10 Best Group Chat Apps in 2024

Group chats are a fun and interesting place to be as you can talk and enjoy with your friends simultaneously. Apart from being fun, these group chat apps are also vital for businesses and remote teams. If you are also looking for the best group chat app for teams and friends, this article will list the 10 best free group messaging apps.

What is a Group Chat?

A group chat is a form of digital communication where multiple people can interact in real-time. It differs from one-on-one messaging by allowing a collective of users to participate simultaneously, making it ideal for coordinating with groups, discussing shared interests, or staying connected with friends or colleagues.

These chats can occur on various platforms, such as social media, messaging apps, or professional collaboration tools. Key features include the ability to share messages, files, and links, and to react to posts, which enhances the collaborative aspect. Group chats are crucial in professional settings for team communication and project management and in personal contexts for maintaining social ties and organizing events. With customizable privacy settings and the ability to scale from small groups to large communities, group chats serve as a versatile tool in modern digital communication, adapting to diverse needs.

How to Choose the Best Group Chat App?

When it comes to choosing the best group chat app, there are several important factors to consider. These factors will help ensure that the app meets your specific needs and provides a seamless and enjoyable group communication experience.

• Purpose Alignment: Choose an app that aligns with your specific needs. If it’s for professional teamwork, features like task management and calendar integration are vital. For social interactions, look for user-friendly interfaces and fun features like emojis and customizable themes. For larger communities, robust moderation tools and scalable performance are key.
• Functionality and User Experience: Opt for an app with an intuitive interface and reliable message delivery. Essential features should include support for various media types, message search for easy navigation, file-sharing capabilities, and customization options to tailor the app to your group’s preferences.
• Security and Privacy: Prioritize apps offering strong security measures like end-to-end encryption, especially for business or sensitive conversations. Understand the app’s privacy policy and ensure it has adequate controls for user privacy and data protection.
• Scalability: The chosen app should be capable of handling the size of your group without lagging or crashing. This is crucial for large groups where active participation and message volume are high. Scalability ensures the app remains efficient as your group grows.
• Integration Capabilities: For professional use, the app’s ability to integrate with other tools and platforms is a significant advantage. This feature enhances productivity by streamlining workflows and allowing seamless transitions between different applications.

Best 10 Group Chat Apps for Teams or Friends

The answer can be subjective when trying to determine the best group chat app. Some might answer it based on more users, while others may prefer the feature quality. Here is the list of the 10 best group chat applications that have dominated the market in 2024:

1. WhatsApp

If there is one app that deserves the title of best group chat app for friends and teams, it is WhatsApp. With over 2.4 billion users worldwide, it has consistently topped the most-used app charts. In this group chat app, you can create groups and share media like audio, video, images, documents, contacts, locations, and more.

Moreover, it also allows you to create group voice and video calls. WhatsApp is also completely free with no charges whatsoever. Additionally, it also offers a specialized app for businesses called WhatsApp Business.

Supported Platforms: Android, iOS, KaiOS, Windows, macOS, Web

2. Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger is an app for talking to your Facebook friends. Since Facebook is the world’s most popular social media platform, Facebook Messenger has been a widely used messaging application. It allows you to create group chats with your friends where you can also do voice and video calling. Furthermore, you can also freely share the media like videos, images, documents, etc.

It is also a free group chat app with no charges. However, there is a drawback that general chats don’t have end-to-end encryption. You will need to start private chats to make your conversation secure.

Supported Platforms: Web, Android, iOS, Windows, macOS

3. Discord

It is a group chat app most popular with gamers and online communities. Discord allows its users to communicate with each other via text, voice, and video chats. In this app, users can create servers about any specific topic, activity, or company. Within the server, users are able to create channels where people can share media and have voice and video calls.

Discord is a great group video chat app supporting high-quality video and voice calling. Moreover, users can also define roles and permissions for the people within a server or channel.

Supported Platforms: Web, Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux

4. WeChat

With over 1.2 billion users, WeChat is a great choice for a group chat app. In this app, you can send text messages, voice messages, photos, videos, and other media during group chats. Moreover, it also supports high-quality group voice and video calls. This chat app is a great option if most of your team members or business clients are from China.

WeChat is the most used chat app in China and works as a medium for most things like chatting, calls, payments, booking, etc. Moreover, it offers a dedicated business mode focusing on B2C and B2B commerce.

Supported Platforms: Android, HarmonyOS, iOS, macOS, Windows, Web

5. Signal

Probably the most secure free group chat app, Signal is becoming increasingly popular. Funded and released under a non-profit organization, it is the go-to choice of people for private and secure chats. Unlike other apps, all chats on this platform have end-to-end encryption enabled. For group chats, you can talk to your friends or teammates through text, voice, or video messages in a secure environment.

The Signal doesn’t have any paid or premium tiers, and there are no ads either. The company behind this app also doesn’t store your data or engage in data-harvesting practices.

Supported Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux

6. Telegram

When looking for the best group chat application perfectly suitable for businesses and individuals, the recommended app is Telegram. Its group chat feature encompasses the needs of both regular users and companies. Moreover, you can create a private group for specific people or teams, and you can also create public groups for all targeted people.

For businesses, Telegram also supports a bulk forwarding feature which is helpful in marketing and delivering important announcements. While free, there is also a premium tier with many unique features.

Supported Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Web

7. Snapchat

Widely used to share life moments and stories, Snapchat also supports great group chat features. It allows you to add up to 100 people in a group chat for quick discussions. During the group chat, you can also use voice and video calls, media sharing, reactions, and many other options. The chats on this group video chat app provide secure and encrypted communications.

Snapchat also offers a feature for disappearing messages where the conversation will automatically disappear after a while. Moreover, it also supports a map feature which keeps you aware of the general location of your friends.

Supported Platforms: Android, iOS, Web

8. LINE

LINE is a popular group chat app with amazing features for group chat. It is widely popular in Southeast Asia with millions of customers. Working as both a chatting app and a social media platform, it offers many unique features. Users can engage in text, voice, and video chats on this app. Moreover, it also allows users to share media, send stickers, and make payments.

It is most popular in Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan. Additionally, users can also customize this group chat app using thousands of available themes.

Supported Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Web

9. Viber

Allowing you to start high-quality group audio or video calls with up to 50 people, Viber is among the best group chat applications. You can also create a group of up to 250 people where you can text chat, share media, react to messages, and start polls. Moreover, it also allows you to call landlines and mobile numbers worldwide.

Viber provides end-to-end encryption for all communication, including voice and video calls. It also supports self-destructing messages to further alleviate the users’ privacy concerns.

Supported Platforms: Android, HarmonyOS, iOS, macOS, Windows

10. KakaoTalk

While KakaoTalk is mostly popular in South Korea, it is an emerging free group chat application with many great features. Regarding group chats, it supports closed groups where you can add as many users as you want to and open group chats where all users can talk. When engaging in open chat, you can stay anonymous if you have privacy concerns.

KakaoTalk also supports live-streaming features along with high-quality voice and video calls. Moreover, this app also includes features like themes, stickers, calendars, etc.

Supported Platforms: Android, iOS, macOS, Windows

Why ZEGOCLOUD SDK to Make Group Chat Apps

Are you interested in developing your own group chat app? If yes, ZEGOCLOUD is your first choice, as it will provide you with the quickest and most cost-effective way to make the best group chat applications. Most people nowadays use chat APIs or SDKs to develop their apps. Thus, to build the best group chat app, you will need to look for the best in-app chat API or SDK.

When it comes to providing the best APIs and SDKs, ZEGOCLOUD is an industry standard. That’s why to build the best group chat app; we recommend ZEGOCLOUD In-app Chat API & SDK. It has all the features you will want for your chatting app. To top the best in-app chat API and SDK off with a cherry on top, ZEGOCLOUD is also offering 10000 free minutes.

Additionally, if you want to accelerate your time to market, pre-built UIKits and UI Components will allow you to develop captivating apps in record time, without starting from scratch.

Amazing Features of ZEGOCLOUD In-app Chat SDK & API

If you are wondering what features make ZEGOCLOUD In-app Chat API & SDK popular among the developers, there are a lot of them. To give you an overview, we have described a few of them below:

• High Compatibility

Group chat is a broad term encompassing many features like voice calls, live video chat, live-streaming, video conferencing, and many others. Since getting all these capabilities through one SDK or API is hard, you need to use different APIs or SDKs. That’s where ZEGOCLOUD In-app Chat API & SDK shines the most, as it is fully compatible with other ZEGOCLOUD APIs & SDKs.

• Media Sharing

Sharing media files like photos, videos, and documents is also important when chatting with friends. That’s why ZEGOCLOUD In-app Chat API & SDK supports rich media attachments. On a platform developed using it, users will be able to share media, locations, reactions to messages, GIFs, emojis, etc.

• Group Management

While adding people to group chats, giving them all the same access is not a good idea. It is especially bad in team and office settings. Thus, when using ZEGOCLOUD In-app Chat API & SDK, your app users will be able to define clear roles and permissions for each member. The group admins will also have complete control over who joins the group or what they can share.

• Advanced Security

The ZEGOCLOUD In-app Chat API & SDK enables your group chat app to encrypt all communication using highly advanced and public end-to-end encryption algorithms. With this type of security, users of your app will not feel insecure when talking to each other. Additionally, this API is also fully compliant with GDPR in data protection policies.

Conclusion

In the final analysis, we can say that group chat apps have become integral to today’s world. Many promising and great apps are available for users looking for the best group chat app. As a developer or business owner, you can also create your group chat app for personal and company use. ZEGOCLOUD In-app Chat API & SDK allows you to develop the best app at an affordable cost.