Top 9 Best gaming chat apps for 2023

In this article we are going to learn about gaming chat apps. Chat in gaming is essential when playing multiplayer games and there are a host of chat service providers available in today's market

We will look at the 9 most popular chat apps available for gaming and let you know their PROs and CONs so that you can decide which one is best for your use-case

Here are the top 9 Best gaming apps for your consideration

Discord
TeamSpeak 3
Steam Chat
Mumble
Element
Guilded
Twitch Chat app
WhatsApp
Skype Messenger

Bonus: DeadSimpleChat

Discord

Discord was launched in 2015 and became quite popular with its free approach.

it has a modern user friendly interface and solid feature set which makes it a go to chat app for gamers and community seekers alike

discord is an chat application where people with common interests can come together to discuss common interests, whether it is something related to gaming or otherwise

Features

Community Centered: Discord allows you to create "servers". Where anyone can create a server that is focus on a perticular topic or community and people interested in that topic can come to the server to chat. The person creating the server is the admin or the moderator
Multiple Tools available: There are multiple tools of communication available with Discord like text chat, voice, video etc
Game Integration: Discord can easily integrate with the game you are playing and thus makes it easier to let community member and friends join you during the game
Bot Integration: Bot providing gaming data and other essential functions can be easily added to Discord
Can be used During the Game: Multiplayer games often use Discord to chat about strategy and how to win the game
Esports: Professional and amateur esport gamers also use discord as a means of communication and strategy
Content Creating: many gaming youtubers also use Discord to interact with their community

TeamSpeak 3

TeamSpeak has long been the go to platform in the gaming community. Built specifically for gaming and specializes in ESports gaming chat

TeamSpeak is being used by NASA as well for internal communication. One Speaciality of TeamSpeak in comparison to compititors is that it lets you run the chat on your own servers and does not harvest and sell your data to others

Some of the features of TeamSpeak include

Features

Best quality voice chat : TeamSpeak provides low latency and high quality Voice chat for gaming. Low latency is specially important in fast paced FPS games and multiplayer games
Best quality Video Chat : TeamSpeak also offers best quality Video Chat as well. All the features provided in the voice chat are also available in the Video chat like low latency and high quality of video
Security : Teamspeak provides military grade security with TS3 and AES based encryption that can be enabled for the entire server or for specific channels
Lets you run the chat on your own server : TeamSpeak can be hosted on your servers as well
Advanced Permission System: With the best in market hierarchical permission system, you decide who can talk and who can only text
Veteran chat service: One of the oldest chat platform for gamers out there. It has been around since 2000s
Low Latency : As stated above it has the best voice and video chat functionality
Self Hosted servers : One unique feature that TeamSpeak has and other don't have is that you can host it on your servers at your place
Focused use case : Team Speak is especially for gaming and esports and thus have gaming focused features like low latency and high quality voice and video chat service
Plugin support : There is a level of customization available because there are a lot of third party plugins that work with teamspeak

Steam Chat

Stream Chat is available in the Stream Platform, which as we all know is a game distribution service for PCs

Because Stream is a gaming platform the chat service is focused on gamers and features are build keeping in mind the gamers. But note it does not work outside of the steam platform

Features

Direct Integration with Steam Platform: One unique feature of steam chat is that it is directly integrated into the steam platform. If you are primarily a gamer on the steam platform then this could your go to chat platform.

Integrated into steam chat: Steam Chat is directly integrated into the Stream gaming platform. So if you are a PC gamer that run their games on Stream Platform then Steam Chat might be a good choice for you
Modern Chat experience: With Video and Pictures and social media integration the Stream Chat has a modern interface and easy chatting
Groups: Easily create groups and add friends just by dragging and dropping them into a chat. You can also save a group and chat later. Easy to keep tabs on friends and pick up where you left off in the game
Built for gaming : Completly built for gaming, with features like persistant group chats,play regularly with the same group of people and sent out invites to join the game when you are ready
In the browser as well as on Stream Client: The Stream chat can run on the browser itself and can also be run inside the steam client.
Tactical communication
social gaming

Mumble

Mumble is an open source voice chat software. This means that it is secure and the source code is available for everyone to see. Many software solution say that they are secure but in reality you have to trust them on their word. One cannot verify a closed source software

This means a lot in terms of security and transparency of Mumble

Mumble has also been around for a long time. it has been coming since the year 2005. Which means it has veteran status and a community reputation inside of gaming circles. It is especially important if you value customization and self hosting capabilities

Features of Mumble

These are some of the main features of Mumble

Game Overlay: Mumble has game overlay features, you can easily overlay Mumble chat over the gameplay for streaming
Positional Audio: Postional audio is a great feature to have. With positional audio you get a feeling of audio coming from a different positions
Encrypted Communication: All the communications in Mumble are fully encrypted and secure
Open Source and Free Software: Mumble is a great choice because it is completely free and Open Source software. There are many third party softwares in the market that are paid and don't work as expected. Mumble on the other hand is free and open souce with solid foundation
Extensive user Permission System: Mumble has an extensiver user permission system for adminsitration and you can decide who can send a message or a text
Custom Chat Commands: With mumble you can configure custom chat commands as well.
Private and secure: With fully encrypted and secure chat messaging service
Low resource consuming: Mumble servers are low resource consuimg because of it being open souce and has high optimization to consume low resources
Very Stable : It is very stable being Open source software, many people are using it and reporting bugs and venerabilities and thus it becomes very stable

Element

Element was previously known as Roit.im. It is a messaging platform that is unique because of its decentralized arhitecture and secure end-to-end encryption technology

The main selling point of element is security, it is built by the creators of Matrix, a decentralized and open standared for secure and sovereign

Element used to be focused on gaming but nowadays its more intented towards secure communities and privacy chat

Here are some of the features of Element

Features

Decentralized Architecture
End-to-End Encryption
Self Hosted
Security and Privacy
Community Chat
Muti platform Gaming
File Sharing

Guilded

Guilded platform is specifically designed for gamers. The Guilded chat server integrates into your event calender, forums and more

Also, guilded chat is 100% free

Features

Emergence and Positioning
Target Audience
In-Depth Scheduling and team Management
threaded conversations
Multiple Sub Channels
Multi platform gaming
Structured conversations
Game Specific customizations
Team coordination

Twitch Chat App

Twitch chat app comes bundled with the Twitch streaming platform. The Twitch chat can also be used as gaming chat, more than the viewer to streamer interaction can also be used as gamer to gamer chat

Features

Streaming chat can also be used as gaming chat
Integration with streaming
Customization
Bots and Automation
Leverage the Community
Twitch an Amazon product

One of the most popular messaging apps out there for one to one and community messaging: WhatsApp can also be used as a gaming chat app

Here are some of the features of WhatsApp

Features

Huge user base
End-to-End Encryption
Group Chats and calls
Sharing Media
Small Community gaming
Multi Platform support
Easy Coordination for non gamers

Skype Messenger

Skype is one of the oldest VoIP chat technology providing voice and video calling

Skype is basically a general purpose communication tool that can be used as a gaming chat

People have been using skype for gaming chat for quite some time. Games like CS Go and others that involve team communication have been relying on Skype for quite some time

Features

Veteran Status
General purpose use-case
Broad User base
Voice and Video chat along with text chat
Multiplayer Games
Cross Platform
Community Gaming

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Conclusion

In this article we learned about gaming chat options and what are some of the best gaming chat solutions out there

There are chat app dedicated to gaming and others that are community or 1-1 chats but have a broad user base so that non gamers can participate as well.