What are the best chat apps for linux?

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3

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7

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Jul 16, 2020

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Here’s the Deal

3 Options Considered

Best chat apps for linux	Price	Platforms	End-to-end encryption
-- Element (formerly Riot)	Free	Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, Browser, IOS	Yes
-- Telegram	-	Web, Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, macOS, BSD, Windows phone, UWP	Secret chats
-- Rambox	-	-	-

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score 3 · Answer 1

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score 2 · Answer 2

Telegram

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 Con

Does not work for visually impaired

Doesn't work for visually impaired. See More

Specs

Platforms:Web, Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, macOS, BSD, Windows phone, UWP

End-to-end encryption:Secret chats

Service integrations:Through bots

VoIP:Yes

See All Specs

Top Pro

@mentions

You can ping people to get their attention by @mentioning them. 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

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 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

Self-destruct messages

Messages can be set on a timer. They will disappear after the timer expires. 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

Popular in the USA

On SimilarWeb you can see that Telegram is on the top 15 among all communication apps. 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

Voice and video messages

You can post voice and video messages if you are too lazy to write text messages. 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

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 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

Open source client apps

Client apps are open source, making whole service more trustworthy. 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

Banned in China

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

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

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

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

Cross-platform

Works on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android iOS, Windows Phone, and Firefox OS even. Has a web app that changes it's appearance based on the device it's running on and if it's browser is full screen, etc. 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 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

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

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

Channels for one way broadcasting

Broadcasting channels suitable for announcing things. See More

Top Pro

Possible to send photos and videos without compression

Top Pro

Beautiful UI

Very customizable with a lot of clean looking options. See More

Top Pro

Media messaging

Videos, gifs, images, geolocation, and documents. See More

Top Pro

Free of cost

The application is available free of cost. See More

Top Pro

Privacy focused

In addition to the end-to-end encryption 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 device. See More

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 1.5GB in size. Images can be compressed, too. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 3

Rambox

Add Video or Image

What are the best chat apps for linux?

3 Options Considered

Element (formerly Riot)

My Recommendation for Element (formerly Riot)

My Recommendation for Element (formerly Riot)

Libre/open source

Cross platform

Decentralized

Markdown support

Telegram

My Recommendation for Telegram

My Recommendation for Telegram

Unlimited storage

Does not work for visually impaired

@mentions

Does not support spherical 360° photos

Multiplatform native client apps

No source code sintax highlighting

Self-destruct messages

"Secret Chat" feature is not available for desktop client

Popular in the USA

Can only be used with a phone number

Voice and video messages

Only "Secret Chat" messages are encrypted end to end

Saved messages

Not fully open source

Open source client apps

Pinned Messages

Banned in China

High quality calls

Desktop app handles HIDPI

Customer support is within the app

Cloud chat keys are kept in different jurisdiction

Cross-platform

Supergroups of up to 200,000 people

Save time with inline bots and link previews

Secure

Two-step verification

Channels for one way broadcasting

Possible to send photos and videos without compression

Beautiful UI

Media messaging

Free of cost

Privacy focused

Free and convenient large file sharing

Rambox

My Recommendation for Rambox

My Recommendation for Rambox

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