It feels like my life is constantly being invaded by new chat apps that don’t work together, so I have far too many windows open at any given time to accommodate them all.
Franz, a new app by Vienna-based designer Stefan Malzner, tries to fix that by putting as many services as possible in the same Mac app.
The app connects to Slack, Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Skype, HipChat, Google Hangouts and Grape, bringing a single place to deal with messages across services and desktop notifications.
It’s little more than the Web interfaces used by each service wrapped in an Electron shell for use on the desktop, but given that all of the apps above are Web-based anyway, this is a great way to stop needing to keep tabs or windows open for each service.
You can add multiple instances of each service, such as for each Slack team you’re in, to organize even further. Malzner hinted that he’s working on a Windows version of Franz in the future too.
Franz is completely free, and it’s actively developed so new features are being added regularly.
➤ Franz
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