Linphone: Video and instant messaging
Reviewed by Marcus Holmberg
Linphone
linphone.org 1 rating so far*
Rate Linphone: No account needed
Threat level
Hardened
A hardened pick. Worth the effort once you have chosen to shrink your footprint on purpose. Enough for most people. Threat levels
Our take
A long-running SIP client with encryption, which makes it a solid pick if you specifically want a standards-based VoIP and messaging tool rather than a walled-garden app. That same SIP heritage is the catch: it assumes you understand accounts and providers, so it is not the friendliest first messenger. Choose it for interoperable encrypted calling; look elsewhere for a one-tap consumer experience.
GitHub at a glance
BelledonneCommunications/linphone-desktop
Stars
495
+ 8 this week
Last commit
16d ago
healthy
License
GPL-3.0
Stars, last 38d
Website at a glance
linphone.org
D- score 25
Weak website security headers
Graded by Mozilla HTTP Observatory, tested 5d ago
Inspect this site yourself
Measures the security configuration of the tool's own website, not the privacy of the product itself. A strong tool can still score low here.
Linphone alternatives
Signal Similar look and feel of WhatsApp and other commonly used messaging apps, makes switching easy. Signal requires your phone number as an personal identifier.
Delta Chat Delta Chat doesn't have their own servers but uses the most massive and diverse open messaging system ever: the existing e-mail server network. Chat with anyone if you know…
Brave Talk The person creating the call requires to use Brave Browser, but the participants can join from any browser.
Jitsi Meet Desktop version downloads can be found here .
Stoat Open source, self-hostable Discord alternative, formerly Revolt. Built for communities that want off Discord, but it is not end-to-end encrypted.
iMessage Apple's built-in messenger. End-to-end encrypted between Apple devices.
Linphone license, in plain English
GPL-3.0 Strong copyleft
Free to use and modify, but anything you distribute that is built on it must also be open under the same license.
Permits
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Patent use
- Private use
Requires
- Disclose source
- Same license
- State changes
- License and copyright notice
Does not provide
- Liability cover
- Warranty
Why it matters: Strong copyleft keeps every distributed version open. A vendor cannot fold this into a closed product and ship it without releasing their changes.
Plain-language summary of the project's license, not legal advice. Read the full text for the exact terms.
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