Slack Vs Viber

Messaging Apps (like Slack) Also known as instant messaging, messaging apps are available in a variety of forms by a variety of vendors including SMS messaging on your phone, WhatsApp, Slack, Facebook, Viber, Google Hangouts, AIM and Skype. Slack seems to be the predominant messaging platform for business.

• Slack Vs Viber Pro
• Slack Vs Viber App

• Telegram vs Viber. All your messages. And everything from Twitter, Dropbox, Google Docs, Asana, Trello, GitHub and dozens of other services. HipChat is a hosted private chat service for your company or team. Invite colleagues to share ideas.
• Why is Skype better than Slack? It uses 'two-way opt-in'. Facebook Messenger. Available on PC. These services are ideal if you want to use the app while sat down at your computer, as well as on-the-go.

The current explosion of intuitive messaging applications has taken digital communication to a whole new level. These apps allow users to communicate with each other more conveniently than the traditional means—from voice and video calling, to text messaging, to photo uploading and sharing; they provide an extensive range of rich interaction services.

Most of the messaging applications have exposed their APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to enable developers to integrate their communication capabilities into their applications.

We looked at several messaging APIs based on the following five main criteria:

• API features: We assessed the various communication features of each of the APIs.
• Platform availability: We examined the types of environments that support the running of the applications.
• Popularity: We evaluated the popularity of each of messaging applications. Knowing their popularity will assist you to determine whether integrating them for your use case is worthwhile.
• Price: We reviewed the cost of using the APIs for building communication capabilities.
• Ease of use: We scrutinized the ease of embedding each of the messaging APIs into applications.

Ultimately, we created the following list of top 10 best messaging APIs.

Top 10 Best Messaging APIs

TL;DR: Here's a table summarizing our findings.

Table of Contents

• 10 10. BrainShop.AI API

1. WhatsApp API

WhatsApp is a Facebook-owned cross-platform messaging application that enables users to communicate simply and reliably.

API features: Transfer vcr to mac. WhatsApp has an API called the WhatsApp Business API that empowers businesses to leverage the features of the service in communicating with customers. With the API, you can create a business profile that describes your offerings, chat with customers in real-time, send images and other media, make video calls and voice calls, and more.

Platform availability: Apart from mobile platforms, the application can also run on the web and desktop computers.

Popularity: WhatsApp is currently the most popular messaging application in the world. As of October 2018, it was boasting of a monthly user base of more than 1.5 billion people from around the world. Therefore, you can realize your communication objectives if you integrate it into your application.

Price: The WhatsApp Business API is provided for free.

Ease of use: Facebook is known for providing comprehensive documentations to assist developers in easily integrating its services into their applications, and the WhatsApp API is a testament to this. Furthermore, there is a vibrant community of developers who are always willing to assist each other make the most of the API.

2. Slack API

Slack is a messaging application that is mainly used for managing communications between teams.

API features: Slack provides several APIs for integrating messaging capabilities into applications. For example, the Real Time Messaging API, sometimes simply called 'RTM API,' is an API that enables you to receive real-time Slack events and send messages to other Slack users. Some of the API event types include mentions, sending messages, joining or leaving a channel, or creating a file. The Slack APIs also supports integrations with an extensive range of third-party applications and services, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and GitHub.

Platform availability: Besides the traditional web browser, Slack is also available on mobile devices, desktop computers, and Apple Watch.

Popularity: As of May 2018, the team collaboration application had a daily user base of more than 8 million people.

Price: You can use the Slack messaging APIs for free, but you'll be limited to up to 10,000 message searches, up to 10 apps integrations, and one-to-one video calls. To benefit from unrestricted features, you'll need to go for any of its paid plans, which starts from $6.67 per active user, per month.

Ease of use: Slack has easy-to-follow documentation and helpful tutorials to assist you in implementing the APIs within minutes.

3. Telegram API

Telegram is a messaging service that aims to offer secure, fast, and simple communication to users.

API features: Telegram provides two types of APIs: the Bot API and the Telegram API. With the APIs, you can access and embed the functionality of the messaging application into your specific use case. The Bot API enables you to create bots that interact with the Telegram system and complete tasks automatically, such as receiving notifications, replying to users, and integrating with other third-party services. On the other hand, the Telegram API allows you to create Telegram apps and complete various tasks on the platform, such as sending and receiving messages, checking your messages, and creating groups.

Platform availability: Telegram is available in multiple operating systems and environments—mobile, web, or desktop.

Popularity: As of October 2018, Telegram had more than 200 million monthly active users.

Price: The Telegram APIs are offered for free.

Ease of use: Telegram has detailed documentation on how to use the APIs. Furthermore, there is a vibrant community of developers who support each other in implementing the Telegram APIs.

4. Facebook Messenger API

Messenger is Facebook's standalone messaging application that simplifies the exchanging of instant messages and other interactive content.

API features: The Facebook Messenger API allows developers to integrate capabilities for sending and receiving different types of content, accepting payments, discovering new people, retrieving IDs and profiles of Facebook users, harnessing Facebook's natural language processing technologies, and monitoring performance using Facebook Analytics.

Platform availability: Facebook Messenger is available on web and mobile operating systems.

Popularity: As of October 2018, Facebook Messenger had more than 1.3 billion monthly active users, which makes it the second most popular messaging platform after WhatsApp.

Price: The API is offered for free.

Ease of use: Facebook provides easy-to-follow documentation, templates, and tutorials to ensure you integrate the Messenger application faster and without many hassles.

5. Skype API

Skype is a messaging application that offers real-time chat, video chat, and voice calls services between a wide range of platforms and devices.

API features: With the Skype APIs, you can customize and extend the functionalities of the application to suit your needs. For example, you can use the Skype Bots API to create bots for personalized interaction with people and the Skype Interviews API to create customized and scheduled interviews. Skype also allows you to embed video calling and chatting capabilities to your website and integrate payment methods for secure and convenient purchase experiences.

Platform availability: Skype can be run on desktop computers, mobile devices, smart devices, Xbox One, or the web.

Popularity: As of October 2018, Skype had more than 300 million monthly active users.

Price: The Skype APIs are offered for free.

Ease of use: There are in-depth developer materials, code examples, how-to documentations, and other useful resources to help you in comfortably implementing the Skype APIs for your use case.

6. Viber API

Viber is a messaging application that enables users to communicate with each other using instant calls, texts, video messages, and pictures.

API features: The Viber API lets you implement the features of the software and build unique user experiences. The API comes with methods for sending and receiving text messages, interacting with video messages, sending messages to multiple Viber users, getting users' details, and many more.

Platform availability: Viber can be run on mobile devices and desktop computers.

Popularity: As of October 2018, Viber had more than 260 million monthly active users.

Price: The Viber API is offered for free.

Ease of use: Viber provides comprehensive documentation that enables developers to integrate the API fast and without any obstacles.

Slack Vs Viber Pro

7. WeChat API

WeChat is an instant messaging application that is widely used for powering free text chats, video messages, and voice chats.

API features: The WeChat API enables developers to access and embed the features of the software into their use cases. The API comes with methods for sending and receiving messages, getting users' details, getting users' location, interacting with voice, video, image, and music content, and many more.

Platform availability: The WeChat application can be deployed on mobile devices, desktop computers, or on the web.

Popularity: WeChat is popular around the world, especially among the Chinese. As of October 2018, it had more than 1 billion monthly active users, which makes it the third most popular messaging platform after Facebook Messenger.

Price: The WeChat API is offered for free.

Ease of use: WeChat provides comprehensive developer documentation and SDKs to help you in supercharging your application with the API quickly and seamlessly.

8. LINE API

LINE is an instant messaging service that allows users to communicate via video, audio, images, and text messages.

API features: The LINE Messaging API allows developers to tap into the LINE's platform and create two-way communication possibilities between their applications and LINE users. How to clone mac disk. With the API, you can send push messages, engage in group chats, retrieve user profiles, and send different types of messages such as video, image, audio, or text messages.

Platform availability: The LINE application can be run on mobile devices, desktop computers, and on the Chrome web browser.

Popularity: Although LINE is largely popular in some Asian countries such as Japan, Thailand, and Indonesia, it has also attracted a large number of global users. As of October 2018, it had more than 200 million monthly active users worldwide.

Price: The LINE Messaging API is offered for free.

Ease of use: LINE has provided easy-to-follow documentation on how to get started implementing the API into your application.

9. LiveAgent API

LiveAgent is an online application that offers the ability to engage in real-time conversations with website visitors.

API features: The LiveAgent API provides various methods for accessing your LiveAgent account and interacting with users. For example, the API allows you to get a list of companies, register new customers, get reports, start new conversations, delete conversations, and access knowledge base information. LiveAgent also supports integrations with an extensive range of third-party applications and tools.

Platform availability: TheLiveAgent software can be deployed on the web and desktop computers.

Popularity: LiveAgent is used by more than 150 million end users around the world.

Price: LiveAgent offers a 14-day trial period where you can try all the features of the API for free. Thereafter, you can pick any of its paid plans, which starts from $9 per agent per month to $39 per agent per month.

Ease of use: Starcraft remaster release time. LiveAgent provides an in-depth developer documentation and code examples to assist you in easily embedding live chatting into your application.

10. BrainShop.AI API

BrainShop is an artificial intelligence-powered tool that lets you engage in conversations with visitors to your website or application without requiring your direct intervention.

API features: The BrainShop API allows you to create a customizable chat bot that uses artificial intelligence technology to comprehend human words and respond just like humans do. You can use the API to develop trainable robots (called 'brains') and embed them into your use case.

Platform availability: The API can be integrated into any type of application—mobile, web, or desktop.

Popularity: BrainShop still has a very low popularity around the world.

Price: You can access limited features of the API for free. To access more features, such as email support and ads-free content, you'll need to go for any of its paid plans, which starts from $99 per month.

Ease of use: The BrainShop API is easy to use. There is comprehensive documentation and brain tutorials that you can use to easily get started with the API.

Check out Rakuten RapidAPI's complete list of messaging APIs. You may also like our list of top chatbot apis. We hope you'll find an API that you can integrate into your application and take your digital communication efforts to the next level!

About Rakuten RapidAPI

Rakuten RapidAPI is the world's largest API marketplace with 8,000+ third-party APIs and used by over 500,000 active developers. We enable developers to build transformative apps through the power of APIs. Find, test and connect to all the APIs you need in one place!

Check out some of the world's best APIs including Microsoft, Sendgrid, Crunchbase and Skyscanner.

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TLDR version: Skype's main advantages are its price (free for all features), its notification system (Slack's is buggy & lacking features), and its audio & video & screen-sharing capabilities. Slack's main advantages are its integrations, its search capabilities, and its rich messaging.

In our company of over 50 remote employees, communication is critical. For years we've been using Skype as one of our primary methods of communication. In the past when we tested out alternatives to Skype (like Hipchat & Sococo), Skype always won.

Unreal tournament 2005. In part because of Slack's astronomical growth (launched August 2013, now with over 750,000 daily active users and a recent $2.8 billion valuation), we decided we needed to give it a shot ourselves.

Before making a decision on which team chat app to stick with, we tested Slack for 2 months with about half the company. The comparison that you'll find below may not cover every aspect of Slack & Skype, but it does cover the aspects that actually mattered to us based on our real-world use of both pieces of software.

Service client messenger. After our Slack trial, we surveyed everyone in the company who had used both pieces of software. The pros & cons below are based on all of our input.

See how Time Doctor's easy-to-use time tracking software can help your team be more productive.

I'll start with the benefits of Skype over Slack, then move onto the benefits of Slack over Skype (which you can jump ahead to HERE), and then I'll let you know the reasons for our final verdict.

Advantages of Skype (disadvantages of Slack)

1. It's free. Slack has a free version also, but with limited features. More details here. Skype is always free.
2. It allows audio & video calls. Slack tries to solve this problem by initiating calls on Skype or Google Hangouts, but it can be a small hassle to set up (I personally needed to contact Slack support to connect to Skype), you still need Skype, and if you're chatting at the same time as talking (which is common for us) you need to use the two applications at the same time if you want all your chatting in one place (Slack) for documentation purposes.
3. Can call/text regular phone numbers and Skype users from outside your company. With Slack it's only possible to communicate with people in your own company.
4. Better notifications. The most common complaint about Slack in our company was their buggy & deficient notification system. Here are a few of the differences:
   • Skype indicates the actual number of unread messages in each conversation, as well as the number of unread messages in the taskbar. Slack does not.
   • Skype sends notifications about messages received while a computer was asleep. Slack does not.
   • If you open Skype but leave some messages unread, you'll still see in Skype's taskbar icon that you have unread messages. With Slack you won't.
   • Slack's notifications are buggy and some notifications that are supposed to happen simply don't.
5. Can use Skype with no internet connection. You can see your contacts, read & search past messages, and type in new messages which will be automatically sent when your internet connection is restored. With Slack you can't do anything without an active internet connection.
6. Skype uses less system resources. A couple of our users reported that Slack was slowing down their computers.

Advantages of Slack (disadvantages of Skype)

1. Integrations. Slack integrates with many pieces of software, allowing the other software that you use to post messages in your Slack conversations. For example in our company, we use Slack's integration with Codeship to allow our developers to receive notifications via Slack when code updates occur. Slack also allows you to create custom integrations. We've even built one for Slack time tracking. Skype doesn't integrate with any software that can post messages to Skype.
2. Better search feature. Slack's search feature is infinitely better than Skype's. A few aspects of Slack's search that are missing from Skype are:
   • The ability to search by date range, user, and other properties
   • The ability to search all conversations at once
   • Seeing all search results in a compact list, including an option to preview the surrounding conversation
   • The choice to sort by recency vs relevancy
   • Searching of files in addition to messages
   • Various filtering options
3. Accurate online/offline indication. Skype is notorious for showing people as online when they're not actually online. Slack doesn't have that problem.
4. Rich messaging. In Slack you can format text (i.e. bold), add code snippets, inline images, and more. Slack also has small features of messaging that make it nice to use. For example: color hex codes in messages automatically display a preview of the color, screencast.com links automatically show a thumbnail, etc. Skype only supports plain text messages and has fewer emoticons.
5. Customer Support. Slack offers email support even for free plans. Skype offers no support.
6. More customizable interface. Slack has more color options, sounds, and views than Skype.
7. Email notifications. Slack can optionally email you if someone sends you a direct message or mentions you in a message when you're offline. Skype sends no email notifications.

You can try Slack here. (This link also gives you $100 credit with Slack if you purchase the paid version.)

The Verdict

Our decision in the end was not between Slack alone or Skype. Since Slack is missing critical features that we need (audio/video calls, and the ability to communicate with people outside our company), our decision was whether to use Skype only, or whether to use BOTH Slack & Skype. The other alternative is to use Slack with Google Hangouts for voice and video chat.

I don't think we can give a recommendation one way or the other. There is still a lot of debate in our team about which team chat app to use. We're likely to continue to use both Skype and Slack for some departments in our company.

A note on organization of contacts & groups in Skype

One area where there was no clear winner is organization. Conversations in Slack are more organized by default, but Slack allows limited customization. Skype has less organization by default, but allows certain types of customization that Slack doesn't allow. Because the way to organize contacts in Skype isn't intuitive, here's how to do it:

Adding to Favorites and Renaming

'Favorites' and 'Recent' Contacts

What other startups chose

Softwaremill Software Solutions Provider

We've decided to go for Slack. And it was almost an unanimous decision, not so with HipChat or Skype. Some people around still think we should use IRC, but… well, no. We know there's Flowdock and a flock of other communication tools, but for now Slack completely rocks and it seems we'll stick to it.

FooPlugins, WordPress Plugin Developer

The FooPlugins.com team started using Slack a couple of months ago, and it has changed the way our company works.

Bunny Inc., Voice Over Marketplace

We like Slack because it allows us to have public, private, and one-on-one chats. It has a great mobile app that is smart enough to push you message notifications only when you're away from your desktop.

Riddle, Content Creation Tool

Slack allows us to focus our daily attention on just one place to know everything that is going on within Riddle. The only time we leave Slack for communication is for our daily video calls for which Hangouts or Skype is still necessary.

Lucid Meetings, Online Meeting Service

Our team is small, but dispersed, and Slack and Skype are both always on, keeping us connected.

Impraise, Feedback Software

Opt for Skype and Hangout instead of Slack and Hipchat, if face-to-face discussions are not possible.

Slack Vs Viber App

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