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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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Pro
Markdown support
Code snippets in chats can be highlighted with Markdown.
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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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Pro
Decentralized
An open network for secure, decentralized communication.
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Pro
Self-hosting and federated network
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Pro
Libre/open source
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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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Pro
Cross platform
Web browser Linux OS X Windows Android iOS
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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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Pro
File Sharing
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Top
Pro
Supports text, voice, video
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Specs
Platforms:
MacOS, Windows, Linux, Android, Browser, iOS
License:
Apache License 2.0
Publisher:
New Vector Ltd
End-to-end encryption:
Yes (optional)
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Experiences
Free
792
103
Skype
All
21
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
10
Specs
Top
Con
Plagued by bugs on all platforms
Crashes and other bugs are prevalent on Android, Windows and other platforms.
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Top
Pro
Easily connect with others due to how popular the service is
There's a good chance that whoever you're trying to reach has Skype already set up and familiar with it, avoiding the hassle of installing and getting to know new software.
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Top
Con
Subpar video quality with more than 5 users
Skype has significant problems with multiple users and video quality. Skype recommends that a max of 5 users group chat as video quality is severely affected. Even webcams tested with other chat services showed lower quality when used with Skype.
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Top
Pro
Screen sharing
You can show your whole desktop, a select part of the screen or a specific window over Skype.
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Top
Con
Not a feasible alternative as a professional team chat
Missing key feature such as centralized mgmt, centralized billing, data retention policies, ...
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Top
Pro
Cross-platform
There's software for Windows, Mac & Linux and apps are available on iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone.
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Top
Con
Poor quality when screensharing
It is not possible to manually set resolution or bitrate, and Skype often defaults to a resolution so low that text is unreadable. It is also not possible to transfer control over mouse and keyboard.
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Top
Pro
Group video for free
You can hold video calls with up to 10 people.
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Top
Con
Slow filesharing speed
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Top
Pro
Available on Linux
A stripped down, minimalist version of Skype is available for Linux.
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Top
Con
Owned by Microsoft
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Top
Pro
File sharing
Skype allows you to send any files (MP3s, images, text, etc.) by simply dragging and dropping then in the chat window making it simple to share things with colleagues.
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Top
Con
Obnoxiously large ads
Ads take up over 25% of the usable space.
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Top
Pro
Cheap fixed phone number
Starting at $5/mo you can get a Skype number.
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Top
Con
Poor Linux support
The version available for linux users is quite outdated, and does not support some of the newer functionality, such as the free group video calling and screen sharing.
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Top
Pro
Send SMS and make regular calls
With Skype Credit bought or a subscription, you can send SMS and make direct calls.
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Top
Con
Requires both ends to be online (if neither end is using a cloud-enabled device)
Messages are sent and received only when both ends are online, if neither end is using a cloud-enabled device. In this case, if you are online 9-17 and your recipient is online 18-3, messages will never be delivered.
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Top
Pro
Group chat with archive / records
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Top
Con
MIcrosoft (Skype's owner) actively assists eavesdroppers
On the other hand, if you lose your copy of one of your conversations, you may be able to get a copy of it from your government with a little bit of luck and a public records request.
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Top
Pro
Powerful 1:1 chat and also group chat
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Specs
Platforms:
iOS, Android, WP, OSX, Windows, Linux, Web. Blackberry. Chrome OS. BSD, iPadOs
Publisher:
Skype
File Size:
Varies with device
Required Android Version:
6.0
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Experiences
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119
161
Tox
All
4
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Privacy focused
Tox uses military grade encryption and works completely peer-to-peer.
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Top
Con
Early stages of development
Since Tox is relatively new, it has important features missing (like group video) and requires a proper code review before it can be deemed reliable and ready for everyday use.
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Top
Pro
Free and open source
The code is licensed under GPL (may change in the future) and is available on GitHub.
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Top
Pro
Multiple front-ends for multiple platforms available
At the moment there is no official Tox client, but a selection of 32 and 64 clients for Windows, OS X, Linux and Android is available.
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178
28
Pidgin
All
8
Experiences
Pros
5
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Support for a wide range of additional chat services
Pidgin not only supports IRC, it also supports plenty of other services such as AIM, Google Talk, MSN, ICQ and plenty of others. This way, you can have all of your conversations in the same app and won't have to deal with multiple chat windows being open.
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Top
Con
Miserable IRC font controls (as of 2.13.0.17)
Does its best to avoid putting sensible default font controls in any place where you can get to it. And when it does grudgingly change it, based on system preferences (not local preferences), it does so in an inconsistent and unpredictable fashion.
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Top
Pro
Free and open source
Pidgin and its code is completely free and open source. Pidgin has no ads and no features behind a paywall.
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Top
Con
No native VoIP support
While there are plugins there is no built in support for VoIP in Pidgin which is time consuming to implement instead of being baked in from the jump.
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Top
Pro
Cross platform
The Pidgin instant messaging client is cross platform, working on Linux, Windows and OSX.
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Top
Pro
Convenient notification features
Like other quality IRC clients, Pidgin features notifications that the user can set in order to have a variety of things happen when the users is mentioned, such as an audio cue or changing the system tray icon.
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Top
Pro
Highly customisable with plugins
Pidgin not only has a large plugin library built-in, but also an array of third party plugins for a variety of functions.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux
License:
GPL
Media:
Video send/receive, Images
Message history:
Optional
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Experiences
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297
81
Discord
All
32
Experiences
Pros
22
Cons
9
Specs
Top
Pro
User friendly
Discord follows the same type of interface design popularised by Slack, which is extremely clean and attractive, and doesn't clutter the interface with unnecessary chrome and cruft.
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Top
Con
Proprietary software
Discord is closed-source, meaning their code isn't available for inspection or reproduction
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Top
Pro
Free for unlimited users
Unlimited amount of users.
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Top
Con
Based on Electron = eats a lot of ram
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Top
Pro
Can be used in browser
Users can invite others to join a Discord channel via a web link, which means no installation is required to use the software - which is one of the big typical barriers to entry for social software.
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Top
Con
Some functions cut out and available only with "Nitro" subscription
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Top
Pro
Good 1-click invite system
Discord allows inviting people to a specific channel with a link. Links can be set to expire. Low effort/passive invite mechanics.
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Top
Con
Developer's previous company was sued for privacy violations, among other things
See: http://classactionlawsuitsinthenews.com/class-action-lawsuit-complaints/openfeint-green-international-privacy-class-action-lawsuit-complaint/ https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/closing-letters/openfeint-inc Discord's privacy policy also states that while they might not sell your data, a company they get sold to will quite possibly attain said data and thus may be in "more" shady hands.
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Top
Pro
Easy setup
You can quickly send invites to people and they can join in using the web client without having to create an account or install the app.
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Top
Con
No self-hosting avaliable
Discord is wholly hosted by Discord (the company), you cannot run private instances, and all servers are hosted on their infrastructure. For most people, this won't really impact their usage.
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Top
Pro
Has low-latency VoIP support
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Top
Con
Not a generic "team chat" tool
All the UI and the features are aimed specifically at communicating with your gaming team/clan.
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Top
Pro
Supports video and text communication
Behaves and looks like Slack for regular text channels, but with the ability to create voice channels as well
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Top
Con
Very unstable on Linux
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Top
Pro
Numerous controls for setting member roles.
Deny access, Deny write message, Allow read messages etc.
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Top
Con
Anti-privacy license terms
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Top
Pro
Ability to create bots
Discord provides an API for creating custom bots.
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Top
Con
Can change "Now Playing" status to something inappropriate
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Top
Pro
Open source bots and management tools
Discord has a wide variety of bots for things from airhorn noises to automated server management, to leveling systems for chat. The bot API is open and there are dedicated sites for finding bots.
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Top
Pro
Game integration
Discord shows which game each user is currently playing, which among other things helps users to form PUGs with minimal hassle.
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Top
Pro
Dark theme out of the box
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Pro
Familiar for Slack users
For those that are used to the way Slack (a similar chat client) works, Discord will be familiar in its use, which lowers the learning curve quite a bit for those that have switched or tried Slack before.
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Top
Pro
Low effort invite mechanics
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Pro
Android app has push notifications
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Top
Pro
Syntax highlighting and Markdown support
The support is limited but still exists. It's a killer feature for dev teams.
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Top
Pro
DDoS mitigation
Discord prevents users from being DDoSed out of games.
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Top
Pro
Targeting of roles
Targeting roles allows for quickly requesting someone from a group e.g. artist, moderator, etc.
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Top
Pro
Ability to thread channels
Ability to create channel categories for channels to sit inside of.
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Pro
Friendly payment policy
Free account have no tangible restrictions. Premium account is just a way to say "thank you" to developers. And it work for all servers of discord (not as in slack). And it can be purchased by one who wants. In contrast to Slask, where all active members of the server should be "premium".
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Top
Pro
Language localization
Have localization for many language, including Russian.
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Top
Pro
Does not allow NSFW related things to be posted unless in a NSFW channel
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Specs
Platforms:
Web, Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android
Search:
Yes
Videoconferencing:
Yes
Audio recording:
No
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Experiences
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1446
474
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
Telegram
All
37
Experiences
Pros
28
Cons
8
Specs
Top
Pro
Free and convenient large file sharing
Copy/paste videos, gifs, images, geolocation, documents, and even executable files. Drag over files for practically any time up to 2GB in size. Images can be compressed, too.
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Top
Con
Not fully open source
Telegram has an open API and protocol free for everyone, but the backend software is not open source. Therefore 100% privacy can not be evaluated.
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Top
Pro
Free of cost
The application is available free of cost.
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Top
Con
Can only be used with a phone number
It is not possible to activate and use Telegram by mail etc. You need a phone number.
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Top
Pro
Privacy focused
In addition to the end-to-end encryption [only in secret chats] that provides privacy to communications, the app also includes self destructing timers for chats, and the ability to permanently delete messages, yours and theirs, from your and their devices.
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Top
Con
Only "Secret Chat" messages are encrypted end to end
The only way to get end-to-end encryption (client-client) using Telegram is to use the Secret Chat function, anything through the service is server-client encrypted. Also secret chat is only implemented in the mobile apps, meaning there is no way to encrypt messages end-to-end when using the desktop client or the web browser client.
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Top
Pro
Media messaging
Videos, gifs, images, geolocation, and documents.
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Top
Con
"Secret Chat" feature is not available for desktop client
Secret chats with end to end encryption are only available on mobile apps.
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Top
Pro
Channels for one way broadcasting
Broadcasting channels suitable for announcing things.
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Top
Con
No source code sintax highlighting
Telegram does not have source code syntax highlighting, making it difficult to share code snippets.
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Top
Pro
Beautiful UI
Very customizable with a lot of clean looking options.
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Top
Con
Does not work for visually impaired
Doesn't work for visually impaired.
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Top
Pro
Possible to send photos and videos without compression
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Top
Con
Does not support spherical 360° photos
Spherical 360° photos becoming more popular these days, but Telegram does not support such format.
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Top
Pro
Supergroups of up to 200,000 people
In Supergroups, anyone along with admins can delete their messages from all sides. A message can be pinned to the top. All of the user's messages can be deleted by an administrator, and they can be banned and reported as well. Supergroups can have a public link (outside of Asia, due to high spam volumes), which is also a username.
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Top
Con
Does not support text messaging
You can NOT make it your default text messaging App.
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Top
Pro
Two-step verification
You can set up an additional password to your account, which can be reset by your email. You don't have to use an email if you do not want to. If you lose access to your email or forget your password, you will be able to reset it via text message if your account is over seven days old and will receive it within a week (in case you recover anything before then).
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Pro
Secure
Telegram uses an open source MTProto encryption protocol that provides complete end-to-end encryption for secret chats. To show off their confidence in the protocol the company behind Telegram has organized $200,000 and $300,000 challenges to break the encryption. So far there have been no winners.
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Top
Pro
Saved messages
You can write messages to yourself. You can write some notes, add links, and see everything across all your devices.
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Pro
Cloud chat keys are kept in different jurisdiction
Even though encryption used for cloud-based storage (e.g. Gmail, Facebook, iCloud) may not be as secure as end-to-end encryption or zero-knowledge storage, Telegram does the most that it can by holding keys to chats in different jurisdictions, requiring intergovernmental cooperation to obtain the keys. This is aside from whatever other security measures have been taken, of course.
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Top
Pro
Multiplatform native client apps
There are native desktop, mobile and web client apps, that are optimized for speed and are light on memory usage.
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Top
Pro
Open source client apps
Client apps are open source, making whole service more trustworthy.
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Pro
Unlimited storage
Unlimited number of files can be stored forever on the cloud. You can upload files up to 1.5 GB each.
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Pro
Voice and video messages
You can post voice and video messages if you are too lazy to write text messages.
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Pro
Group Voice Chat
This Discord-like feature adds to the interactivity of the application.
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Top
Pro
Pinned Messages
You can pin messages to the top of groups or supergroups so members will see them when opening the group.
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Top
Pro
Self-destruct messages
Messages in individual chats can be set to self destruct on a timer. They will disappear after the timer expires. Messages in all new chats can be set to self-destruct with a global auto-delete timer in Settings > Privacy and Security > Auto-Delete Messages.
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Top
Pro
Edit or delete messages after sending them
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Top
Pro
Banned in China
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Top
Pro
Save time with inline bots and link previews
Unfortunately, on the desktop videos don't play, but images are viewable without visiting popular websites like imgur and Instagram. You can play YouTube videos and others within the app, so you don't need to embed code or anything. With inline bots, such as @gif, @pic/bing, @vid/YouTube, etc, you can look things up without leaving the client or chat that you're in. Simply type the name and some keywords and wait for the results to load.
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Pro
@mentions
You can ping people to get their attention by @mentioning them.
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Top
Pro
Desktop app handles HiDPI
The desktop app has a built in setting to scale the UI of the app up to 200% which allows for those with 4k monitors/screens to use the app without scaling issues.
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Top
Pro
High quality calls
Uses the latest GPL audio codecs, such as Opus, an adaptative high-quality codec that supersedes AAC at any bitrate.
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Pro
Customer support is within the app
Although it's volunteer based, but still pretty top-notch if available, which it tends to be.
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Top
Pro
Large groups can have channels called 'Topics'
Topics are now available in groups of 100+ members and have a sleek two-column layout and new buttons to quickly navigate. A default topic called General is now in every topic group, holding the group’s service messages and previous message history.
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Top
Pro
Popular in the USA
On SimilarWeb you can see that Telegram is on the top 15 among all communication apps.
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Specs
Platforms:
Web, Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, macOS, BSD, Windows phone, UWP
Publisher:
Various companies affiliated with Telegram
File Size:
2048 MB
End-to-end encryption:
Secret chats
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Experiences
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1185
282
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.'
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Top
Pro
Save and sync your chats across multiple devices
Start chatting on your phone, then on your computer, then on your tablet seamlessly!
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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.
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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.
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Top
Con
Is owned by Google
Google is a cooperation that earns money from collecting data and breaching privacy.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Top
Pro
Chrome browser extension
Use the extension on any computer you can run Chrome browser to text from your computer or tablet!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Top
Con
API support was removed
This change closed options for integrations and connections between similar apps.
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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.
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Top
Con
Not available on Windows Phones
There is no Hangouts app for the Windows Phone.
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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.
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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.
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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".
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Top
Con
No customer support
Free product, you're on your own.
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Top
Con
Won't send SMS/MMS anymore
They removed support for sms/mms. The same goes with integration to hangouts.
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Top
Con
No SMS/MMS backup
They don't have options to backup sms to cloud.
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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.
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Specs
Platforms:
Web / iOS / Android / OSX / Chrome
Publisher:
Google Inc
File Size:
Varies with device
Required Android Version:
Varies with device
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Experiences
Free
185
87
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.
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Top
Con
Poor video call quality
Only goes up to 720p30 + low bitrate.
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Top
Pro
Screen sharing
Any user can share his screen (or only a specific desktop or window) while still continuing an audio conversation.
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Top
Con
Owned by Google
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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.
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Top
Con
Lacking clients for older versions
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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.
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Top
Con
High hardware usage
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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.
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Con
Not recommended for long sessions
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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.
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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.
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Top
Pro
Cross platform
Hangouts work on Android, iOS, Chrome OS, web and as a Chrome extension.
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Pro
Live broadcasting and instant recording
With Google+ “Hangouts on Air”, you can broadcast any hangout to an unlimited audience via your Goolge+ Profile or simply a generic YouTube link. Moreover, any Hangout on Air (public or private) is automatically saved as YouTube video that you can keep for private reference or use in any way that you would normally share a YouTube video. This allows you to record conversations without additional obtrusive software.
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Pro
Google Voice integration
Allows for a fixed phone number, receiving and making calls. Calling US or Canada is free.
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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.
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Pro
Android app does both sms and hangouts messaging
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Specs
Platforms:
iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, Web
Genre:
0
Co-Op:
0
Publisher:
0
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151
129
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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Pro
Easy to use
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Experiences
2.10
8
2
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.
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Top
Con
Keys cannot be checked automatically
You cannot automatically check keys of your recipients. Only manually.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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Pro
Supports different kinds of communication
Matrix is designed to support Instant Messaging, VoIP/WebRTC signalling (voice and video) and Internet of Things communication.
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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.
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Top
Pro
Offers choice of clients
Which can be found here.
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Top
Pro
Maintains full conversation history
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Pro
Has an active community behind it
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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.
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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.
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Specs
Platforms:
Mac/Windows/Linux/Android/Browser/iOS/and more
Price:
FREE
VoIP:
Yes
Open source:
Yes
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328
46
Join.me
All
10
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Joining a meeting is straightforward
To join you need only enter a 9-digit code on the join.me website, that you get from the person sharing.
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Top
Con
No Linux support
Only available on Windows and OSX.
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Top
Pro
Easy to set up
To start sharing, download and run a file from join.me. You'll be given a 9-digit code to share with anyone you wan't to be able to access your screen.
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Top
Con
Bought out by Logmein
Logmein is notorious for buying out small companies and disregarding the wants and needs of the customer base of the newly bought-out company.
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Top
Pro
Collaborative
You can give others the ability to control your screen.
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Top
Pro
Up to 10 participants
10 people can view your screen.
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Top
Pro
File sharing
Join.me allows for easy file transfers among participants.
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Top
Pro
Mobile support
Join.me supports iOS, Android and Kindle.
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Top
Pro
Multi-monitor support
Works well with multiple monitors.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Mac, iOS, Android
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Experiences
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38
9
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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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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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
AnyMeeting
All
4
Experiences
Pros
4
Top
Pro
Has screen sharing and presentation uploading
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Top
Pro
Custom URL
Custom URL for your account and all of your meetings.
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Top
Pro
(Paid) Can record meetings
You can record your meetings and web conferences for future playback.
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Top
Pro
YouTube video sharing
You can share your recorded video directly to youtube.
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4
2
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.
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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.
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Top
Con
Proprietary Software
Not Open Source.
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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.
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Top
Con
No web client
You cannot login from the web to send and receive messages.
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Top
Pro
Completely free
Viber uses data connection and the app is free.
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Top
Con
Constantly on
Need apps like Greenify to stop it from being constantly on and active, even if you don't use it.
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Top
Pro
Clean interface
The interface is simple, functional and intuitive.
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Top
Con
Constant reminders of messages
If you don't check your messages (say your in a group chat and simply don't check all of them), it will flood your notifications.
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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.
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Top
Con
Doesn't sync well
Sync awfully between Phone and PC clients.
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Top
Pro
Android Wear support
Viber includes Android Wear support on Android 4.3 or higher and Viber 5.3 or higher.
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Top
Pro
Same protocol as used in Signal
Viber's protocol uses the same concepts of the "double ratchet" protocol used in Open Whisper Systems Signal application.
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Top
Pro
Public chats
It's possible to be a fly on the wall on other group or one-to-one chats that have been opened up to the public. These public chats are often promotional chats with celebrities.
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Top
Pro
Supports video calling over WiFi and data.
Can call friends using voice or video options.
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Top
Pro
Combines cellular and data messaging
This has an advantage in that if you text someone who uses Viber it will be free, if not it will just revert to SMS. This means you can replace your standard messaging app with Viber as well.
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Top
Pro
Keys only on device
Starting with Viber 6.0 the encryption keys are stored only on the clients themselves, not even Viber itself has access to them.
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Top
Pro
No need to create an account or add contacts
One of the best things about Viber is how it handles setup and sending messages. Viber uses your existing number as your ID, so you don't need to create a separate Viber account.
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Top
Pro
Supports 200 person group chat
Viber allows creating groups of up to 200 people on the Android version of Viber. It also has a cool "smart notifications" feature to prevent being overwhelmed with notifications if a lot of people are active in a chat group.
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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.
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Specs
Platforms:
Android / iOS / WP / BB / Symbian / Windows / OSX / Linux
Publisher:
Viber Media S.a r.l.
File Size:
37M
Required Android Version:
2.3 and up
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Experiences
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129
56
FaceTime
All
5
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
2
Top
Pro
Easy to use
To make a FaceTime call, click the icon in the contacts.
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Top
Con
Apple users only
No applications for Windows, Linux or Android are available.
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Top
Pro
Already part of your iOS device
FaceTime is already integrated in your iOS device. No need to install or set it up. It can be accessed from contacts on iPhone or as a separate app on all iOS devices.
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Top
Con
Not suitable for teams
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Top
Pro
Group chats
Easy to initiate from iOS/OSX messages with a group.
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16
15
Brosix Instant Messenger
All
5
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
2
Top
Pro
Secure communication
Brosix uses advanced 256-bit P2P encryption that secures all of the communication channels.
See More
Top
Con
Lack of features on the web client
The web-client of Brosix has only chat feature included.
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Top
Pro
Functionality
Brosix has a lot of features that contribute to successful remote team communication. Some of them include: text, video and voice chat, screen-sharing, screen-shot capture, unlimited file transfer, etc.
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Top
Con
Lack of features on the web client
The web-client of Brosix has only chat feature included.
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Top
Pro
Brosix is an affordable option for all types of businesses
With prices starting from $1.70 per user per month, you can cut the costs on team communication a lot.
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$1.70
5
0
Alpemix
All
12
Experiences
Pros
12
Top
Pro
Fast
No difference with others
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Pro
Cheap
Maybe the chippest comparing to others
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Top
Pro
Multiplatform
Works on Windows, Linux, OS X, iOS and Android. Works crossplatform very well.
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Top
Pro
Great support
Very quick email support returns. Less than 1 hour.
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Pro
Safe
For key transfers, 1024 bit RSA and 256 bit RSA are used. The key that is encoded with 1024 bit RSA can be sent directly. The key that is encoded with 256 bit RSA is not sent directly. The key that is encoded with 256 bit RSA is sent again after being encoded with 256 bit AES.
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Top
Pro
Easy Setup - No Installation
Download the client from http://www.alpemix.com/site/Alpemix.exe and run only 1 click
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Pro
Free for personal use
Its free for limited individual usage.
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Top
Pro
Always Online Remote Desktop ( Service )
You can install Alpemix service for your computer to be able to connect it with only password 24/7.
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Top
Pro
Multiple remote sessions
you can connect multiple desktops simultaneously.
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Top
Pro
File sharing
You can share everyting crossplatform
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Pro
Reliable
Alpemix runs since 2010 to nowaday with %99 uptime.
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Pro
Good security
For key transfers, 1024 bit RSA and 256 bit RSA are used. The key that is encoded with 1024 bit RSA can be sent directly. The key that is encoded with 256 bit RSA is not sent directly. The key that is encoded with 256 bit RSA is sent again after being encoded with 256 bit AES.
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€0-73
4
0
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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Free/Paid
33
5
Adium
All
9
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
5
Top
Con
Appears to be abandoned
Not Gatekeeper-compatible, SSL cert expired, social media presence is ancient.
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Top
Pro
Easy-to-use interface
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Top
Con
Lack of OMEMO encryption
the de facto standard for Jabber Texting [xmpp]
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Top
Pro
OTR encryption
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Top
Con
Release version has old OTR
The current release, version 1.5.10.4 only does OTR version 2, and version 3 has been out for a long time.
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Top
Pro
Open source
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Top
Con
Lack of multi-resource message capability
No carbon copy, for example.
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Top
Pro
Supports file transfers
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Con
No antispam (built-in or by plugin)
It has no challenge-like antispam (such as seen on github.com/jesobreira/box-sentry plugin for pidgin).
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