Introducing
The Slant team built an AI & it’s awesome
Find the best product instantly
Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to Safari
Try it now
4.7 star rating
0
What is the best alternative to Skype?
Ad
Ad
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.
See More
Top
Con
Proprietary software
Discord is closed-source, meaning their code isn't available for inspection or reproduction
See More
Top
Pro
Free for unlimited users
Unlimited amount of users.
See More
Top
Con
Based on Electron = eats a lot of ram
See More
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.
See More
Top
Con
Some functions cut out and available only with "Nitro" subscription
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Has low-latency VoIP support
See More
Top
Con
Not a generic "team chat" tool
All the UI and the features are aimed specifically at communicating with your gaming team/clan.
See More
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
See More
Top
Con
Very unstable on Linux
See More
Top
Pro
Numerous controls for setting member roles.
Deny access, Deny write message, Allow read messages etc.
See More
Top
Con
Anti-privacy license terms
See More
Top
Pro
Ability to create bots
Discord provides an API for creating custom bots.
See More
Top
Con
Can change "Now Playing" status to something inappropriate
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Dark theme out of the box
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Low effort invite mechanics
See More
Top
Pro
Android app has push notifications
See More
Top
Pro
Syntax highlighting and Markdown support
The support is limited but still exists. It's a killer feature for dev teams.
See More
Top
Pro
DDoS mitigation
Discord prevents users from being DDoSed out of games.
See More
Top
Pro
Targeting of roles
Targeting roles allows for quickly requesting someone from a group e.g. artist, moderator, etc.
See More
Top
Pro
Ability to thread channels
Ability to create channel categories for channels to sit inside of.
See More
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".
See More
Top
Pro
Language localization
Have localization for many language, including Russian.
See More
Top
Pro
Does not allow NSFW related things to be posted unless in a NSFW channel
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Web, Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android
Search:
Yes
Videoconferencing:
Yes
Audio recording:
No
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
1446
474
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Markdown support
Code snippets in chats can be highlighted with Markdown.
See More
Top
Pro
Simple interface
Element has a very simple interface, adding the ability for more inexperienced users to use it.
See More
Top
Pro
VOIP and Videoconferencing
See More
Top
Pro
Supports encryption
Element allows for fully encrypted text, voice, and video chatting.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Decentralized
An open network for secure, decentralized communication.
See More
Top
Pro
Self-hosting and federated network
See More
Top
Pro
Libre/open source
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Cross platform
Web browser Linux OS X Windows Android iOS
See More
Top
Pro
Large existing community
With public rooms for many people, and you can create your own and let people from the community join.
See More
Top
Pro
Etherpad real-time document collaboration
An easy to activate integration that allows multiple authors to edit a document simultaneously.
See More
Top
Pro
File Sharing
See More
Top
Pro
Supports text, voice, video
See More
Specs
Platforms:
MacOS, Windows, Linux, Android, Browser, iOS
License:
Apache License 2.0
Publisher:
New Vector Ltd
End-to-end encryption:
Yes (optional)
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
Free
792
103
Matrix
All
14
Experiences
Pros
12
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
Built on an open standard
Matrix is an open standard, defining simple HTTP APIs so that devs can easily write their own clients, bots, bridges or servers. You're not locked into a specific set of implementations.
See More
Top
Con
Keys cannot be checked automatically
You cannot automatically check keys of your recipients. Only manually.
See More
Top
Pro
Bridges other networks into a single decentralised network
Matrix has bridges to IRC (freenode, moznet, oftc, snoonet etc), Slack, Gitter, Rocket.Chat, XMPP, SMS, SIP and others. The point is to 'matrix' all the different networks out there into one single decentralised network.
See More
Top
Pro
Has an easy to use client called Riot
Riot.im is the easiest way to use Matrix, with great clients for Web, iOS and Android (and Fdroid).
See More
Top
Pro
Does not require a centralized server to establish a connection between two users
Matrix is decentralized, there's no one central point that the information goes through and so no once central point of failure or control.
See More
Top
Pro
Matrix prioritizes direct messaging with people the same as Slack-style groups
Matrix aims to "provide an analogous ecosystem to email - one where you can communicate with pretty much anyone, without caring what app or server they are using" using a neutral identity system.
See More
Top
Pro
Supports different kinds of communication
Matrix is designed to support Instant Messaging, VoIP/WebRTC signalling (voice and video) and Internet of Things communication.
See More
Top
Pro
Has an app store for 3rd party integrations & bots
Riot.im includes an app store with integrations for Github, JIRA, Jenkins, Giphy etc - and anyone can add more via Matrix.
See More
Top
Pro
Offers choice of clients
Which can be found here.
See More
Top
Pro
Maintains full conversation history
See More
Top
Pro
Has an active community behind it
See More
Top
Pro
Can be integrated with existing communication services
Matrix is designed to support Instant Messaging, VoIP/WebRTC signalling and Internet of Things communication and allows cross-communication between those services. Meaning one person could be using IRC and another Slack for IMs, or one person could be using Skype and another Google Hangouts for videoconferencing.
See More
Top
Pro
End-to-end encryption
Matrix features end-to-end encrypted chats which are syncronized accross all your devices. E2E is implemented in the matrix-js-sdk library and Riot.im client.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Mac/Windows/Linux/Android/Browser/iOS/and more
Price:
FREE
VoIP:
Yes
Open source:
Yes
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
328
46
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.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Free of cost
The application is available free of cost.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Media messaging
Videos, gifs, images, geolocation, and documents.
See More
Top
Con
"Secret Chat" feature is not available for desktop client
Secret chats with end to end encryption are only available on mobile apps.
See More
Top
Pro
Channels for one way broadcasting
Broadcasting channels suitable for announcing things.
See More
Top
Con
No source code sintax highlighting
Telegram does not have source code syntax highlighting, making it difficult to share code snippets.
See More
Top
Pro
Beautiful UI
Very customizable with a lot of clean looking options.
See More
Top
Con
Does not work for visually impaired
Doesn't work for visually impaired.
See More
Top
Pro
Possible to send photos and videos without compression
See More
Top
Con
Does not support spherical 360° photos
Spherical 360° photos becoming more popular these days, but Telegram does not support such format.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Con
Does not support text messaging
You can NOT make it your default text messaging App.
See More
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).
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Saved messages
You can write messages to yourself. You can write some notes, add links, and see everything across all your devices.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Open source client apps
Client apps are open source, making whole service more trustworthy.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Voice and video messages
You can post voice and video messages if you are too lazy to write text messages.
See More
Top
Pro
Group Voice Chat
This Discord-like feature adds to the interactivity of the application.
See More
Top
Pro
Pinned Messages
You can pin messages to the top of groups or supergroups so members will see them when opening the group.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Edit or delete messages after sending them
See More
Top
Pro
Banned in China
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
@mentions
You can ping people to get their attention by @mentioning them.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Popular in the USA
On SimilarWeb you can see that Telegram is on the top 15 among all communication apps.
See More
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
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
1185
282
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
129
56
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.
See More
Top
Con
Needs access to your phone number and contacts to work
See More
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.
See More
Top
Con
Single device
Signal can only be registered to one mobile device at a time. But you can link Signal to Signal Desktop.
See More
Top
Pro
Supports encrypted group chats
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Supports sharing of various different media types
Signal supports: emoji, pictures, videos, audio, contacts, any location and GIF.
See More
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.
See More
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
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Works everywhere in every country
Unlike most messenger apps, Signal works reliably in all countries by securely circumventing internet censorship.
See More
Top
Pro
Recommended by Edward Snowden
Edward Snowden uses this messenger and recommends it to everyone who is concerned about his privacy.
See More
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
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
Free
687
181
Jitsi
All
12
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Con
Crashes on MacOS Monterey
See More
Top
Pro
Open-source
Project available on github for anyone to contribute to or use.
See More
Top
Con
Abandoned Android development
They switched focus to Jitsi Meet client for Android.
See More
Top
Pro
Cross platform
Mac, Windows & Linux availability.
See More
Top
Con
Uses Java
Not a native app, takes awhile to load.
See More
Top
Pro
Video calls
See More
Top
Con
Gui not as slick or streamlined as competitors
See More
Top
Pro
OMEMO encryption without plugin
Secure Jabber Texting, better than legacy sms texting.
See More
Top
Pro
Supports SIP accounts
well implemented SIP SIMPLE (texting), SIP presence, XCAP.
See More
Top
Pro
Supports XEP-0016 and privacy Lists
Jabber Texting apps without Privacy Lists are WOEFULLY deficient.
See More
Top
Pro
Encryption out of the box
Encryption for chat, desktop sharing, and web confrencing available.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Android, iOS, Linux, MacOS, Windows,
Technology:
Java
Videoconferencing:
Yes
Media:
Yes
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
86
13
Hangouts
All
29
Experiences
Pros
12
Cons
16
Specs
Top
Con
Transitioning to corporate orientation
Google is turning Hangouts in to a Slack competitor. It's unclear what the future of Hangouts is, but Google has said the consumer Hangouts we now have 'isn't going anywhere.'
See More
Top
Pro
Save and sync your chats across multiple devices
Start chatting on your phone, then on your computer, then on your tablet seamlessly!
See More
Top
Con
Lack of end to end encryption
Communications are encrypted between client and Google servers but not from sending client to receiving client. This means that there is still a possibility for someone other than the receiver to read your message if they have access to internal Google servers. But it allows also lightweight chat history search, spam protection and other features.
See More
Top
Pro
No need to create a separate account if you use any other Google service
Hangouts uses Google account credentials. If you use any other Google service, then you already have an account set up.
See More
Top
Con
Is owned by Google
Google is a cooperation that earns money from collecting data and breaching privacy.
See More
Top
Pro
Group video support
If you have signed in your Google account, Hangouts allows making video calls with up to 10 people or one-on-one. There are business, education and government solutions that increase the participant count to for video calls to 15 as well as offers support for those accounts. Additionally, you can switch between using either the front-facing or rear-facing camera on your phone or tablet.
See More
Top
Con
Poor interface
The app tends to lag, the design can be confusing and considering that another app has to be installed that supplies another icon in the home screen in order to get a dialer for calls in Hangouts, overall it is very confusing and cluttered.
See More
Top
Pro
Free and cross-platform
Google offers all features of Hangouts completely free on iOS, Android and web with quick and reliable sync across all platforms. It's also tightly integrated in other Google services - it can be accessed from services such as Gmail, Google+, Chrome. While the standard Hangouts offering is completely free, there are business, education and government solutions that increase the participant count to for video calls to 15 and offers support that may cost money.
See More
Top
Con
No rich text editing
On Android you can receive messages with bold or italic text. However, you cannot bold or italicize text on Android, only on iOS devices or via the web interface.
See More
Top
Pro
Chrome browser extension
Use the extension on any computer you can run Chrome browser to text from your computer or tablet!
See More
Top
Con
No way to moderate groups
If a member of a group chat room becomes disruptive, or there's some other need, there's no way in Hangouts to remove somebody from an existing chatroom. Similarly, if somebody is no longer active, there's no way to remove that user from the chat room to make slot for new active members.
See More
Top
Pro
Excellent read receipts in group chat
It's possible to know what each and every participant of the group has read. Their icons are displayed below the last message.
See More
Top
Con
Buggy video calls
Whether video calls work on your device is pure lottery, and there's nothing you can do to fix it.
See More
Top
Pro
Can share animated GIFs
If you have gifs in your mobile phone, you can share them in the conversation and your partner will be able to see it animated in the chat.
See More
Top
Con
Poor indication of who's online
There is no way to find out if a person in your contact's list is online or not in the Android app.
See More
Top
Pro
Google Voice integration
Google Voice is a service that enables making and receiving free phone calls within US. Google Voice forwards incoming calls to all connected devices and allows placing calls from any of the connected devices, but they will show as coming from the Google Voice number. Hangouts completely integrates Google Voice, allowing you to place calls and receive texts and voicemail from all of your devices. The Hangouts app for Android also includes a needed dialer for making calls with the users Google Voice number.
See More
Top
Con
Poorly manages data
Doesn't cache images well either received or sent. Often users will see the sent images re-downloading, same for conversations.
See More
Top
Pro
Free calls to US and Canada from anywhere in the world
Hangouts app for Android can be extended with an optional dialer for making calls. Most calls to US and Canada are free and international calls have cheap rates. A Google Voice account will be needed in order have a number that allows these calls to be made.
See More
Top
Con
API support was removed
This change closed options for integrations and connections between similar apps.
See More
Top
Pro
Advanced status sharing
Hangouts can inform about the status of other users including what device they are currently using, whether they are in the middle of a call and when were they last seen. This allows making sure that you're not disturbing someone when initiating a conversation. It's possible to granularly turn off status sharing.
See More
Top
Con
Not available on Windows Phones
There is no Hangouts app for the Windows Phone.
See More
Top
Pro
Video tools
Hangouts can add different effects and overlays to video calls that can be viewed on your device. Unfortunately, they can't be set from your phone.
See More
Top
Con
Doesn't support sending voice notes or video recordings
Currently there is no built in function that supports creating and sending voice notes or video recordings.
See More
Top
Pro
Seamless integration with OK Google for voice control and typing
Hangouts can be used completely hands free, even if the app is not open and the phone is locked: "OK Google, send a Hangouts message to Mary".
See More
Top
Con
No customer support
Free product, you're on your own.
See More
Top
Con
Won't send SMS/MMS anymore
They removed support for sms/mms. The same goes with integration to hangouts.
See More
Top
Con
No SMS/MMS backup
They don't have options to backup sms to cloud.
See More
Top
Con
SMS messages sent from the web app can't be sent outside North America
SMS messages sent from the web app can only be sent to number in America and Canada - sending to foreign numbers won't work, although you can still receive texts from anywhere.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Web / iOS / Android / OSX / Chrome
Publisher:
Google Inc
File Size:
Varies with device
Required Android Version:
Varies with device
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
Free
185
87
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.
See More
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
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Con
Proprietary
Not open source.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Con
No cloud sync
Messages are not stored on WhatsApp server for privacy and security reasons.
See More
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
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
Free
228
192
Line
All
6
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
2
Top
Pro
Large celebrity and public figure usage rate
The caveat is that they are in Japan, but the app is commonly used to 'follow' public figures.
See More
Top
Con
Account is locked to the Phone Number & Device
The entire account is locked to the phone number, which cannot be changed. If the application is installed on a new device with the same phone number, the previous account data will be wiped.
See More
Top
Pro
Enormous, constantly updated stamp collection
Since many brands use stamps for promotional purposes, everything from movies to food brands to Taylor Swift have released stamp collections.
See More
Top
Con
Users have been concentrated in Japan
Of the 360+ million registered users, the top country is Japan (50 million). Thailand and Indonesia are 2nd and 3rd with 33 and 30 million, respectively, with very small market penetration in the US (10 million, 11th place).
See More
Top
Pro
Photo filter and editing capabilities
Users have in-app editing tools, as well as Line's separate camera application, which has additional tools.
See More
Top
Pro
Integrated social network
Similar to Facebook's timeline.
See More
Hide
Get it
here
23
9
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.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Customization
Hyper-accommodative for quick customizations, scalability, technology updates and integrations.
See More
Hide
Get it
here
10
1
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
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
7
1
Messenger
All
7
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Con
Lack of privacy
Messenger is owned by Facebook. Based on their privacy policy, this means that any information you provide (including messages sent) are used by Facebook to profile you and sell access to your data to advertisers.
See More
Top
Pro
Uses Facebook friends to create a contacts list
Allows communicating with anyone who's a friend on Facebook.
See More
Top
Con
Lack of end-to-end encryption
Secret (end-to-end encrypted) chats are only supported in one-to-one messages, and are not enabled by default, and the encryption has not been verified independently.
See More
Top
Pro
Read receipts
Can see who has seen each message in group messages.
See More
Top
Pro
Easy to share posts from Facebook
Integration with Facebook makes it easy to share any interesting posts from the Facebook timeline.
See More
Top
Pro
Great UI
User interface of the application is clean, intuitive and easy to overview.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Android / iOS / WP
Publisher:
Facebook
File Size:
Varies with device
Required Android Version:
Varies with device
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
74
64
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.
See More
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
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
151
129
Chatwee
All
6
Experiences
Pros
6
Top
Pro
Has a free-forever option
A bit less options available but works nonetheless.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
Hide
Get it
here
6
0
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Cross platform
The Pidgin instant messaging client is cross platform, working on Linux, Windows and OSX.
See More
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.
See More
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.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux
License:
GPL
Media:
Video send/receive, Images
Message history:
Optional
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
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.
See More
Top
Con
Partially Open source
.
See More
Top
Pro
Content shredder
Wickr has a feature that not only erases all messages, but also overwrites them with junk data.
See More
Top
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.
See More
Top
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Group messaging
See More
Top
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.
See More
Top
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.
See More
Top
Pro
Includes a basic photo editor
The editor allows cropping images, drawing and writing text on them as well as add decorations.
See More
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
72
25
TeamSpeak 3
All
24
Experiences
Pros
17
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
A lot of features
See More
Top
Con
Mobile app costs money
TeamSpeak for mobile platforms costs $1.99 for Android devices in Google play store or $4.99 for devices that run iOS.
See More
Top
Pro
Fine-grained administration options
Allows for complex administrative structures, with lots of roles and many other features related to server administration.
See More
Top
Con
Requires to self-host, rent or use a public server
TeamSpeak cannot be used without a private server (meaning TeamSpeak themselves do not provide servers). This adds complexity to the setup and may simply be out of reach for many users. There are, however, several free public servers available, Teamspeak offers to rent one, and many games have dedicated servers available through their respective websites.
See More
Top
Pro
Advanced permissions
It has an advanced system to manage channel/server permissions.
See More
Top
Con
Outdated UI
The client itself feels really old, and even though there are custom huds, most of them don't feel modern.
See More
Top
Pro
Works on all main PC OS platforms
Available on Windows, Linux and OS X allows for a user to choose what best OS suits them and not have to worry if their game chat software will work.
See More
Top
Con
Proprietary software
It's not free.
See More
Top
Pro
Supports audio and text chat
TeamSpeak allows for both voice and text chat. this adds flexibility, and can clarify information if somebody has a very poor connection, or a very thick accent. It also allows players without a mic to communicate with the other players.
See More
Top
Con
No video communication
Currently there is no video chat for the app. While not essential for in-game communication, outside of the game it would help to strengthen online relationships with your gaming pals.
See More
Top
Pro
Widely used
Among most MMOs (massive multiplayer online games such as Guild Wars 2, or World of Warcraft) Teamspeak is widely used so it's likely other players already use it and won't need to download a new program. There are also many knowledge and help articles available online.
See More
Top
Con
Too easy to hack
Your server may become vulnerable if you give admin away and do not configure your server properly. Keeping a record of backups is important, if you broke something while editing the configuration or your server has become compromised due to negligence. You will then be able to spin up a new instance.
See More
Top
Pro
Voice Activation Detection while using Push-To-Talk
See More
Top
Pro
Echo reduction
See More
Top
Pro
Free for non-commercial use
As long as one is not using TeamSpeak for commercial services the app is free to use. This is great as most users will not be using it for commercial purposes (as long as you aren't making money off it you don't need to pay for it) such as gaming.
See More
Top
Pro
Unlimited nesting of channels
This allows for very granular organization.
See More
Top
Pro
Sound level tuning
You can tune everyone's sound output levels to meet your own personal preference in inbound volume. So to your ears nobody is too loud or too quiet.
See More
Top
Pro
Supports Encryption
Under "Edit Channel" --> "Advanced" --> theres a toggle button called "Voice Data Encrypted". Everything but file transfers is encrypted.
See More
Top
Pro
Plugin support
A wide range of plugins are available for those that want extra functionality, ranging from soundboards and overlays, to peripheral and application hooks.
See More
Top
Pro
Private hosting
You can host your own server.
See More
Top
Pro
TeamSpeak Sync
Signing up for a MyTeamSpeak account will allow you to synchronize your bookmarks, identities, hotkeys, whisper lists and channel subscriptions across all devices. MyTeamSpeak features will include addons synchronization, addons update management, and more.
See More
Top
Pro
Clean theme
See More
Top
Pro
No privacy nightmare
See More
Specs
End-to-end encryption:
yes (not by default)
Hosting options:
Hosted & self-hosted
Service integrations:
Yes
Screensharing:
No
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
Free
275
79
Vine Messages
All
6
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Can communicate outside of Vine
You can send messages to people outside of Vine.
See More
Top
Con
Can't share images or videos from camera roll
See More
Top
Pro
Video tools
Vine can capture a video for you and has a grid to help line up shots.
See More
Top
Con
No group messaging
See More
Top
Pro
Video messages
Videos can be up to six seconds long.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Android / iOS / WP
Publisher:
Vine Labs
File Size:
Varies with device
Required Android Version:
Varies with device
See All Specs
Hide
Get it
here
2
0
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
See All
Experiences
Free
58
7
Built By the Slant team
Find the best product instantly.
4.7 star rating
Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to Safari
Try it now - it's free
{}
undefined
url next
price drop