Facebook Messenger Alternatives

WhatsApp is free messenger app for chat and voice over IP, owned and managed by Facebook. The application allow users to send text and voice messages, make voice and video calls and share images, media files and user locations with friends and family.

WeChat connects a billion people with voice calls, video calls, photo sharing, chats and payments. The multi-purpose application is developed by the Chinese company Tencent and is and in China, it is described as "the app for everything". WeChat is primarily developed for the mobile consumer, but is also avalible on desktop and in the browser.

Skype is a telecommunications application that specialize in providing video chat and voice calls between computers, tablets, mobile devices and consoles. The software allows you to connect with friends and business colleges worldwide. Skype provides free online calls, messaging, affordable international calling to mobiles or landlines and Skype for Business for effective collaboration among teams.

Signal is a cross-platform encrypted messaging application that has a strong focus on privacy. The application is developed by Signal Messenger LLC and provides users with features like one-to-one and group messages, which can include files, voice notes, images and videos. The software is famous for being used by the whistleblower and privacy advocate Edward Snowden who once said "I use Signal every day, it is the most scalable encryption tool we have".

With Telegram people can communicate and via instant messaging and voice over IP. Telegram is a cloud-based software and services that have a focus on privacy, speed and security. The client was initially created by the brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov, the creators of the Russian social network VK back in 2013. Today the application is used cross-platform by over 400 million users world-wide.

Telegram X is a development version of the chat application Telegram. The goal of Telegram X is to reinvent Telegram and explore new frontiers in speed, ease of use, quality of animations, and all other aspects surrounding online communication. Telegram X is an experimental app that may or may not eventually replace the existing official Telegram, or simply used as a public beta test.

Viber is a cross-platform voice over IP application that allow people to make free and secure calls and messages to anyone, anywhere. With Viber, you can create group chats and make group calls, send stickers and emojis over chats that are 100% synced between devices, including 1-tap transfer of calls. Viber is available for free on Android, iOS, macOS, Linux and Windows.

Mumble is a free and open-source voice over IP application primarily designed for gamers. The application features a customizable in game overlay, application skins, conversation recording, and advanced voice activity detection. Anyone can download and use Mumble for free, but if you want your own server, you can rent a managed solution from the company behind Mumble, or host your own.

Jitsi is an open-source project and software toolset that allows you to easily build and deploy secure video conferencing solutions. At the heart of Jitsi are Jitsi Videobridge and Jitsi Meet, which let you have conferences on the internet, while other projects in the community enable other features such as audio, dial-in, recording, and simulcasting.  Jitsi supports popular protocols such as SIP, XMPP/Jabber, ICQ/AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo!, Google Hangouts, OTR, ZRTP and more.

Threema is a messenger application that puts security and privacy first. The application is designed to generate as little user data as possible. The service is fully GDPR-compliant and the company has its own servers hosted in Switzerland. With Threema you can keep in touch with friends, family and co-workers while enjoying privacy and rest assured that you personal data is not commoditized.

A multimedia messaging app for sharing special moments with friends and family. The Snapchat application opens right to the camera so that you are ready to record and send a snap in seconds. Snapchat also provides filters, lenses, bitmojis and other fun stuff to enhance your snap and allows you to express your self more. Each snap can be sent to a select group of friends, and is deleted as soon as they have watched it.