Communication is one of the best features of being in an online world. It lets us reconnect with family, handle business from home and most importantly, talk to our friends and co-players in gaming chats. Strategize with your team, share victory stories or even just talk about your new favorite games. Here are some of the best free gaming chats available right now, including Zodiac’s own Discord.
TeamSpeak 3
TeamSpeak 3 is a staple in the realm of gaming communication. Its servers have free capacities of up to 32 users on a virtual server hosted by TeamSpeak. While the interface is a bit old school, it offers customization and server control far beyond any other gaming chats.
Unlimited sub channels in a server mean communities can scale to any size and still be taken care of. Encryption is military grade to keep all user data safe. TeamSpeak does not sell that data to any third parties either, focusing on providing a product users will want to upgrade to the paid versions.
Mumble
Another known classic voice chat platform is Mumble, the favored option for high paced, quick reaction gameplay thanks to its low-latency connections. This is done by one user hosting a Mumble server on their computer and providing the IP address for them to connect.
Those unfamiliar with hosting servers may have a bit of a learning curve with the interface, but once you do it becomes extremely easy. Text chat is available but only in the simplest form. If you aren’t sure how to port forward or don’t want to keep your computer on 24/7 to run the server, Mumble offers extremely cheap options starting at $2.50/month.
Discord
The reigning king of gaming chats, Discord is a community focused powerhouse of a platform. Text, voice, video and livestreaming are all available for every Discord server, all for free. Like TeamSpeak, it offers roles and customization to servers allowing for moderation teams to handle members as servers are always online and most communities are active around the clock.
Discord has a mobile app as well for seamless transitions when you need to go. This makes it easy to use Zodiac Discord to communicate better with your co-gamers! Just hop into the Zodiac server and you’ll be able to choose from text and voice channels to make some new friends while you play.
SteamChat
SteamChat is a great option for those that already play on Steam’s platform and don’t want to download any extra applications. The voice chat is built directly into Steam’s friend chat, allowing you to create group chats with specific friends. Although lightweight, it still has role assignments so you can moderate any public rooms or contest lobbies with ease.
Voice quality is definitely lower than the previous entries on this list. It’s highly recommended to take the extra couple of minutes to snag a standalone gaming chat program to avoid the poor quality, something that already plagues most in-game voice chats.
RaidCall
This voice chat option is extremely popular in the MOBA genre of games such as League of Legends and DotA 2. The super lightweight design makes resource drain minimal so your computer can focus its power on better frames per second in the game.
Another unique feature of this program is the support of up to 100k users in the same RaidCall group. This is more commonly taken advantage of by large groups battling in EVE Online where hundreds of ships can square off in space, communication being the only way to coordinate a victory!
Tox
Tox takes privacy seriously, fully encrypting all data connections when chatting. Much like Mumble, Tox approaches this goal of safety by having users connect directly to each other. The difference this time is instead of hosting a server, the users connect directly to each other, known as peer-to-peer.
Data can only go between the connected users at this point with no middle man in place to grab information. The downside of this peer-to-peer connection is that the quality is only as good as your internet. Overloaded routers will have a hard time sustaining decent quality.
Skype
How could any list about online voice chat not at least pay respects to Skype? This Microsoft program came installed on most Windows machines, exposing users to the potential of communicating over the internet with voice and video.
Friends can be added with chat groups available to bring everyone together. Customization and servers aren’t Skype’s style, instead it hosts itself and offers simple and effective means of communication.
Every option on this list will get you talking online in no time. Those looking for lightweight basic options can try SteamChat or RaidCall, while those wanting more community might gravitate more towards Discord, which happens to be the choice for Zodiac’s community!
