# Self-hosted alternative to Tinychat?



## k0nsl (Mar 20, 2014)

...As the title says; are there any self-hosted alternatives to Tinychat (tinychat.com)? I would really want to get that running for me and my friends.

All suggestions are welcome


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## HaitiBrother (Mar 20, 2014)

I might whip up something like this, sounds pretty simple, but for the video, I'd probably leverage the Google Hangouts API for video.

Basically:

Write the basic chat system, have a Broadcast button that links into Google Hangouts API.


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## BrianHarrison (Mar 20, 2014)

Have you ever used HipChat before? We use it for our internal company chat -- works great. Works on PC, Mac and mobile (have not tried *nix). I believe you can also self-host as well.


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## HalfEatenPie (Mar 20, 2014)

BrianHarrison said:


> Have you ever used HipChat before? We use it for our internal company chat -- works great. Works on PC, Mac and mobile (have not tried *nix). I believe you can also self-host as well.


We also use hipchat, and this is a totally different thing to Tinychat.

Tinychat focuses on more the old AIM-style chat, and is commonly used for video and voice chatting purposes. Hipchat lacks this feature and is also not self-hosted (they require a purchased plan, but free up to 5 people).


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## k0nsl (Mar 20, 2014)

I never used HipChat before but will have a look at it, too bad it is not self-hosted. Let's see now, okay, it does not have to be self-hosted but it would be a great plus if it was. Basically anything similar (or considerably better) to Tinychat is of interest to me. So far I have not found many good alternatives at all...although I have admittedly not looked very much, either. That's why I'm asking here he he  

But ya, I will look at HipChat. I just need a system with basic chat + webcam support for a group of people to be able to meet up and talk, plan and just chat. I always try to look at self-hosted stuff because it feels more "at home" for me.


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## HalfEatenPie (Mar 20, 2014)

k0nsl said:


> I never used HipChat before but will have a look at it, too bad it is not self-hosted. Let's see now, okay, it does not have to be self-hosted but it would be a great plus if it was. Basically anything similar (or considerably better) to Tinychat is of interest to me. So far I have not found many good alternatives at all...although I have admittedly not looked very much, either. That's why I'm asking here he he
> 
> But ya, I will look at HipChat. I just need a system with basic chat + webcam support for a group of people to be able to meet up and talk, plan and just chat. I always try to look at self-hosted stuff because it feels more "at home" for me.


I think Camfrog has these features?  Although be wary that many providers don't allow Camfrog on their network (check their ToS).  

HipChat doesn't have webcam support.


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## 5n1p (Mar 20, 2014)

Have you tried this http://www.bearware.dk/ I have installed last year only to test and it has stuff you need.


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## HalfEatenPie (Mar 20, 2014)

Oh also look into XMPP server with a client that supports video chat.

E.g. https://jitsi.org/

Don't know if it'll actually fully support it, but I think it's worth investigating.


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## Shados (Mar 21, 2014)

Doubt Jitsi uses XMPP for video conferencing - IIRC XEP-0272 hasn't gone anywhere yet .


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## HalfEatenPie (Mar 21, 2014)

Shados said:


> Doubt Jitsi uses XMPP for video conferencing - IIRC XEP-0272 hasn't gone anywhere yet .


I'm not too sure what Jitsi uses for video conferencing (I haven't really looked into the video conferencing needs really), but I know it uses XMPP.  

Maybe it uses magic


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## peterw (Mar 21, 2014)

We use Openmeetings from Apache: http://openmeetings.apache.org/


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## Gary (Mar 23, 2014)

https://appear.in/ looks interesting. Not quite self-hosted, but P2P.


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## BrianHarrison (Apr 22, 2014)

HipChat is running a self-hosted server beta -- https://www.hipchat.com/server

They come out with updates fairly regularly. Someone above posted that HipChat does not have video chat -- well now they do: https://www.hipchat.com/press

They also integrate sceen-sharing, but I haven't tried out that feature yet.


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## Tom_WebhostingUK LTD (Apr 23, 2014)

Yes, we too use Hipchat for internal conversation. It is self runned.


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