What are the best Skype alternatives?

End-to-end encryption:Yes (optional)

Media:All File Types

Matrix is godlike! See More

Top Pro

Web and mobile (iOS, Android) versions available

Reddit's Experience

Top Pro

Very good and simple interface

Element has a very simple interface, adding the ability for more unexperienced PC-Users to use it. See More

's Experience

horrible See More

Top Pro

Supports encryption

Element allows for fully encrypted text, voice, and video chatting. See More

Top Pro

Libre/open source

Top Pro

Decentralized

An open network for secure, decentralized communication. See More

Top Pro

VOIP and Videoconferencing

Top Pro

Uses Matrix, the open communications protocol

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

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

You cannot send and receive messages from multiple devices. See More

score 31 · Answer 2

Signal

Top Pro

Supports encrypted group chats

Top Con

Single device

Arash's Experience

More secure than most of the other programs here. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, Mac OS X

Media:images / audio / video / files / contacts / GIFs / location

Edward Snowden uses this messenger and recommends it to everony who is concerned about his privacy. See More

Top Pro

Recommended by Edward Snowden (Privacy activist)

Top Con

Needs access to your phone number and contacts to work

Trophhh's Experience

botnet for sure See More

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

Desktop apps are tied to phone

You need to have your phone always connected even though you are using from desktop app. See More

Hiakkakin's Experience

quite secure! See More

Top Pro

Message mirroring on Signal Desktop

Signal Desktop is a Chrome extension that allows you to mirror messages from your phone, including replying. See More

Top Con

Heavy-weight desktop app

75MB for a chat software is way too much. See More

Top Pro

Does not give your [contacts'] phone numbers and metadata to Facebook/other

Products like WhatsApp supply lots of metadata to a companies that use it to affect behaviour change in their users (eg convince you to click ad, or how to vote). 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

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

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

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 Con

If SMS/MMS imported, other apps can't read SMS

For those using Join, Pushbullet, or similar apps to send and receive SMS/MMS from web or desktop, putting your SMS in Signal somehow breaks this functionally. The dev is aware but plans to remedy the situation have not been named a priority. 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

SMS/MMS support

Signal can be your default SMS/MMS text messenger. Encryption is not possible when sending SMS to your contacts, however. 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 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

Encryption for chat, desktop sharing, and web conferencing available. See More

score 21 · Answer 3

Jitsi

Top Pro

Encryption out of the box

Top Con

Abandoned android development

They switched focus to Jitsi Meet client for android. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android, iOS, Linux, MacOS, Windows,

Top Pro

OMEMO encryption without plugin

Secure Jabber Texting, better than legacy sms texting. See More

Top Con

Uses Java

Not a native app, takes awhile to load. See More

Top Pro

Open-source

Project available on github for anyone to contribute to or use. See More

Top Con

GUI not as slick or streamlined as competitors

Top Pro

Video calls

Choose your video quality, blur effects and much more. See More

Top Pro

Use of your On Server / Infrastructure

Top Pro

Cross platform

Mac, Windows & Linux availability. See More

Top Pro

supports XEP-0016, Privacy Lists

Jabber Texting apps without Privacy Lists are WOEFULLY deficient See More

Top Pro

Supports SIP accounts

well implemented SIP SIMPLE (texting), SIP presence, XCAP. See More

Wire works on OS X, Windows, iOS, Android, Linux, and as a webapp. See More

score 80 · Answer 4

Wire

Top Pro

Cross-platform desktop, mobile and web

Top Con

No presence status for users

No notion of user presence status (e.g. online, away, busy) and thus no way of knowing whether your contacts can actually see your messages (more details in this github issue https://github.com/wireapp/wire-desktop/issues/900). See More

Bot's Experience

I have mixed feelings about it. It is not bad or good, it is very average. Of course it being open-source and encrypted is a big pro, but it still is missing a lot of features. See More

Specs

Platforms:Web iOS Android OSX Windows Linux

Audio recording:No

Media:images / video / audio / GIFs

In addition to sharing imges inline, Wire integrates with SoundCloud and YouTube to embed music and videos. See More

Top Pro

Inline photos, music and videos

Top Con

Lacking a command-line client

Daffel114's Experience

It was quite a weird experience. It just felt dead and wants you to pay money for a team chat See More

Top Pro

Completely free for private use

Check out their pricing. It cannot be cheaper for secure private communication. See More

Top Con

Lacking lots of fundamental features

Sadgorwarrne's Experience

Wire is one of those applications, that claim to be secure, but in reality, aren't. See More

Top Pro

Privacy-respecting

Reddit's Experience

money-hungry capitalists made this!!!!! See More

Top Pro

End-to-end encryption

Sompon558's Experience

It is still lacking a lot of features! See More

Top Pro

Swiss legislation

Registered in Switzerland. See More

Gabriel's Experience

I wont pay for that!!! See More

Top Pro

Clean, modern interface

Radium's Experience

it is very ok See More

Top Pro

Linux support

Eliticity's Experience

i am poor ok See More

Top Pro

Libre/open source

Algorithm's Experience

SECURE!!! See More

Top Pro

Intuitive user interface

Wire's user interface is quite intuitive to use, still it has everything required for a complete experience. Settings are very clean and allow you to turn on/off some features which might be disturbing for some, like link previews and emoji conversion. See More

Trophhh's Experience

BOTNET See More

Top Pro

Setup account with email adress

No need to use your phone number if you setup the account on ipad or webbrowser. See More

The application is available free of cost. See More

score 36 · Answer 5

Telegram

Top Pro

Free of cost

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

williambooker's Experience

Secure and convenient. See More

Specs

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

End-to-end encryption:Secret chats

Media:images / video / audio / GIFs / stickers / PiP Video / Videomessages

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

Secure

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

TruthfulBenzaiten's Experience

Too simple and basic for larger groups. It lacks text-channels like Slack and Discord have. This means that you en up with an enormous chat of chaos and disorder. And it means that you have very poor moderation tools. You can't have one channel for only moderators for example. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful UI

Very customizable with a lot of clean looking options. 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

Yanis's Experience

Another great one. See More

Top Pro

Free and convenient large file sharing

Copy/paste videos, gifs, images, geolocation, and documents, drag over files for practically any time up to 1.5GB in size. Images can be compressed, too. See More

Top Con

Poor market penetration in some countries

Too many connections still use Skype and WhatsApp. See More

PaulJ's Experience

Telegram is the best in convenience and usability overall IMHO. See More

Top Pro

Native mac app

Top Con

Lack text-channels in groups

Text-channels like Slack and Discord have is a must have for larger groups. It's like sub chats for different subjects that can be moderated. Since Telegram dosen't have this, you end up with one big chat that's impossible to keep track of. 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

Connection during the calls sometimes not perfect

Top Pro

2-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

Media messaging

Videos, gifs, images, geolocation, and documents. 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

Supergroups of up to 5000 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

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

Possible to send photos and videos without compression

Top Pro

Channels for one way broadcasting

Broadcasting channels suitable for announcing things. 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

Self-destruct messages

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

Top Pro

Open

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

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

Popular in the USA

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

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

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

Banned in China

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

Voice and video messages

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

Top Pro

@mentions

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

Personal data wouldn`t be in somebody else`s arms

Calls have crystal clear audio. See More

score 32 · Answer 6

Jami (formerly GNU Ring, SFLphone)

Top Pro

Crystal clear audio

Top Con

Bugs & Glitches

Cake's Experience

Could be better! See More

Top Pro

Cross platform support (computers, smartphones and televisions)

Works with devices running Android, Android TV, GNU/Linux, iOS, macOS and Windows operating systems. See More

Top Pro

Cares about the users' privacy

Top Pro

Supports multiple accounts

You can have multiple Jami and SIP accounts active concurrently. See More

Top Pro

Intercom calls and file transfers between devices

The same account can be setup on multiple devices. You can then make calls between the same account on different devices. You can also transfer files between devices without using third-party services (like email accounts). See More

Top Pro

4K/UHD video calling

If your device has a 4K camera, you can use it to its full potential with Jami thanks to the support for Ultra HD resolution. It is only really useful if the other person has a 4K screen, but if it's the case, they will see you as clearly as if you were there. See More

Top Pro

Free

Top Pro

Supported on many devices

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

score 64 · Answer 7

Discord

Top Pro

Can be used in browser

Top Con

Lacking a client for older Windows-versions

Discord lacks a client for the older windows versions. See More

Russia's Experience

This is liable to be the worst out of all of them. Discord is as lamentable as Skype, as unreliable as skype - it could literally be called Skype 2.0, because it is! Discord is not a Skype alternative, it assuredly is the identically tantamount to Skype, offering even less features than it and generally being even more unsecure! Incompetence in security is why it has such a prestige, if all of those users were vigilant of the consequences of utilizing Discord and it not being an authentic alternative, nobody would utilize it. Discord is closed-source, unencrypted, centralized, unoptimized and untrustworthy but popular - it literally is the epitome of unsecure but widely used software! All of the cons assuredly expound the hatred against Discord, whereas the pros are the literal apotheosis of incoherence in engendering an argument. See More

Specs

Platforms:Web, Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, Chrome

Audio recording:no

Videoconferencing:Yes

Groups:yes

Behaves and looks like Slack for regular text channels, but with the ability to create voice channels as well. See More

Top Pro

Supports video and text communication

Top Con

Resource heavy Chrome-based Windows client (Electron)

Discord uses Electron for its Windows client. See More

Trophhh's Experience

Had a relatively bad experience with it - the only pro is literally the web client, but the windows client is the web client anyway (electron). See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Discord has native apps for major desktop (Windows, OSX, Linux) and mobile (Android, iOS) platforms and it's also accessible from the web. 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

Gabriel's Experience

my screensharing thing is always downscaled to the point where I dont even use discords badly made feature and instead use manycam for that. See More

Top Pro

Easy to set up

You can quickly send invites to people and they can join in using the web client without having install the app. See More

Top Con

Primarily meant for gaming

All the UI and the features are aimed specifically at communicating with your gaming team/clan. See More

Bot's Experience

Discord is used by A LOT of people, especially teenagers. This doesn't change the fact that this is very unsecure. See More

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

21th place on secure communication applications

Discord is rated 20th place on secured.fyi with only 15/20 security points. See More

loli's Experience

doesnt owrk on my pc and its only for gamers and toxic af See More

Top Pro

Free for unlimited users

Hosting and Joining servers is completely free for unlimited users, with no ads & an optional subscription-based premium service 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

NiceCromCruach's Experience

Unethical business methods that have to be stopped See More

Top Pro

Very clean interface

Can also be altered using some CSS code to be custom fit for you. See More

Top Con

Proprietary software

Discord is closed-source, meaning their code isn't available for inspection or reproduction See More

Hiakkakin's Experience

closed source botnet "gaming" communication app, sucks! 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 Con

Relying on servers

Discord is centralized, if any of their servers get raided or attacked, you aren't able to use this application anymore. See More

Michaele's Experience

For gaming-enthusiasts, not for businesses 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 Con

Service paradox

Discord's service claims to be there for you. If you take a closer look, though you'll see them being more busy replying to edgy memes than responding to inquiries of exasperated customers. See More

Reddit's Experience

Discord is as flawed as skype... 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 Con

One client

Discord only has one client, which is an electron-client. See More

ZeFuture's Experience

generic gaymuhr chatting app See More

Top Pro

Ability to create bots

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 Con

Unportable

Discord seems to be unportable and could not be, f.e., put on an USB-Stick. See More

PoliteMielikki's Experience

Allowing no name accounts See More

Top Pro

DDoS mitigation

Discord prevents users from being DDoSed out of games. See More

Top Con

Requires an e-mail

Discord requires an e-mail for your account to get verified and not be limited to certain features. See More

Uranium's Experience

Worst out of the worst. See More

Top Pro

Has low-latency VoIP support

Can alter the amount of quality for a voice channel to either improve performance or quality. See More

Top Con

Lacking a command-line client

Discord is lacking a command-line client, something a lot of people would prefer over a resource-heavy GUI-client. See More

Contemplate's Experience

Bad in every way. 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 Con

Lacking a client for SailfishOS

Discord lacks a client for SailfishOS. See More

Racconn's Experience

gaming stuff See More

Top Pro

Numerous controls for setting member roles.

Deny access, Deny write message, Allow read messages etc. See More

Top Con

Can change "Now Playing" status to something inappropriate

Yanis's Experience

Great discovery !! See More

Top Pro

Android app has push notifications

Top Con

Some useful features require a Discord Nitro subscription

Boosted upload limit, higher quality screen share, etc. all require you to pay $4.99 per month. 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

Servers only in select regions

Servers are currently only available in the US, Europe, and Singapore. This can mean poor latency for users located elsewhere. See More

Top Pro

Ability to thread channels

Ability to create channel categories for channels to sit inside of. See More

Top Con

Bound to Discord

Servers are entirely facilitated by Discord (the organization), you can't run private ones, and all servers are facilitated on their foundation. For a great amount people, though. this won't truly affect their usage. See More

Top Pro

Low effort invite mechanics

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

Free abuseable tools

Discord is widely known for it's spamming, etc. tools, which people tend to abuse. So you getting spammed by a bot might be a possibility. See More

Top Pro

Does not allow NSFW related things to be posted unless in a NSFW channel

Top Con

No SMS signup required

Top Pro

Not owned by a giant corporation known for peeking in on what the people who use it's products say

Top Con

Ability to create bots

Meaning that AI could be used, in servers, in order to spy on people automatically. See More

Top Pro

Dark theme out of the box

Top Con

Immature community

Discord's community is notoriously known for being quite immature. See More

Top Pro

Friendly payment policy

Free accounts have no tangible restrictions. Premium account is just a way to say "thank you" to developers. And it works 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 Con

Lacking a Weechat-Addon

Discord doesn't have a weechat addon. See More

Top Con

Game integration

Discord shows which game each user is currently playing, that means everyone knows what you are doing at the exact moment. See More

Top Con

Lacking administrative features for servers

Features such as: IP-Bans, HWID-Bans, etc. See More

Top Con

Very direct advertising

Discord is kenned to advertise its software very direct by slandering other companies' softwares. This can be optically discerned on their website: Slandering both Skype and Teamspeak. See More

Top Con

Free

Meaning that one can evade bans infinitely. See More

Top Con

Unmodifyable

Discord is very closed-source and modifyable with very many restrictions, definitely not an application for modders. See More

Top Con

Discord's information is processed in USA

Meaning, that the NSA has access to all messages that are sent. See More

Top Con

Anti-privacy license terms

The privacy policy indicates that Discord has the ability to share the information provided with its subsidiaries or affiliates and these companies, and their respective privacy policies are not documented in the privacy policy. And then it's said that aggregated and non-personally identifiable information provided can be shared with another company for business purposes. It also says, that the privacy policy can be changed at any time without any notification and warns to periodically read the privacy policy. See More

Top Con

Has a problem with spam bots

Raidings, Hackings, etc. happen quite often there. See More

Top Con

Doesn't work on old PCs

Top Con

Devs have a bad history

This encryption is mandatory and cannot be disabled. The so-called control channel, which transports your chat messages and other non-time critical information, is encrypted with TLS using 256 bit AES-SHA. The voice channel carrying speech and positional audio is encrypted with OCB-AES 128 bit. See More

score 8 · Answer 8

Mumble

Top Pro

Secure & encrypted

Top Con

A bit more difficult to set up than similar solutions

The process of generating and/or acquiring certificates can be time-consuming and a bit more complex than setting up a username/password authentication that's found in other clients. Similarly, setting up a server that includes configuring user permission system requires advanced technical knowledge. See More

Specs

Open-Source:Yes

Secure:Yes

An in-game overlay can be enabled to show users in the channel or users talking. Overlay can be disabled completely or on a per-game basis by going to Settings->Overlay. This allows for users to see their chat but not obstruct the game they are playing. See More

Top Pro

Easily overlay over game

Top Con

May be a litte too complicated for newer PC users

With practice, you can get used to it, however. See More

Top Pro

Use of certificates offers more security and easy people management

Mumble uses certificates for user identification. A certificate can be generated by the user himself or issued by a third-party organization with organization certificates having 2 classes. A self-generated certificate is not tied to anything, a Class 1 certificate is tied to an e-mail address and a Class 2 certificate requires proof of identity. Depending on the server a different level of certification might be required. See More

Top Con

Disconnect issues

Can have occasions of disconnect or users kept getting booted. See More

Top Pro

Push-to-Talk

A push-to-talk key allows you to only transmit audio when you want it. Others won't hear you chewing or your mom entering the room unless you want to. See More

Top Con

Relatively poor voice quality

While Mumble's voice quality is fine, and you can understand what's being said, there is a noticeable difference between it and many other platforms. See More

Top Pro

Positional audio

Mumble supports positional audio for over 50 games, including versions of Call of Duty, Battlefield and Counter-Strike. This allows you to hear the audio from the direction of the player speaking, making gameplay more immersive and giving competitive players an edge. You can find a full list of supported games here. See More

Top Pro

Free to download and use as a client

Mumble is completely free, even when hosting your own server. See More

Top Pro

Excellent voice quality

Since version 1.2.4, Mumble uses an audio codec named Opus that's specifically developed to provide low-latency voice communication over Internet. This means that there is no delay time, while audio still comes out clear. See More

Top Pro

Customizable UI

Version 1.3 introduced skins, allowing you to customize your UI, either on your own (tutorial here) or by using one of the skins found here. See More

Top Pro

Sub-channels

By default, only users in the same channel can hear each other. Channels can be nested to better organize yourself according to what you want to be talking about. See More

Top Pro

Server works on Raspberry Pi

Mumble server side is easy to setup and works smooth even on Raspberry Pi, which is pretty short on resources. See More

Top Pro

Free and open-source server software

The server software Murmur is licensed under a free and open-source BSD-style license. See More

Top Pro

Good audio normalization

Mumble includes great automatic volume adjustment functionality that can be used to prevent big volume changes while still allowing good communication. See More

Top Pro

Can be used on a gamers preferred platform

Available on Windows, Linux, OS X, Android and iOS which allows for the user to choose what operating system works for them and still be able to use Mumble. See More

Top Pro

Code available to anyone to inspect or use, no spy- or adware

Mumble is available as a free download and source code is available on GitHub. See More

Top Pro

Low latency and resource usage

Dedicated servers and low overhead allows Mumble to have the least delay between users speaking and others hearing their speech, which can be very important for fast paced games. See More

Hangouts offers both an Android and iOS app so users can participate from nearly any mobile device in addition to his Desktop. See More

score 44 · Answer 9

Google Hangouts

Top Pro

Mobile support

Top Con

Poor video call quality

Only goes up to 720p30 + low bitrate. See More

Bot's Experience

My friend and I used this for some time because of it being free, we didn't know though that there were better things out there. After we found that out, I immediately ditched this program. See More

Specs

Platforms:iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, Web

Audio recording:0

End-to-end encryption:0

Media:0

Any user can share his screen (or only a specific desktop or window) while still continuing an audio conversation. See More

Top Pro

Screen sharing

Top Con

Owned by Google

Russia's Experience

I have seen WAY better! Google Hangouts is glitchy, unreliable and simple-built, meaning there aren't as much features! 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

Cake's Experience

It's free, but it often has weird glitches & bugs, which make the usage of this very difficult and stressful. 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

Peter J. Mello's Experience

Hangouts offers me everything that Skype does just as easily, and at no cost. 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

Trophhh's Experience

worst video call experience I've ever had 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

's Experience

It was horrible! See More

Top Pro

Cross platform

Hangouts work on Android, iOS, Chrome OS, web and as a Chrome extension. See More

Hiakkakin's Experience

Just bad. 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

Jurisdiction's Experience

Very bad 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

williambooker's Experience

Hangouts just work. Good quality calls. 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

E2E encryption means no cloud syncing of messages. See More

score 5 · Answer 10

Threema

Top Pro

Supports encrypted group chats

Top Con

No cloud sync

Trophhh's Experience

Costs money for some encryption stuff See More

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS / WP

Media:images / video / audio

Threema supports sending media messages such as video, pics and even voice messages. See More

Top Pro

Ability to send pics and videos

Top Con

Single device only

You cannot use multiple devices to send messages. However, it does have message mirroring on a web client. See More

Top Pro

Encrypted communication

Provides complete end-to-end encryption. See More

Top Con

Not free

Unlike many other options Threema is not free as it costs $1.99 for the app. See More

Top Pro

Company behind Threema is based in Switzerland

Top Pro

Group chat polls

Top Pro

Servers in Switzerland

Privacy laws protect the data Threema has. See More

Top Pro

Provides a web client

You can control and message with friends via Threema Web, the official web client for Threema. See More

Top Pro

Registration without phone number

Registration is handled by random generated IDs. No phone number needed. See More

Slack integrates with tools like Trello, GitHub, Dropbox, Mailchimp, and dozens of others, so you can have a centralized event feed of your project right alongside your chat. This is tremendously useful for keeping context with your discussions. See More

score 9 · Answer 11

Slack

Top Pro

Service integrations

Top Con

Awful performance and constant glitches, since it is Chromium-based

You will experience a lot of hangs and glitches and it eats immense (for as basic as UI is) amount of RAM. See More

Crystal S. H. Chen's Experience

Love all the neat little features like @mention and file directory where I can view all my (and my team members') shared files. See More

Specs

Platforms:Chrome, iOS, Android, Mac OS, Windows

Service integrations:Yes

Screensharing:Yes

Top Pro

Native apps for iOs, Anroid, Mac Desktop & Windows Desktop

Slack has fully native apps for iOS, Android, OSX and Windows to give you the full functionality of Slack on most major platforms. See More

Top Con

No end-to-end encrypted chats

Goyim12's Experience

Awful at almost every apect, except maybe design. It costs alot of money and the video quality is horrible. See More

Top Pro

@mentions

You can ping people to get their attention even if they are not online by @mentioning them. Slack supports desktop notifications. See More

Top Con

Expensive when you need to upgrade

At $6.67 per user / month, Slack is significantly more expensive than the competition if you need features such as unlimited integrations or unlimited message storage. However, the free version of Slack includes unlimited users. See More

Trophhh's Experience

Costs money See More

Top Pro

Drag & drop files in channels

You can upload a file to any channel over HTTPS simply by dragging and dropping. See More

Top Con

"Native" desktop apps are web apps

While it's great that Slack provides installable apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux, they're just the Slack web app wrapped in Electron shell. This means they don't offer the same level of native UX that a truly native toolkit app would. See More

Yanis's Experience

Great in a team See More

Top Pro

Supports multiple teams

You can be signed into multiple teams simultaneously and quickly switch between them. See More

Top Con

No self-hosting available

If you are worried about third-parties getting access to your data you should consider self-hosting. With self-hosting you are in control over where your data is stored, who has access to it. You will also not be vulnerable to exploits of a third-party provider. See More

Top Pro

Edit messages easily

It allows you to change what you sent by hovering to the message and selecting "Edit message" under the ellipsis (...). See More

Top Con

Resource heavy Chrome-based Windows client

Top Pro

Self chatting

Creative implementation which is very good for personal journaling or drafting/collecting ideas. Previously, to do this, users needed to create a private channel with themselves. Note that some other team-chat apps may disallow creating group/channel with no 2nd person(s). See More

Top Con

Screen-sharing requires you to pay money

Top Pro

Multiple channels for different groups

Top Con

Replies are the worst feature implementation of all time

Top Pro

Emoji reactions to limit excessive posts and notifications

Top Con

Hidden max limit of free users per channel

Slack says that their free accounts support an unlimited number of users, which is true. However they don't mention that there is an undisclosed maximum number of users per channel (8462). For a large open source community, this is something to keep in mind. See More

Top Pro

Inline link previews (photos, mockups, etc.)

When a link is added, some content in the link is shown such as image - like how Facebook does it when you share a link. See More

Top Con

Linux client is very RAM intensive

Top Pro

Syntax coloring

Pasted code can be colored based on syntax. See More

Top Con

Proprietary (non-free/libre)

Top Pro

Robust integration with a huge number of tools

Slack integrates with tools like Trello, GitHub, Dropbox, Mailchimp, and dozens of others, so you can have a centralized event feed of your project right alongside your chat. This is tremendously useful for keeping context with your discussions. See More

Top Con

Slow and lags sometimes

Top Pro

Easy to use

Top Con

Replies are implemented in an annoying way

Top Pro

Very polished user experience

The entire Slack interface is polished and intuitive to use. There are very few bugs or inconsistencies in the UI and it's very fast to use. There is nothing in particular that is new with Slacks implementation of team chat, but the execution of the groups (called channels), search, external service integration and notifications is close to perfect. See More

Top Con

API is overall very poor

Can't do much with integrations. See More

Top Pro

Slackbot extensible chat robot

The "Slackbot" can is an extensible robot that can be set you remind you about tasks, auto respond to certain phrases and a variety of other functionality. See More

Top Con

API doesn't allow custom widgets in chat

Top Pro

Easily edit messages

Top Con

No E2E encryption

Data is sent of SSL only, not E2E encrypted. See More

Top Pro

Shows local time of each participant

You can click on the profile of a user to see their local time. An especially useful feature when members of your team are working in different timezones. See More

Top Pro

Flexible, granular notification settings

Notifications are handled separately for mobile and the web app. You can receive notifications for all messages, just direct messages, or based on filters, and you can have different settings for different channels: you don't have to get notified every time someone pushed to GitHub or every time someone posts to off-topic chat, unless you want to. See More

Top Pro

Free for unlimited users (only limited number of messages in archive)

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

score 5 · Answer 12

Pidgin

Top Pro

Highly customisable with plugins

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

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux

Media:Video send/receive, Images

Message history:Optional

License:GPL

The Pidgin instant messaging client is cross platform, working on Linux, Windows and OSX. See More

Top Pro

Cross platform

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

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 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

Free rooms allow up to 4 participants, pro mode up to 12. See More

score 9 · Answer 13

Appear.in

Top Pro

Allows sharing your screen

Top Con

Limited participants

Specs

Platforms:Web/iOS/Windows

Top Pro

No sign-up or login

Hosting a free room does not require a sign-up or login. Also joining the room is simply with just a link. See More

Top Con

Requires a good network connection

When the internet connection is not stable, such as when communicating internationally, it doesn't perform well. See More

Top Pro

Integrates with Slack and HipChat

Top Pro

Includes instant messaging

Top Pro

Allows locking rooms

Top Pro

Many integrations

Trello, Slack, YouTube. See More

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, Mobile

score 5 · Answer 14

Linphone

Audio recording:yes

End-to-end encryption:SRTP, ZRTP, DTLS

VoIP:Yes

You don't need to rely on someone else's servers, you can host Mattermost on your own server. See More

score 3 · Answer 15

Mattermost

Top Pro

Can be self-hosted

Top Con

Calling options lacking

Although it claims to have WebRTC support, it is not seamless. Could be better. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS, Linux

Service integrations:Yes - Atlassian, Webhooks, Chatbots, Extensions

DIY integrations:Yes - API Library, OAuth 2.0 Apps, Zapier App with over 700 Integrations

Hosting options:Self-hosted

With Docker set up, you can install Mattermost with the following command: docker run --name mattermost-dev -d --publish 8065:80 mattermost/platform For other cases, installation instructions can be found here. See More

Top Pro

One-line Docker install

Viber has native apps for both Windows and Mac that allow sending and receiving text messages. They can also be used to make and receive calls. See More

score 9 · Answer 16

Viber

Top Pro

Desktop apps (both PC and Mac) allow texting and calling

Top Con

Has multiple a security vulnerabilities

EFF gave Viber's security 1 out of 7 points in November, 2014. It deducted points because the provider is capable of reading encrypted messages, there's no way to verify contacts identities, past communications are not secure if encryption keys are stolen, the code is not open to independent reviews, the security design is not properly documented and there has not been a recent code audit. See More

Dave D K Kolars's Experience

Can not even install on Xubuntu 16.04... installed on phone, input my mobile number on computer form. Nothing... tried multiple times. Uninstalled! See More

Specs

Platforms:Android / iOS / WP / BB / Symbian / Windows / OSX / Linux

Media:images / video / audio / emoji / stickers

Viber has really well implemented voice tech. It has comparable quality to Skype and can even transfer calls from phone to desktop seamlessly. See More

Top Pro

Supports voice calls as well as text

Top Con

Clearly made for children, unsuitable stickers, emoticons, overall experience for anybody older than a teenager.

Cake's Experience

It is free, but your security definitely is NOT guranteed! See More

Top Pro

Completely free and ad-less

Viber uses data connection and the app is free. There are also no advertisements. 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

Bot's Experience

Again, a free app but very unsecure, basically a trap 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 Con

The account is bolted down to your phone number

Out of luck if you have two phones and want to have common message history. See More

Yanis's Experience

Very light, love it. See More

Top Pro

Clean interface

The interface is simple, functional and intuitive. See More

Top Con

Shady company

There is zero information on the founders of Viber, which leads to some questions as to who is behind a platform that has access to a large swath of user information. 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

The company evades U. S. tax

Adding to the fact that there is no founder information, the company also uses a tax haven address in order to avoid paying US taxes despite being registered in Delaware. 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 Con

Constant reminders of messages

If you don't check your messages (say you're in a group chat and simply don't check all of them), it will flood your notifications. 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 Con

No web client

You cannot login from the web to send and receive messages. See More

Top Con

Android version has a security vulnerability

Top Con

Lots of unsolicited requests (porn)

You tend to get inundated with requests for access to porn or to "date" someone locally. See More

You can just message them using their existing phone number or Apple ID and they will get your message. See More

score 11 · Answer 17

iMessage

Top Pro

Friends don't need to "sign up"

Top Con

Not cross-platform

iMessage is not available on anything but Apple devices. See More

Top Pro

Supports voice messages

Short voice recordings/messages can be quickly sent, and messages can be easily dictated into written messages as well. See More

Top Pro

Comes pre-installed

No need to download or sign up for a new service See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform within Apple ecosystem

iMessage is available on iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Mac. See More

Top Pro

Seamlesss switching between SMS messages

Top Pro

Clear indicators for message delivery and receipt

The app indicates when messages have been sent, when they have been read, and when someone is typing. See More

Top Pro

Clean UI

UI is minimalistic, and clear. And there is a plethora of stuff on the left of text box if you wanna use them. See More

Top Pro

Secure end-to-end encryption

Top Pro

Free and unlimited messages over Wi-Fi and data

Messages clearly indicates whether messages are being sent over iMessage (blue) or SMS (green) where messaging rates apply. iMessages do not count as SMS messages with your carrier, instead they use a negligible amount of data to send over Wi-Fi and cellular data networks. See More

The more services you have enabled at once the more RAM you need more of a keep an eye on this rather than a CON. See More

score 4 · Answer 18

Franz

Top Con

PC resource usage

Top Pro

Easy access to multiple services

It makes it super easy to manage your different email, social networking and other accounts while allowing you to focus on one or more at a time. See More

DignifiedPolymatheia's Experience

I use this product all the time to manage my Social media, messaging and other services. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux

Voice chat software made for business that NEED encrypted lines. See More

score 2 · Answer 19

Cisco Spark

Top Pro

Heavily encrypted communications

Top Con

Lack of many features found in other chat tools

Kobold's Experience

Hiakkakin's Experience

uses servers (not decentralized) also uses IETF or W3C protocols, I have seen better!!!! See More

Platforms:Web, iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, Linux, terminal

Answer 20

Zulip

Service integrations:Yes

DIY integrations:Yes

Hosting options:Hosted and Self-hosted