Wide range of features but a highly experimental protocol, use with caution.
Reviewed by Marco Wollank
Tox
tox.chat 1 rating so far*
Rate Tox: 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
The protocol carries its own warning label, and you should take it seriously: experimental means no security guarantees you can lean on. Treat Tox as a tinkerer’s project to explore, not the messenger you trust with anything sensitive. If you need real protection today, a maintained app with an audited protocol is the responsible choice.
GitHub at a glance
TokTok/c-toxcore
Stars
2,662
+ 14 this week
Last commit
26d ago
healthy
License
GPL-3.0
Latest release
v0.2.23
1mo ago
Stars, last 37d
Website at a glance
tox.chat
B score 75
Solid website security headers
Graded by Mozilla HTTP Observatory, tested 3d 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.
Tox 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.
Tox 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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