Skype Alternatives

Zoom is a commercial video and web conferencing software that can be used for webinars or team collaboration and communication. The software is developed by the Chinese and American company Zoom Video Communications, Inc. Zoom provides a cloud platform that is used and loved by many enterprises and fortune 500 companies, due to the easy-of-use and infrastructure-less nature of the platform.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

Slack is a new way to communicate with your team in a faster, better organized, and more secure than email. The software is designed for business looking to improve their communication work flow. Slack offers features like persistent chat rooms organized by topic, private groups, and direct messaging that is built for teamwork.

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.

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.

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".

A VoIP application and platform designed for creating communities and connecting gamers, and people rallying around specific causes. The Discord client is a free to use and can handle text, image, video and audio communication between users in a chat channel. Currently over 250 million users use the software to connect with others across the globe.