ICQ Alternatives

ICQ Alternatives

ICQ is the oldest cross-platform messenger and VoIP client. It was originally developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis in 1996, later sold to AOL in 1998. With ICQ you can stay connected with friends, family and co-workers. ICQ provides instant messa.. read more.

According to people there are many software similar to it, and the best alternative to ICQ is Telegram which is both free and proprietary. Other highly recommended applications include Telegram X (Free) , Element (Free) and Signal (Free).
In total people have suggested 20 alternatives to ICQ that share similarities by use case and feature set.

Telegram

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.

Free & Proprietary

Telegram X

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.

Free & Proprietary

Element

Element is an All-in-one secure chat app for teams, friends and organisations that allow you to own your conversations. With Element you can keep conversations in your control, safe from data-mining and ads. Element utilize the open and global Matrix network for message relay, protected by proven end-to-end encryption.

Free & Open Source

Signal

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".

Free & Open Source

Skype

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.

Free & Proprietary

WhatsApp

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.

Free & Proprietary

Zulip

Zulip is an open-source real-time chat with an email threading model. With Zulip, you can catch up on important conversations while ignoring irrelevant ones. Zulip provides modern apps for every major platform, powered by Electron and React Native. The software is 100% open source software, built by a vibrant community of hundreds of developers from all around the world.

Freemium & Open Source

Pidgin

Pidgin is a chat application which lets you log into accounts on multiple chat networks simultaneously. Pidgin is developed and released fully free and open-source and provides a plugin architecture that allow anyone to build extensions and connections to new networks and third-party services.

 

Free & Open Source

Viber

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.

Free & Proprietary

Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger is a free standalone chat application that is well integrated with the social network, Facebook. With Facebook Messenger you can stay in contact with friends and family, and other contacts from Facebook. The applicaiton has a ton of built-in features that make communication fun and engaging. Send images, gifs, video messages, voice notes, and stickers or share content from around the web. Facebook Messenger automatically syncs with your Facebook contacts without the need of adding phone numbers or identification manually.

Free & Proprietary

How Are These ICQ Alternatives Generated?

Information found on this page is crowd-sourced by the community and contains the most agreed upon ICQ alternatives. You can use this information to find similar software to ICQ for specific platforms with various pricing options and licenses. Anyone that have previously used ICQ can suggest alternatives, vote on the accuracy of other users claims, and help more people in the process of doing so.

This page was last updated on Sun 23 Jan 2022 (3 weeks, 1 day ago).