| Comparison | Async | Scrollback | Hosted | Web | Mobile Support | Opensource |
| clients | ||||||
| available | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitlbee | ||||||
| Branch | ||||||
| Campfire | ||||||
| Chatterous | ||||||
| Discourse | ||||||
| Email (direct) | ||||||
| Email Lists | ||||||
| Google Wave | ||||||
| Grove | ||||||
| HipChat | ||||||
| IRC | yes | iPhone app | ||||
| Libpurple | ||||||
| Meetup | ||||||
| Pidgin | ||||||
| Quora | ||||||
| Skype | ||||||
| Adium | ||||||
| Trillian | ||||||
| Yammer |
Things based on libpurple:
- Adium
- A user-friendly graphical IM program for OS X.
- Finch
- A text-based IM program that works well in Linux and other Unixes.
- Instantbird
- A graphical IM program based on Mozilla’s XUL framework.
- Meebo
- Provides a hosted XMPP IM solution to some large social networks via the Meebo Bar. The XMPP client is based on libpurple.
- Palm
- Maybe used in the messenger on the Palm Pre?
- Pidgin
- A user-friendly graphical IM program for Windows, Linux and other Unixes.
- Spectrum
- Open source XMPP transport/gateway.
- Telepathy-Haze
- A connection manager for the Telepathy IM framework.
Team collaboration:
| Askabt | HipChat | Campfire | Skype | |
| Desktop push | Common app | App available | Not available | Common app |
| Mobile push | Common app | App available | Not available | Common app |
| Embeddable web app | Yes | No | No | No |
| Persistent group chat | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Guest access | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| HTTP API | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| JavaScript API | Yes | No | No | No |
| File transfer | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Screen sharing | No | No | No | Yes |
| Audio/Video conference | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Askabt | Facebook groups | Google groups | IRC | Mailing list | Forums | |
| Real-time desktop app | Common app | No | No | Apps available | No | No |
| Real-time Mobile app | Common app | Common app | No | Apps available | No | No |
| Real-time web app | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Chat room affordances | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Embeddable (web) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Scrollback, search | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Email notifications | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Easy to set up? | Easy | Easy | Easy | Hard | Medium | Medium |
| Easy and fun for users? | Easy | Easy | Easy | Hard | Hard | Medium |
| API for reading | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| API for writing | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
Scrollback is beautifully designed persistent text chat for open communities. We offer the fastest, easiest way to embed a community chat into any existing website. Think Facebook group chat, but on any website, using a single line of HTML code.
Community text chat is stickier and more engaging than any forum or mailing list.
We know this because over 1 million people use Internet Relay Chat (IRC) every day. But IRC is a legacy system. It was launched in 1988 and predates the web. Just as Facebook killed Friendster, Scrollback is an IRC killer. We update the medium for the modern social web, and where IRC failed to cross the chasm, we will succeed. IRC is mostly used by developers. Scrollback is designed for everyone.
Users can join chatstreams through any web page. They can also use our standalone web interface and our gateways to legacy platforms like Google Talk and IRC itself, offering compatibility and an easy upgrade path to a large installed base.