Viber vs Stride (previously HipChat)

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.

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.

Viber uses data connection and the app is free.

The interface is simple, functional and intuitive.

Viber is tied to your phone number so it can quickly see who else in your contacts list is using the application.

Viber includes Android Wear support on Android 4.3 or higher and Viber 5.3 or higher.

Viber's protocol uses the same concepts of the "double ratchet" protocol used in Open Whisper Systems Signal application.

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.

Can call friends using voice or video options.

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.

Starting with Viber 6.0 the encryption keys are stored only on the clients themselves, not even Viber itself has access to them.

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.

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.

Viber has made a documentation available, explaining in great details their encryption system and giving good insight on how it works.

You can access HipChat from pretty much every common platform. HipChat even allows chatting via SMS.

You can ping people to get their attention even if they are not online by @mentioning them. Depending on how the person has set their account up it can be by notifications via in-app sounds, visual alerts, and even email, SMS, or mobile app push notifications.

Including Asana, Github, Zendesk, WordPress, MongoDB, TeamCity, JIRA, Confluence, PowerShell and more that 40 others.

Free with unlimited users, $2/user/month for voice + video calls, screencasts, full history retention and management. (Even enterprise feature like SAML)

An intuitive, easy to overview interface listing both online and offline users.

Things like photos get automatically embedded in the chat thread once you upload them.

You can invite people to join conversations even if they don't have a HipChat account. HipChat will generate a link to share and the guest will only need to enter their name to join the conversation.

HipChat has an optional desktop client powered by Adobe AIR.

HipChat audio and video works on mobile platforms and web browsers.

Participate and keep tabs on ongoing discussions on particular topics or amongst certain groups of people.

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

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A big company with experience will bring in more options like Google Apps One Time Login.

E.g. part, away, all, here etc.