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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
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
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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Top
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.
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Top
Con
Web interface uses message mirroring
To use your computer to send messages your phone must be on with a consistent data connection.
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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.
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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
TextSecure
All
5
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
2
Top
Pro
Strong encryption
Uses Curve25519, AES-256, and HMAC-SHA256. The security of these algorithms has been tested over many years of use in hundreds of different applications. Messages sent via TextSecure are end-to-end encrypted, which means that they can only be read by your intended recipients. We make it easy for you to verify that you are communicating with the right people and that no MITM attack has occurred. The keys that are used to encrypt your messages are stored on your device alone, and they are protected by an additional layer of encryption if you have a passphrase enabled.
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Top
Con
No data messaging
TextSecure can send SMS and MMS messages only. It can't send data messages.
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Top
Pro
Free and open source
TextSecure is free and open source, enabling anyone to verify its security by auditing the code. TextSecure is the only private messenger that uses open source peer-reviewed cryptographic protocols to keep your messages safe.
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Top
Con
Not available on tablets
TextSecure is currently not compatible with tablets. Support for tablets is promised in the future.
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Top
Pro
Passed EFF's security review
To pass EFF's security review TextSecure had to encrypt data in transit, the encryption had to be end-to-end, the app needed to provide forward secrecy, app's source code has to be open to independent review, users have to be able to verify contact's identities even with the service provider compromised, app's cryptographic design has to be well documented and app's source code has to have been audited in the last 12 months.
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7
0
ooVoo Video Chat
All
4
Experiences
Pros
4
Top
Pro
Web video chat
Browser-based video call allows the creator of the web chat to invite non-ooVoo users into the call via email, instant messaging, or social network.
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Top
Pro
File sharing
Send files (up to 50MB) to any ooVoo contact quickly and securely.
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Top
Pro
Video messaging
Video messages up to 100 minute long (50 minutes for a fee) can be recorded and sent to another user, to email, or shared on YouTube.
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Top
Pro
Video chat and text chat between a total of 12 people at a time
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5
0
ChatSecure + Orbot
All
3
Experiences
Pros
3
Top
Pro
Passed EFF's security review
To pass EFF's security review ChatSecure had to encrypt data in transit, the encryption had to be end-to-end, the app needed to provide forward secrecy, app's source code has to be open to independent review, users have to be able to verify contact's identities even with the service provider compromised, app's cryptographic design has to be well documented and app's source code has to have been audited in the last 12 months.
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Top
Pro
Free and open source
ChatSecure is free and open source, enabling anyone to verify its security by auditing the code.
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Top
Pro
Works with popular chat services across mobile and PC
ChatSecure works with Google Hangouts, Facebook messaging, Jabber and other popular messaging service, making for a convenient way to use secure chatting.
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12
1
Silent Text
All
5
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Encrypted message attachments
Files can be attached to messages that will also be encrypted.
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Top
Con
Expensive
While the app itself is free, to use it a subscription is required with prices starting at $9.95/mo.
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Top
Pro
Passed EFF's security review
To pass EFF's security review Silent Text had to encrypt data in transit, the encryption had to be end-to-end, the app needed to provide forward secrecy, app's source code has to be open to independent review, users have to be able to verify contact's identities even with the service provider compromised, app's cryptographic design has to be well documented and app's source code has to have been audited in the last 12 months.
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Top
Pro
Messages can be set to self-destruct
Messages on both senders and receivers phones can be set to delete after a set period of time.
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Top
Pro
Encrypted locationsharing
It's possible to geotag messages to share location.
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3
0
StealthChat
All
8
Experiences
Pros
2
Cons
5
Specs
Top
Con
Many people have difficulty registering the app
Multiple people have reported not being able to receive the activation code required to register the app.
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Top
Pro
Can send self-destructing messages
Messages can be set to self-destruct after a set time.
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Top
Con
Code is not verified
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Top
Pro
Offers 3 types of encryption
The app claims to be the only communication app that encrypts data in transit, on disk and on screen. Encryption in transit is used to make sure no-one can listen in on your conversations even if the traffic is going through their servers, encryption on disk is used to make sure that even if someone gets ahold of your phone and is capable of extracting your messages from it they won't be able to read them and screen encryption is essentially a lock screen that sets in after a set amount of time used to make prevent "shoulder surfing".
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Top
Con
Poor support
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Top
Con
Lacks group chat
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Top
Con
Closed source
No way to verify security practices.
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Specs
Platforms:
Android / iOS
Required Android Version:
4.0
End-to-end encryption:
Yes
Audio recording:
Yes
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Experiences
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20
3
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
Jitsi
All
12
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Con
Crashes on MacOS Monterey
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Top
Pro
Open-source
Project available on github for anyone to contribute to or use.
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Top
Con
Abandoned Android development
They switched focus to Jitsi Meet client for Android.
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Top
Pro
Cross platform
Mac, Windows & Linux availability.
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Top
Con
Uses Java
Not a native app, takes awhile to load.
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Top
Pro
Video calls
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Top
Con
Gui not as slick or streamlined as competitors
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Top
Pro
OMEMO encryption without plugin
Secure Jabber Texting, better than legacy sms texting.
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Top
Pro
Supports SIP accounts
well implemented SIP SIMPLE (texting), SIP presence, XCAP.
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Top
Pro
Supports XEP-0016 and privacy Lists
Jabber Texting apps without Privacy Lists are WOEFULLY deficient.
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Top
Pro
Encryption out of the box
Encryption for chat, desktop sharing, and web confrencing available.
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Specs
Platforms:
Android, iOS, Linux, MacOS, Windows,
Technology:
Java
Videoconferencing:
Yes
Media:
Yes
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Experiences
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here
86
13
Brosix
All
8
Experiences
Pros
6
Cons
2
Top
Pro
Excellent solution for companies who would like to encrypt their office communication
Brosix uses strong 256-bit encryption that secures ALL communication channels.
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Top
Con
Not enough Admin controls
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Top
Pro
Brosix is available on all platforms
This includes Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, Mac.
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Top
Con
Poor mobile version
The mobile version of the application contains only a few of the features that the Desktop client has.
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Top
Pro
Easy to use
Brosix IM facilitates the internal communication and increases office productivity.
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Top
Pro
Affordable
For $1.70 per user per month voice & video chat, screen-sharing sessions, send unlimited files regardless of the size, etc.
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Top
Pro
Great admin tools
The Enterprise version of Brosix allows the Administrator to manage their own and unique network. The Admin has also full-control over the archives of all chats within the network.
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Top
Pro
Easy to use
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Experiences
2.10
8
2
Twake
All
4
Experiences
Pros
2
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
Great interface
Twake has a modern UI/UX
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Top
Con
Not many integrations yet
There's not a lot of integration, but it's easy to talk to the developers and build with them what we need.
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Top
Pro
Open source
Twake is on open source (https://github.com/TwakeApp/Twake)
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows / Mac / Linux / Android / iPhone
Price:
OPEN SOURCE
Publisher:
YES
Storage:
YES
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Open source
1
0
Mumble
All
21
Experiences
Pros
17
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
Code available to anyone to inspect or use, no spy- or adware
Mumble is available as a free download and source code is available on GitHub.
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Top
Con
A bit more difficult to set up than similar solutions
The process of generating and/or acquiring certificates can be time-consuming and a bit more complex than setting up a username/password authentication that's found in other clients. Similarly, setting up a server that includes configuring user permission system requires advanced technical knowledge.
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Top
Pro
Free and open-source server software
The server software Murmur is licensed under a free and open-source BSD-style license.
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Top
Con
Disconnect issues
Can have occasions of disconnect or users keep getting booted.
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Top
Pro
Can be used on a gamers preferred platform
Available on Windows, Linux, OS X, Android and iOS which allows for the user to choose what operating system works for them and still be able to use Mumble.
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Top
Con
Relatively poor voice quality
While Mumble's voice quality is fine, and you can understand what's being said, there is a noticeable difference between it and many other platforms.
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Top
Pro
Excellent voice quality
Since version 1.2.4, Mumble uses an audio codec named Opus that's specifically developed to provide low-latency voice communication over Internet. This means that there is no delay time, while audio still comes out clear.
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Top
Pro
Low latency and resource usage
Dedicated servers and low overhead allows Mumble to have the least delay between users speaking and others hearing their speech, which can be very important for fast paced games.
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Top
Pro
Push-to-Talk
A push-to-talk key allows you to only transmit audio when you want it. Others won't hear you chewing or your mom entering the room unless you want to.
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Top
Pro
Free to download and use as a client
Mumble is completely free, even hosting your own server.
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Top
Pro
Use of certificates offers more security and easy people management
Mumble uses certificates for user identification. A certificate can be generated by the user himself or issued by a third-party organization with organization certificates having 2 classes. A self-generated certificate is not tied to anything, a Class 1 certificate is tied to an e-mail address and a Class 2 certificate requires proof of identity. Depending on the server a different level of certification might be required.
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Top
Pro
Server works on Raspberry Pi
Mumble server side is easy to setup and works smooth even on Raspberry Pi, which is pretty short on resources.
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Top
Pro
Easily overlay over game
An in-game overlay can be enabled to show users in the channel or users talking. Overlay can be disabled completely or on a per-game basis by going to Settings->Overlay. This allows for users to see their chat but not obstruct the game they are playing.
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Top
Pro
Sub-channels
By default, only users in the same channel can hear each other. Channels can be nested to better organize yourself according to what you want to be talking about.
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Top
Pro
Secure & encrypted
This encryption is mandatory and cannot be disabled. The so-called control channel, which transports your chat messages and other non-time critical information, is encrypted with TLS using 256 bit AES-SHA. The voice channel carrying speech and positional audio is encrypted with OCB-AES 128 bit.
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Top
Pro
Good audio normalization
Mumble includes great automatic volume adjustment functionality that can be used to prevent big volume changes while still allowing good communication.
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Top
Pro
Positional audio
Mumble supports positional audio for over 50 games, including versions of Call of Duty, Battlefield and Counter-Strike. This allows you to hear the audio from the direction of the player speaking, making gameplay more immersive and giving competitive players an edge. You can find a full list of supported games here.
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Top
Pro
Customizable UI
Version 1.3 introduced skins, allowing you to customize your UI, either on your own (tutorial here) or by using one of the skins found here.
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Top
Pro
Portable version on PortableApps
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Top
Pro
Server can be put on alternative firmware wireless routers
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Specs
End-to-end encryption:
Yes
Audio recording:
Yes
Requires a Server:
Yes
Secure:
Yes
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Experiences
Free
644
94
Antox
All
6
Experiences
Pros
2
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
Free, open source
Antox is licensed under Creative Commons with source code available on GitHub. Being open source makes it possible to make sure your messaging are not controlled by a corporation.
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Top
Con
High data usage
Antox uses the Tox protocol which is Peer to Peer, so there will be high data usage and battery drain. WiFi only mode is currently recommended for now.
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Top
Pro
Peer-to-peer
There is no middleman, all communication happens between the users.
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Top
Con
Still in early development
Antox is still really early in development, being in beta currently.
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Top
Con
Battery drain
Antox uses the Tox protocol which is Peer to Peer, so there will be high data usage and battery drain.
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Specs
Platforms:
Android
Publisher:
im.tox.antox
File Size:
N/A
Required Android Version:
N/A
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9
3
Bleep
All
4
Experiences
Pros
2
Cons
2
Top
Con
Privacy claims can't be validated
Since Bleep is not open source, there is no way to validate product's privacy claims.
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Top
Pro
Free and cross-platform
Bleep is available for free on Windows, OS X & Android.
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Top
Con
Alpha state
Bleep is in early stages of development meaning there can be issues and it may be unstable.
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Top
Pro
Privacy focused
Bleep uses end-to-end encryption to keep communications private and leaves no metadata on a central server so no-one even knows the communication took place.
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15
5
Threema
All
13
Experiences
Pros
9
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
Registration without phone number
Registration is handled by random generated IDs. No phone number needed.
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Top
Con
Not free
Unlike many other options Threema is not free as it costs $1.99 for the app.
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Top
Pro
Encrypted communication
Provides complete end-to-end encryption.
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Top
Con
Single device only
You cannot use multiple devices to send messages. However, it does have message mirroring on a web client.
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Top
Pro
Company behind Threema is based in Switzerland
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Top
Con
No cloud sync
E2E encryption means no cloud syncing of messages.
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Top
Pro
Servers in Switzerland
Privacy laws protect the data Threema has.
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Top
Pro
Supports encrypted group chats
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Top
Pro
Provides a web client
You can control and message with friends via Threema Web, the official web client for Threema.
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Top
Pro
Ability to send pics and videos
Threema supports sending media messages such as video, pics and even voice messages.
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Top
Pro
Group chat polls
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Top
Pro
Allows verification of contacts identity via QR Code
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Specs
Platforms:
Android / iOS / WP
Publisher:
Threema GmbH
File Size:
15M
Required Android Version:
4.0 and up
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Experiences
$1.99
62
20
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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Top
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
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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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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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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Pro
Cross platform
The Pidgin instant messaging client is cross platform, working on Linux, Windows and OSX.
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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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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
Wickr
All
9
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
2
Top
Pro
Doesn't require a phone number
Unlike most, you can use your phone but you don't have to. You can register without giving anything and add contacts either via e-mail (only) or phone number.
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Con
Partially Open source
.
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Pro
Content shredder
Wickr has a feature that not only erases all messages, but also overwrites them with junk data.
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Con
Small user base
Wickr claims that one million users have downloaded the app with no information on how many active users they have. But even if every person that has downloaded the app is an active user, the userbase is really small compared to apps like WhatsApp that boast about hundreds of millions of active users.
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Pro
Can find other users securely
Instead of using usernames, emails or phone numbers to find other users, Wickr uses hashes derived from phone numbers or email addresses (this applies to the find friends functionality only). Hashes are the result of a one-way cryptographic function, meaning it's purposefully difficult to reconstruct original data (phone numbers and email addresses in this case) from them. For Wickr, hashes are generated on the client's side so that no personal information is ever sent to the Wickr servers. The app finds people on your contact list that also use Wickr by comparing the hashes that get generated from contacts and comparing them to the hashes that are stored on Wickr servers.
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Pro
Group messaging
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Pro
Messages have user-defined lifespan
Messages can have a lifespan between 3 seconds and 6 days. Received messages arrive locked. Once they are opened by the recipient, a timer starts counting down until the message is deleted. Of course, the recipient can still copy them or take a screenshot.
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Pro
By default, doesn't allow taking screenshots
Wickr disables the screenshot functionality altogether when the app is open. However, there are ways to circumvent this, as if the user has a rooted phone and has installed apps to overide this block or if a screenshot is taken via some apps that project the screen to a PC.
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Pro
Includes a basic photo editor
The editor allows cropping images, drawing and writing text on them as well as add decorations.
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Experiences
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72
25
Stride (previously HipChat)
All
25
Experiences
Pros
16
Cons
8
Specs
Top
Con
Will be discontinued Feb 2019
Slack acquired Stride / Hip Chat. Both Stride and Hip Chat will cease to exist. Sad since they were quite usable.
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Pro
Available on Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android
You can access HipChat from pretty much every common platform. HipChat even allows chatting via SMS.
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Con
Prioprietary (non-free/libre)
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Pro
Powerful @mentions
You can ping people to get their attention even if they are not online by @mentioning them. Depending on how the person has set their account up it can be by notifications via in-app sounds, visual alerts, and even email, SMS, or mobile app push notifications.
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Con
Reliability of service has been weak
The reliability of the hosted HipChat service, particularly in the early days of version 4.x, has not been a strong suit.
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Pro
Huge list of integrations
Including Asana, Github, Zendesk, WordPress, MongoDB, TeamCity, JIRA, Confluence, PowerShell and more that 40 others.
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Con
Free plan has limited storage
Free plan comes with 5GB of storage, where as paid plan has "Unlimited".
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Pro
Cheap
Free with unlimited users, $2/user/month for voice + video calls, screencasts, full history retention and management. (Even enterprise feature like SAML)
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Con
Only one-on-one video calls in free version
There is no option for multi-user conference calls.
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Pro
Simple, easy to use
An intuitive, easy to overview interface listing both online and offline users.
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Con
No emoji
There's no emoji support. Instead there are some strange custom emoticons which only make sense for people steeped in internet subculture and never get updated.
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Pro
Embeds files
Things like photos get automatically embedded in the chat thread once you upload them.
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Con
API calls are limited even on paid plan to 500 calls in 5min by default
This will force you to contact them when you need more calls.
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Pro
Guest access
You can invite people to join conversations even if they don't have a HipChat account. HipChat will generate a link to share and the guest will only need to enter their name to join the conversation.
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Con
Non-synced notifications
Messages read on one client don't sync their status to another client.
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Pro
Desktop client
HipChat has an optional desktop client powered by Adobe AIR.
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Pro
Good audio and video support
HipChat audio and video works on mobile platforms and web browsers.
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Pro
"Rooms" for persistent group chat
Participate and keep tabs on ongoing discussions on particular topics or amongst certain groups of people.
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Pro
Self-Hosting available
If you are worried about third-parties getting access to your data you should consider self-hosting. With self-hosting you are in control over where your data is stored, who has access to it. You will also not be vulnerable to exploits of a third-party provider.
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Pro
Plentiful GIFs and custom Emoticons
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Pro
Syntax coloring
Pasted code can be colored based on syntax.
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Pro
Will be updated to have more functions in the future
A big company with experience will bring in more options like Google Apps One Time Login.
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Pro
Reliability has been great
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Pro
Powerful command system
E.g. part, away, all, here etc.
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Specs
Platforms:
Web iOS Android OSX Windows Linux
Hosting options:
Hosted & self-hosted
Service integrations:
Yes
Screensharing:
Yes
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