Suggestion for a good team text communication tool

[prozajik]

Hey guys, I am looking for an app which would be suitable for internal team communication (gaming team).

What features i want:
- Supports history
- Synchronizes past communication even if you are offline while the communication happened
- Private group chat
- Probably some kind of account support
- 'Lifetime' (or at least pretty long) chat existence (i mean, no web app based chat)

Apps i don't want:
Irc: Doesn't synchronize chat messages when you go offline
Whatsapp: too closely connected with phone number
Facebook: hate it
Skype: I mean, this is my last-resort, since skype does all the things I want, but that app is just meh

Any ideas guys? ^^

[Malware]

Windows Live Messenger xD
Ah the good old days...

[jitspoe]

Not a perfect solution, but you can always script a bot to sync offline chat on IRC.

[MyeRs]

What we plan on using for Flawless eSports is the app called 'kik' - similar to Whatsapp I believe, but doesn't require a phone number. We're making a group chat, so it's easy to contact teammates when to be online and whatnot. On my phone kik only has a green light that flickers when there's an unread msg, not vibrate/sound, so it's never irritating if my teammates are talking for hours whilst im in class/work.

Something along the lines of what Jitspoe put, IRC with a script to sync offline chat for when you're on PC, and kik when you're not (via cellphone). Or maybe just kik, not entirely sure what you're looking for.

The 1 issue with kik? Sometimes will get spam msg's, but it's 1 msg from some hot girl usually, and you can choose to deny the text. Not a big deal.

[Toxiic]

These are voice chats: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/dont-get-fragged-5-must-have-free-voice-chat-clients-for-gamers-si/

[Ace]

I would look into Razer Comms. I'm not sure it does everything you want, but I've heard a lot of good things about it.

I know it does syncing between phone/computer, and uses overlay instead of needing to alt-tab.

http://www.razerzone.com/comms

[Clipz]

I'd highly reccomend Moxtra, you can send files unlike kik. Nominate pages, have todo lists. It's used by businesses, personally I don't like kik.

[CheMiCal]

facebook group chat.

[prozajik]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

@jitspoe
I might try to figure IRC out, found out something about bouncers (i guess servers which allow history and saving etc?), haven't really have time to look into it, but the bot you suggested might still be better.

@Myers
Unfortunately, Kik doesn't have a desktop app and that's more important

@Ace
Razer looks decent, gave it a try, but its obvious it's not that well optimized for text chat, don't really like how it looks

@Clipz
Looks cool, gonna give it a try now. Pretty nice it has a desktop client too.

@Chemical
Facebook is u-gly

[jitspoe]

Hipchat also looks like it might do what you want, but I haven't used it a whole lot yet.

[Ace]

Was playing a bit with Slack for my own use, it seems to have most of the things you want, if not all.

-There is one main project/group, with channels within it. So each channel could be a topic of some kind.
-Full archiving and searching any past conversation
-works on all devices
-supports accounts so you can create private channels and groups
-supports file sharing, in line images, integrates with dropbox, drive, twitter, facebook etc if you want it to
-looks pretty/modern

We were planning on using this for a project me and few friends have been working on.

https://slack.com/

[mRokita]

Hey guys, I am looking for an app which would be suitable for internal team communication (gaming team).

What features i want:
- Supports history
- Synchronizes past communication even if you are offline while the communication happened
- Private group chat
- Probably some kind of account support
- 'Lifetime' (or at least pretty long) chat existence (i mean, no web app based chat)

Apps i don't want:
Irc: Doesn't synchronize chat messages when you go offline
Whatsapp: too closely connected with phone number
Facebook: hate it
Skype: I mean, this is my last-resort, since skype does all the things I want, but that app is just meh

Any ideas guys? ^^

IRC+ZNC

[lukip]

why dont you use icq?
no, im not retarded. im JK.

[mRokita]

i think i can write some chat for DPLeague soon.
propably integrated with IRC

[prozajik]

Both Hipchat and Slack look pretty cool. But we decided in the end to just stick to skype (even tho it sucks), since everyone has it already anyway.

I was kind of thinking about figuring out IRC with history, but then decided against it, because IRC is probably the most confusing chat app for an unexperienced user.

[Ace]

Both Hipchat and Slack look pretty cool. But we decided in the end to just stick to skype (even tho it sucks), since everyone has it already anyway.

I was kind of thinking about figuring out IRC with history, but then decided against it, because IRC is probably the most confusing chat app for an unexperienced user.

Yeah one the biggest reasons we decided on slack was that it functions a lot like irc, but is a lot easier to use. You can also add custom / commands, which is nice. But I think skype is a nice solution.

[mRokita]

Yeah one the biggest reasons we decided on slack was that it functions a lot like irc, but is a lot easier to use. You can also add custom / commands, which is nice. But I think skype is a nice solution.

Skype is laggy + it's from Microsoft =D

[gonass]

Skype is laggy + it's from Microsoft =D

It was bought by them, not originally created by them.  eBay owned it before Microsoft, but before that it was still in the hands of the creators.

[prozajik]

It was bought by them, not originally created by them.  eBay owned it before Microsoft, but before that it was still in the hands of the creators.

Yep, it was decent communication tool before M$ bough it, after that it went to dump.
They implemented tons of random useless features (one of them being replacing first option after right clicking text with "Search with bing" instead of copy text).
Also that its lacking tons of easily implementable options (which are basic/common in other apps like this).
Finally (from what i can think of right now) adding advertisements, which are annoying as fck, sometimes even disgusting and on top of that they communicate with some kind of (probably skype) server all the time eating up your bandwidth/CPU.
/whining