5 Free and Open-source Chat Apps for macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon)

1- Adium

Instant Messenger and XMPP client for macOS

Adium is a free and open source instant messaging application for OS X, written using OS X's Cocoa API, released under the GNU GPL and developed by the Adium team. Based on the libpurple protocol library, Adium can connect you to any number of messaging accounts on any combination of supported messaging services and then chat with other people using those services.

Read about Adium 's features, license, platforms, and more.

2- Aether

Peer-to-peer ephemeral public communities

Open source, self-governing communities with auditable moderation and mod elections

Read about Aether 's features, license, platforms, and more.

3- BeagleIM

XMPP client for macOS based on TigaseSwift XMPP library

Beagle IM by Tigase, Inc. is a lightweight and powerful XMPP client for macOS.

It provides an easy way to start using XMPP protocol (formelly known as Jabber) if you've never used it before.

Veterans of the protocol will find many features with which they are familiar and a few enhancements.

Supports: OMEMO end-to-end encryption

Read about BeagleIM 's features, license, platforms, and more.

4- ChitChat

Whatsapp client for macOS

A Mac app wrapper around WhatsApp's web client, WhatsApp Web.

The latest version is available here. Need help? Ask me on Twitter here.

Requires OSX 10.10 Yosemite and a WhatsApp Web compatible device.

Read about ChitChat 's features, license, platforms, and more.

5- Franz

free open-source chat and messaging apps

Franz is your messaging app for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram and many many more.

Read about Franz 's features, license, platforms, and more.