Tox, a decent alternative to Skype etc.

This post is severely outdated, and only kept here for historical reasons.

For years I have looked for a good alternative to Skype. Skype has some nice features including:

1. Group conversations

2. Voice and video chat

3. A chat history

4. Good interface

5. Ease of use

It also have some nasty features I diswant:

1. Closed source

2. Ads

3. NSA et al spying

So, the quest is to find something that has 1-5 from the first list and nothing from the second list. Over the years, there have been various proposals: Hemlis (defunct), Cryptocat, Jitsi, Pidgin, and so on. The EFF has a list here. However, it does not include Tox.

Tox has all the four good features and none of the bad ones. It has multiple cross platform clients. It beats Jitsi and Pidgin in good interface and ease of use, especially set-up. Personally, I like the qTox client, but you may have another preference.

Adding people is pretty easy: they simply add your ID and you get a request, like with Skype. No need to set up servers, or make accounts etc.

If you want to reach me, my Tox ID is: 1728E9D22CDDDDBE314E002843E7F57A20365D40CF0F6B26803AD68A163E82710C78A5213A9B. Be sure to use some specific message so you don't look like a bot.