting options:
Hosted & self-hosted
Service integrations:
Yes
Screensharing:
No
See All Specs
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3
0
Google Hangouts
All
18
Experiences
Pros
11
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
Mobile support
Hangouts offers both an Android and iOS app so users can participate from nearly any mobile device in addition to his Desktop.
See More
Top
Con
Poor video call quality
Only goes up to 720p30 + low bitrate.
See More
Top
Pro
Screen sharing
Any user can share his screen (or only a specific desktop or window) while still continuing an audio conversation.
See More
Top
Con
Owned by Google
See More
Top
Pro
Free group video support
Hangouts works with up to 10 participants using video out of the box or up to 15 if you are a business, government or school. It determines who is the primary speaker at any given time, and the camera view automatically switches to that user.
See More
Top
Con
Lacking clients for older versions
See More
Top
Pro
Useful for businesses
Hangouts can scale to become a videoconferencing solution for an entire company, since the software can run on nearly all platforms. In fact, Google itself uses Hangouts as its meeting room video conference software.
See More
Top
Con
High hardware usage
See More
Top
Pro
Easy to start using
Hangouts is integrated with Gmail & Google+, does not require you to download desktop software, and all chats can take place directly in your browser, significantly reducing the barrier to entry for a new user.
See More
Top
Con
Not recommended for long sessions
See More
Top
Pro
Completely free
Google offers all features of Hangouts completely free. There are business, education and government solutions that increase the participant count to for video calls to 15 and offers support.
See More
Top
Con
Won't work on Windows 8-style UI
As Hangouts uses a browser plugin on the desktop and it doesn't work with Windows 8-style UI, it has to be used in desktop mode.
See More
Top
Pro
Cross platform
Hangouts work on Android, iOS, Chrome OS, web and as a Chrome extension.
See More
Top
Pro
Live broadcasting and instant recording
With Google+ “Hangouts on Air”, you can broadcast any hangout to an unlimited audience via your Goolge+ Profile or simply a generic YouTube link. Moreover, any Hangout on Air (public or private) is automatically saved as YouTube video that you can keep for private reference or use in any way that you would normally share a YouTube video. This allows you to record conversations without additional obtrusive software.
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Top
Pro
Google Voice integration
Allows for a fixed phone number, receiving and making calls. Calling US or Canada is free.
See More
Top
Pro
Integrates with Google Maps for sharing locations
When chatting with people while trying to plan a meet up, the share map button can be extremely useful.
See More
Top
Pro
Android app does both sms and hangouts messaging
See More
Specs
Platforms:
iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, Web
Genre:
0
Co-Op:
0
Publisher:
0
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Experiences
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151
129
GroupMe
All
8
Experiences
Pros
6
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
Reads receipts
GroupMe has a built in function to read receipts.
See More
Top
Con
Drains battery fast
GroupMe, in order to have a constant connection which allows for notifications drains the battery of a device quickly, which is not ideal for a messaging app that one needs on time notifications from.
See More
Top
Pro
Great web client
GroupMe has an excellent web client that can be used to send and receive messages and manage groups from the desktop.
See More
Top
Pro
IFTTT Integration
Allows sending messages from web services via IFTTT.
See More
Top
Pro
Integrated calendar
It's possible to add location and time with reminders directly in the GroupMe app.
See More
Top
Pro
Makes it easy to silence 1 or all groups
GroupMe has settings that allow muting a single group or turn off all GroupMe notifications from within the app.
See More
Top
Pro
Does not require everyone in the group to have a smartphone
GroupMe can set up a custom phone number which allows people without the App to send and receive messages. This makes it easy to add anyone to messaging.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Android iOS WP
Publisher:
groupme
File Size:
Varies with device
Required Android Version:
Varies with device
See All Specs
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Experiences
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7
1
Gajim
All
7
Experiences
Pros
2
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Pro
OMEMO encryption available as a plug-in
See More
Top
Con
Chat logs are in SQLite DB
Plaintext (or XML/markup) logs are not available.
See More
Top
Pro
Probably the only Windows client that supports server message history
See More
Top
Con
User interface looks dated
See More
Top
Con
OMEMO not natively supported
Requires plug-in.
See More
Top
Con
Chat logging enabled by default
Problematic for encrypted chats.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD
Hide
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Experiences
Free
58
7
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