HN Explorer

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

6 points by tiffanyh ↗ HN
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]

10 comments

[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 30.5 ms ] thread
s1t5
> 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.

tiffanyh
I’d prefer a chat app which made it harder to create a group/channel.

I’ve been apart of organizations that use Slack and the proliferation of channels is insane because they are so easy to create.

crazypython
Discord works well in practice for creating groups and channels. By default, regular users cannot create channels. Like Slack, it has very fast search, with no message limit. File and image upload work wonderfully and the audio/video works every time.

For small-scale groups, Group DMs are fine, though, I would warn to try to use Group DMs only for when more than two participants should get an urgent ping on a message. (Users can "mute" group DMs so they don't get notified by them.)

drpebcak
The problem with group DMs in slack is that they are almost always better off as a channel - you can’t really add new people to a group DM. So you’re forced to decide if you should make a channel or not right at the beginning.

Group DMs can also have usability problems, and they tend to clog up the UI of slack. I currently have 5 or 6 group DMs going that all have at least one of the same people in all of them, so now when I use the quick switcher I see all of those. Some of them even have 2 of the same people in them - it makes it really easy to select the wrong group.

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.
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.

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.