Franz is the instant messaging application that integrates a total of 71 services , including some as popular as Instagram, LinkedIn, Telegram or WhatsApp, and allows multiple instances of the services and up to a maximum of 3 different services in the free version.
It is an application that was born in 2016 by Stefan that used multiple messaging services on many different platforms and decided to create Franz to unify all messaging platforms on a single platform to avoid having multiple tabs open in the browser and to be able to centralize all services in a single application to be able to use them all at the same time in a comfortable and simple way.
It is a free application with limitations and the source code is public and is available on GitHub. It has paid features to increase the number of services and features it offers.
Features – packed with them and limited in the free version
- More than 70 instant messaging services available, among which are some as popular as Telegram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Slack.
- Desktop notifications to never miss anything that is being discussed in any of the messaging applications.
- Dark mode to be able to work comfortably at night and not disturb light tones after long hours of use.
- Work areas to be able to separate personal applications from professionals and not have everything mixed in the same space to be able to use it comfortably and easily.
- Customizable notification system to adapt it to tastes or requirements
- Multi language with support for more than 25 languages including Spanish.
- Synchronization with the cloud so that you can have all the accounts synchronized on all devices and that you do not have to configure them on each device individually
- Extensible through plugins to add additional and third-party services that you need to integrate within the application.
- It allows multiple instances of the same service to be able to have multiple accounts of the service you want, since there are professional people like Community Managers who use multiple accounts of the same service to carry out their work.
- It is compatible with proxy services in order to avoid geographical restrictions or firewalls that do not allow the use of certain services.
- Support multiple platforms are compatible as well as Windows, Linux and MacOS to give full support to all users of all desktop platforms.
- It includes a spell checker in the paid versions to avoid making misspellings and help professionals who work with social networks to develop their work in a simpler, more comfortable and better quality without any type of misspellings.
- It complies with the GDPR, since it allows you to delete the account so once you get tired of the service or if you don’t like it, you can easily delete your account.
Once we press the button to delete the account, we will receive an email in which we must confirm that we want to delete our account in order to make this action effective.
Free vs paid: version differences
It has 3 different editions : one free, one personal and one professional.
All of them have desktop notifications, unlimited accounts per service, multiplatform support for Windows, Mac and Linux, synchronization with infinite computers, available in more than 25 languages and individual audio options for each service.
Free – the most basic with limitations
The free version supports a maximum of 3 services to choose from among the more than 80 services available and comes with advertising and waiting times.
Personal – up to a maximum of 6 services
It has a cost of 4 euros per month although if paid annually the price remains only 3 euros per month. Regarding the free version, it comes without advertising, an integrated spell checker and without waiting. It continues to have a limit of up to 6 services.
Professional – the complete edition
The professional implements everything the staff has and adds workspaces, adds web pages that one wishes, the possibility of installing third-party services, proxy, and equipment management. The services that this version allows us to use are unlimited.
Its monthly price is 8 euros but if paid annually the price stays at 6 euros a month.
It has a completely free 14-day trial that does not require a credit card.
Available services – up to 71 services to use
Includes a total of 71 chat services :
- Android Messages
- chatwork
- Cisco Spark
- Discord
- Facebook Pages
- FastMail
- Flowdock
- Gadu-Gadu
- Github
- Gitter
- Glowing bear
- Gmail
- Google Allo
- Google Calendar
- Google Keep
- Google Voice
- Grape
- GroupMe
- Hangouts
- Hangouts Chat
- HipChat
- ICQ
- Idobata
- IRCCloud
- mailbox.org
- Mattermost
- Messenger
- Microsoft Kaizala
- Microsoft Teams
- MySMS
- Nextcloud Talk
- Office 365 – Outlook
- Outlook
- Plurk
- proton-mail
- Press SMS
- Pushbullet
- RainLoop
- Riot
- Rocket.Chat
- Roundcube
- Sendtask
- Skype
- Slack
- Spectrum
- SteaamChat
- Stride
- Tawk.to
- Teamwork Projects
- Telegram
- The Lounge
- Threema
- Todoist
- toggl
- Trello
- Tweetdeck
- twist
- Twitch
- Twitter DM
- VK
- Voxer
- Workpace
- Yammer
- zendesk
- Zoho Cliq
- Zullip
We did not like that some of these services like Slack are premium paid and that they are not available in the free version.
Free Download
It is compatible with Windows 7 or higher, MacOS 10.9 or higher and there are 2 versions of Linux, one for Ubuntu and the other a universal AppImage. It can be downloaded for free from the author’s website .
