A few years ago the chats were only PC programs, among which we can remember the nostalgic MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AIM, ICQ and others. At that time, programs to gather all these chat platforms were very sought after so that you could stay connected simultaneously to all and control them from a single window. Today, chats are called Messenger and are mainly used via smartphones. A new program for Windows, Linux and Mac PCs takes up the idea of multi-chats and tries to unify, on the computer, the services of the main mobile messaging applications, so that they can be used and chat simultaneously from a single window.
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Franz is a free program that provides a platform to bring together and combine the main and most used chat and messenger services in one application . The services currently supported are: Slack, WhatsApp, Wechat, HipChat, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Google Hangouts, GroupMe, Skype and Steam and others less known. After installing Franz, you can add the various services only by clicking on the various icons. Each service will take its place in a tab and you can remain connected at the same time to all the added ones and control them from the program window. What works well is that the various Messenger can be kept under control so that when a new message is received it will be notified, even with a sound .
The operation of the added applications is all based on their web version.
The various apps will then open in the various tabs such as Whatsapp Web (with all the limitations of the web version of Whatsapp), Skype web online and Facebook Web Messenger.
Each service will require you to log in with your name and password (or in the case of Whatsapp to scan the code with the Whatsapp app from your smartphone). Since it is an integration of websites, Franz can be considered a safe program, which does not store any password and login credentials and which does not track conversations in any way, keeping chats encrypted for the services that support it.
Theoretically, the same result could also be obtained by opening the various Messenger and chat sites in different browser tabs, but it would still be difficult to keep them active and manage them. With Franz, on the other hand, you get a unified management, on PC (Windows Mac and Linux), of all the messaging apps that are used on the smartphone.
An alternative to Franz is another program, derived from Franz, but lightened by less useful and secondary functions. The result is Ferdi, an open source program, which combines multiple messaging services in a single application. This app supports many popular messaging platforms including Gmail, Hangout, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, Twitter and others. The interface is cleaner than Franz, with a pane on the left where you can access added messaging services and some application options. how to set a name and photo, configure notifications and select dark mode.
Another very good alternative to have all the chats together on PC is the Chrome All in one Messenger application, which works similarly.
Even better you can chat on Whatsapp, Messenger and Telegram on Opera, from a sidebar of the browser.
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