HACKER Q&A
📣 tiffanyh

What software do you use for business 1:1 chat (NOT group/channel chat)?


Maybe I'm dating myself here but there was a time within corporations where chat software was primarily used for 1:1 instant messages. Such things like XMPP, Skype, etc fit this bill really well.

Then over the last few years, a slew of new chat based apps popped up in the enterprise that were primarily focused on group/channel chat (e.g. Slack, Zulip, etc.) as opposed to the 1:1 messaging model.

What would be good chat software today that focuses on 1:1 messages (not groups/channels)?

[XMPP worked great for this but that doesn't seem en vogue any more. And I find the focus that many of these "modern" chat app have on group/channel distracting]

  👤 s1t5 Accepted Answer ✓
> What would be good chat software today that focuses on 1:1 messages (not groups/channels)?

The premise of the question is that direct messages are somehow different and require a separate application. I don't think that's true. Slack and Teams do an absolutely fine job at 1:1 messages.

👤 Jugurtha
I don't understand. 1:1 means two people. What's wrong with using "group chat" with a group of two people?

I don't think even XMPP focused on 1:1 and even Slack uses XMPP (or at least used XMPP in the earlier versions, as it started out as an internal communications solution built as IRC + storing messages in database + search + ...)

Also, https://meet.jit.si , https://jitsi.org They also use XMPP.

👤 giantg2
We use Teams. It's ok for 1:1 stuff. It all depends on the actions and preferences of the user base. I try to use single recipient chats whenever possible, but others like to create group descriptions.
👤 muzani
WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram.

Preferably only Telegram, but I don't have a choice.

👤 tmaly
I use MS Teams for 1 on 1 as well as group chat and audio calls.
👤 ta17711771
Element/Riot (a Matrix client)

or Jitsi.