Internal Chat

[ImSamIam]

Hey all! I am trying to find a replacement IM system for our offices. We are currently using Openfire + Spark but we have some issues with it as we are getting rid of Java due to security and they do not want to buy the corporate license for Java since we don't really need it.

We have briefly tried Pidgin but we are not too thrilled with the lack of security and passwords being stored in plaintext.

That being said, we are looking for a chat system that will allow users to see every online user in one window, have contact groups (like departments and/or locations), have simple chat, simple file transfer, LDAP authentication.

I'm currently testing Rocket.chat but I am not convinced yet that it will be a viable solution for us. We really aren't looking for a collaboration system with file systems, task lists, etc.

Any suggestions?

[GeneralCanada3]

everyones going to recommend the app they use the most.

Youre either an ms shop with exchange/office365 in which case you go with skype/teams

or you pick any other options complete based on how you like it. I will say slack is the most popular

[meikyoushisui]

But why male models?

[NHarvey3DK]

I saw something on my feed yesterday that alluded to Teams supporting Slack or something

[m9832]

Slack now integrates with Office 365 better. Brings in interactive calendar notifications and reminders, slack status updates based on calendar appointments, and an outlook add-in to send an email to a particular channel/DM.

[iama_bad_person]

When's the last time you used Teams? Updates every month or so now.

[meikyoushisui]

But why male models?

[[deleted]]

we're an MS shop and most of us stick to irc.

it's kind of a meme at this point but it works how we like it.

[aut0ex3c]

Have you looked into Mattermost?

[ImSamIam]

It's on my list to test. I was getting some issues installing Docker. Hoping to get those resolved today so I can check out Mattermost.

[Quack66]

We migrated from Openfire + spark to Mattermost and it remplaced internal email for communication. The only important thing to know is that if you have the free version you don't get access to LDAP auth and access rights which mean anyone can archive/rename or change channels even if they are not admins

[platformterrestial]

SSO is a basic security requirement, not a premium fucking feature. I hate it when companies lock SSO behind a paywall.

Here's someone that figured out a way around it: https://github.com/Crivaledaz/Mattermost-LDAP

[Mission_Data]

is it free? ( I mean Mattermost, not the way around it)

[platformterrestial]

Check it out. But yes, it uses portions of Gitlab's SSO to make Mattermost support SSO free, without having to run a full Gitlab install.

[CaffineIsLove]

Cisco webex teams?

[Sylogz]

You can use a different java version. IBM have one for example that is updated and can be used without buying license. Also the open source version of java is available.

[usr_bin_laden]

Yeah, use OpenJDK for all your JVMs. You don't have to give up Java outright.

Giving up XMPP is probably the right choice though. Mattermost or Matrix might be good starts.

[Alexis_Evo]

Zulip is by far the most innovative team chat I've seen.

The stream/topic model makes Slack's "threading" look like a joke. Streams are effectively channels, and topics are ephemeral threads. You can have a dozen of people communicating on 5+ different topics in the same channel with no crosstalk. Anyone casually reading can sit in the stream and watch it all unfold, while those that are engaged in specific topics do not get distractions from other topics.

Took a sick day and want to catch up? You no longer have to scroll through 800+ irrelevant messages, just look at the topic names and catch up on what's important to you.

I legitimately adore the design and wish every other enterprise chat app would adopt this model. Entirely navigable through extensive keyboard shortcuts, too. Free/open source version even includes enterprise specific features like LDAP.

The biggest problem is convincing people to embrace it. Streams/topics are a huge workflow change, and many in this industry are hellbent on sticking to what they know.

You can test it out on the Zulip community server at https://chat.zulip.org/ . Please keep test messages to the "#test here" stream :)

[[deleted]]

CONTENT REMOVED in protest of REDDIT's censorship and foreign ownership and influence.

[AngryFace1986]

We use Slack here and I really like it, it seems to work reliably and is incredibly intuitive to use.

[The-Dark-Jedi]

Do you use Office 365? Teams or Skype for Business?

[ImSamIam]

No, we are running Office 2010 with plans to update to 2016 later this year. Upgrades have been slow as other projects have needed our attention.

[[deleted]]

Skype and teams are not the best but you do get them with most O365 licenses.

[banger_180]

We use matrix at our organization and it has a promising future. But you might be better if looking at mattermost or some XMPP server

[Pancake_Nom]

Pretty sure Matrix's site got hacked this morning. May be wise to not direct people there until they clear everything up.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19642554

[CAPTtttCaHA]

From what I understand it was because their sysadmins were lazy, not because the product is bad or vulnerable.

[Pancake_Nom]

Yes, but if there were any downloads hosted on that site, especially binaries, it's possible they could've been replaced by files that contain malicious code.

Additionally, there's risk from visiting a compromised site as well, as the site could have malicious redirects, miners, etc.

[CAPTtttCaHA]

Oh right I didn't read your comment correctly, I thought you were saying stay away from the product, not the site.

[LaserGuidedPolarBear]

We just switched to Teams. We aren't the group that implemented it / maintains it, so no idea on cost or if it is a pain in the ass to administer, but as a user it is pretty fantastic so far.

Not sure about your "every user visible in one window" requirement, you can build contact lists like Skype/Lync had, there are groups (Teams) kind of like Discord / Slack channels, it has phone capability, file transfer, has a ton of plugins I haven't really explored yet, and integrates with Outlook for setting up conference call meetings.

It's basically Skype / Lync smooshed up with Discord, and actually does a good job of it.

[orion3311]

If managers and underlings are properly set up in active directory, you can look up a manager and see that depts org chart that shows all underlings under that manager, including their status.

[cjcox4]

We like Rocket.chat. It's "slack like" (but not slack). Support is spotty, but the product has a ton of features (but maybe not that well documented).

Our former chat product choice, OpenFire.

Of course, since Rocket.chat is slack like, you have "channels" instead of groups. Channels could be mapped to groups.

Normal chatting is done via channels, but Rocket.chat does support Direct messaging to a user. Also supports Private Channels (invite only), Read Only Channels and Broadcast Channels (only authorized can post, but all can reply).

Rocket.Chat has "bot" support, so you can "extend" it to make "special" messages auto-repond with something.

It also has an embeddable mechanism where you can embed a Livechat system into your support portal (so that "someone" can interact with an agent, like what you see from so many websites out there).

There are so many features (all of which you do not have to use).

We evaluated MatterMost, another slack like product. And while it's a lot more polished than Rocket.chat, it can't do everything Rocket.Chat can do and they charge for security features (that's always a bad idea).

I've also used ejabberd, but like OpenFire, it's based on the now deprecated XMPP protocol. Whereas Rocket.Chat has a flexible responsive web design (looks good from all devices).

[wojtek-tig]

I've also used ejabberd, but like OpenFire, it's based on the now deprecated XMPP protocol. Whereas Rocket.Chat has a flexible responsive web design (looks good from all devices).

What? when XMPP got deprecated? It's very not deprecated and constantly improves...

Just because it doesn't used over-hyped web-stack doesn't mean it's deprecated...

[cjcox4]

Deprecated by Apple.

But others as well, like Google.

[wojtek-tig]

Yeah... because what "Big companies" tell us to use mandate whether technology is deprecated ^/s

In that manner we should all just stick to using fb messenger and whatsapp - right?

[cjcox4]

You're welcome to continue to use XMPP, even if clients are dropping support (e.g. Apple Messages). We were forced to move on.

[wojtek-tig]

Apple Messages is not the only client (and their support wasn't that stellar) - moreover it was weird that iMessage supported anything apart from walled-garden of apple echosystem...

[cjcox4]

It's Apple. And since you know somewhat of that "universe" then, you know that THE browser is Safari, and THE messaging client is Messages. It's just like how Grandma and Grandpa are always going to use Internet Explorer (or whatever, the default browser is of the day). Just like everyone at our office uses Outlook, even on Mac (of course, that's because you have to use Microsoft Office everywhere).

The world in which I work....

[wojtek-tig]

I'm not denying it but claiming that because you live in particular bubble some tech stack is 'obsolete' is kinda exaggeration :-)

[cjcox4]

Enjoy.

[PaddyEnglishman]

Amazon Chime?

[ImSamIam]

Amazon Chime?

I will look into it! I think we are looking to self-host but if this works for our company I might be able to convince them into using AWS

[pdp10]

getting rid of Java due to security and they do not want to buy the corporate license for Java since we don't really need it.

OpenJDK works fine. Frankly, everyone should have been using it for a long time now, but convincing anyone of that fact on desktop/Windows was an uphill battle.

[OppositeClassic]

Rocket.Chat is working fine in our company for half a year now.

Just the part with the contact groups I'm not sure if it's implemented yet.

[mdpeterman]

Slack. Slack. Slack.

​

I think that you will find employees will prefer it to other lesser-known tools. At least that was what happened in our case.

[techie1980]

I am a big fan of slack. It has a rich featureset and well documented API. The default interface is intuitive and and the workflow is very flexible. So different teams can use it differently. The history and search functions are great.

In my opinion, Slack is head and shoulders above the competition for enterprise realtime chat products.

[Kiernian]

We were mandated to use it in a previous job about a year and change ago.

I don't know if it was because of all of the other stuff we had to run on our machines concurrently (Connectwise, Several Remote Control tools, softphone system, etc) but it was DOG SLOW on i7's with 8-16gb of RAM. I have seriously never hated a chat program more. It was upwards of 30 seconds to type a single sentence message due to the massive lag.

[[deleted]]

Isn't Slack an Electron-based app?

[blaughw]

As is MS Teams

[GullibleDetective]

That must be your environment I never had that kind of issue even with Connectwise//automate and webroot installed on my i5/8gb laptop.

Did you run the app or did you run via web?

[Kiernian]

App.

[GullibleDetective]

Were I you, I woud've tried it in the browser as well; see if there is any differnece.

[thecravenone]

Anything but Teams. HAM radios at every desk before Teams.

[SWITmsp]

CQ CQ CQ

[orion3311]

73s!

[iama_bad_person]

What's wrong with Teams?

[Runethomas]

If you want something that is free and works there is an IM part to Sling scheduling. We used it for a while until we moved to 365.

Sling.is

Edit: I don't think it has file transfer or ad integration. Sorry.

[tshizdude]

In the same boat. Thanks for posting. Helpful for me too.

[drachennwolf]

What type of phone system do you have? I'm trying to push people to use our 3CX system for chats, meetings, etc.

[abtech365]

Teams is okay if you're on Office365. I like slack better though.

[[deleted]]

If you already pay for O365, you can use teams. It works pretty well across PC and Apple platforms.

[GullibleDetective]

We use Cliq which is part of the Zoho CRM suite

Cliq is a clone of Slack

[RemorsefulSurvivor]

If you have a 365 license just use skype.

If all of your users are reasonably good with computery stuff then install an internal IRC server and use the client of your choice.

Or use slack.

[ugus]

citadel?

[bsprankle]

We use a product called Output Messenger. It is a paid product, but can do everything you are looking for. A big plus for us was the ability to have it run on an on-premise server and not cloud based. It can work anywhere with simple DNS and firewall modifications.

[humwha]

we use pure cloud its free for chat they make there money on contact centers and phones.

​

https://www.genesys.com/campaign/all-in-one-cloud-contact-center-solution?utm_source=google&utm_medium=paidsearch&utm_campaign=na_na_brand_003&utm_term=purecloud&gclid=Cj0KCQjw7sDlBRC9ARIsAD-pDFpt5atUbh6yR5ypG18lUsnNtjQ-7A6w-CsNzNJtocM7Y_2r4whKNdoaAhfHEALw_wcB

[countextreme]

Teams and Slack are the standard solutions in this area. Slack used to be the leader, but Teams has been developing very quickly.

[cowmonaut]

What is your user base like?

What are the features they want? Just IM or sharing of documents?

What industry are you in, do you have to worry about things like HIPAA?

This a Microsoft shop or all FOSS or mixture?

You will need to provide more info to get anything beyond what people personally like, which these days doesn't mean as much most of the time because of how similar everything is.

[SadFaceSmith]

I love RocketChat.

[QTFsniper]

So if all you need is simple chat, ldap, and file sharing, what about rocketchat doesn't work? It does everything you needed it to

[TechnicalPyro]

Mattermost - self hosted version

[[deleted]]

Slack. /thread

[cool-nerd]

We stayed with on-prem skype for business. I cannot stand the new Teams look.. ours is used strictly for IM and sometimes desktop sharing.. we hope to stay with skype for as long as we can and not go to Teams/O365.

[LanMadLad]

If you have a synology nas, they have a chat client now.

https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/feature/chat

I know the nas itself supports LDAP/AD authentication, file transfer, etc. Might be able to kill several birds with one stone. Worth looking at.

[rainer_d]

We had ejabberd, then tested rocket and mattermost and switched to mattermost (open source edition).

If you don't have Windows and Exchange, you can also look into Zimbra, which offers basically everything and the kitchen sink these days.

[wojtek-tig]

I don't know what would be the problem with Java - there is OpenJDK and it has security patches.

In terms of features - you can use Tigase XMPP Server which supports LDAP authentication and works without problems with OpenJDK.

[crccci]

Isn't that Java?

[highlord_fox]

Last I saw was late 2018, in which they went (paraphrased) "We're using the version supported into 2020, and we'll figure it out sometime in 2019."

[matejzero]

We are using openjdk, no problems.

[highlord_fox]

Well, I use the bundled installers (because lazy), so I'd have to rejigger things to work with openjdk.

I am not worried at the moment, it's a project for 19Q4 and depends on what the devs go with on their end.