Tinode

Why rent your messaging from a corporate walled garden when Tinode runs WhatsApp-style chats, groups, channels, and calls on a server you control? Teams get one-on-one and group chats that stay in sync across web, Android, and iOS, with typing indicators, delivery and read receipts, presence, replies, forwarding, editing, pinned messages, and notes to self. Communities broadcast through read-only channels with an unlimited number of subscribers, and granular permissions decide who can read, write, or invite on each topic. Support desks welcome anonymous visitors, mark staff and verified accounts with badges, and put chatbots to work with forms and templated replies. Messages take markdown-style formatting, inline images and videos, file attachments, and voice messages. One-to-one voice and video calls run peer to peer over WebRTC, using the TURN and STUN servers you configure. Administrators block unwanted contacts on the server, attach moderation plugins over gRPC, and script the rest with a command-line tool. Attachments can sit on local disk or Amazon S3, the database can be MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MongoDB, and sharded clustering with failover scales past one server. The clients offer light, dark, and system themes, custom chat wallpapers, and translations for more than a dozen languages. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. GPL-3.0 licensed.

Tinode
Tinode
Tinode
Tinode
Tinode
Tinode

Benefits

  • Keep Conversations On Your Server
  • Accounts, messages, and attachments live in your own database and storage, so retention, backups, and access rules are yours to set instead of a vendor's.
  • One Chat Across Every Device
  • Chats synchronize across web, Android, and iOS clients, with delivery and read receipts, typing notices, and presence, so people pick up where they left off on any screen.
  • Add Chatbots And Moderation Plugins
  • Chatbots and plugins connect over gRPC, so you can add moderation or automated replies for support and community chats without changing the server code.
  • Grows From One Box To Cluster
  • Start with one server binary and one database, then add cluster nodes and Amazon S3 attachment storage when traffic and file volume outgrow a single machine.

Features

  • Direct Messages And Groups
  • One-on-one and group chats with replies, forwarding, editing, pinned messages, notes to self, and read receipts, synchronized across web, Android, and iOS clients.
  • Channels For Broadcast Audiences
  • Read-only channels support an unlimited number of subscribers, suited to announcements and community updates, while granular permissions control who can read, write, or invite others on each topic.
  • Rich Media And Voice Messages
  • Markdown-style formatting, inline images and videos, file attachments, and voice messages, with large files kept on local disk or Amazon S3 through pluggable media handlers.
  • WebRTC Voice And Video Calls
  • Calls between two users run peer to peer over WebRTC, falling back to the TURN and STUN servers you configure in the webrtc section of tinode.conf.
  • Chatbots And Plugin API
  • A gRPC interface lets chatbots send forms and templated responses and lets plugins moderate traffic, with bindings for C++, C#, Go, Java, Node, PHP, Python, and Ruby.
  • Choice Of Database Backend
  • Runs on MySQL 5.7 or later, PostgreSQL 13 or later, or MongoDB 4.4 or later, and other databases can be supported by writing adapters.

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