Best Chat-Add-on

K

KC Riley

Active member
My site will be under construction soon. I'm trying to decide on the best chat app to use with an Xenforo website. I'm still leaning towards Cometchat.

Key features that are important to me on a dedicated server:

- Fast Performance
- Audio and Video Chat
- Private Chats
- User reporting
- solid Intergation with Xenforo, Avatars, friends list intergation
- Stability and Reliability
- Being able to block guests from entering chatrooms

- ArrowChat
- Parachat
- Addonchat
- many others
 
I use Taigachat. I have few complaints, and my users love it. Also, tightly integrated into XenForo.

As for all the others, I used to use Addonchat. I loved it; some of my users didn't because it wasn't compatible with their phones 4 years ago.
 
I've looked at the shoutbox as well. Xenforo appears to have the best implementation of the shoutbox.

Does anyone have a live site with CometChat installed. I wanted a chance to see how Cometchat performs on a live site.
 
Cometchat fails on these points:
- User reporting
- solid Intergation with Xenforo
- Stability and Reliability
- Being able to block guests from entering chatrooms

But scores on all your other requirements.
 
Alfa1 said:
Cometchat fails on these points:
- User reporting
- solid Intergation with Xenforo
- Stability and Reliability
- Being able to block guests from entering chatrooms

But scores on all your other requirements.
Click to expand...

I've heard they just added user reporting with the current release of CometChat. The lack of proper user group permissions really concerns me about CometChat. I don't want guests or banned users inside the chatroom.

I was also looking at Arrowchat but I'm not sure how much better it is than CometChat.
 
Alabama Blaze said:
I've heard they just added user reporting with the current release of CometChat. The lack of proper user group permissions really concerns me about CometChat. I don't want guests or banned users inside the chatroom.

I was also looking at Arrowchat but I'm not sure how much better it is than CometChat.
Click to expand...
Arrowchat is coded a little better than CometChat, but it lacks active development and functionality. Its worth taking a look at to see if it has what you need.
 
I've been looking at Arrowchat. They don't seem to have an upload photo link on their mobile version. I want to ask them if that can be added.

My members like to share pics quite a bit. They really should develop a mobile App.
 
The biggest bug I noticed in Arrowchat occurs when first trying to type a new message in mobile chat window. The second you type one letter in the message field the browser bounces back to the top of the conversation feed.

The user is forced to scroll back down a 2nd time to type their message. This is an annoying bug to have when your members have to scroll down a 2nd time everytime they want to type a new message on their phones.
 
Alabama Blaze said:
The biggest bug I noticed in Arrowchat occurs when first trying to type a new message in mobile chat window. The second you type one letter in the message field the browser bounces back to the top of the conversation feed.

The user is forced to scroll back down a 2nd time to type their message. This is an annoying bug to have when your members have to scroll down a 2nd time everytime they want to type a new message on their phones.
Click to expand...
I've just tested this on both my site and the ArrowChat site. It didn't occur for me. Maybe it's a browser issue on your phone?
 
Martok said:
I've just tested this on both my site and the ArrowChat site. It didn't occur for me. Maybe it's a browser issue on your phone?
Click to expand...

It may just be an issue with their demo.

Can you post a link for your site? I wanted have a chance to chat in arrowchat on a live site to see how well it intergrates into Xenforo.
 
Alabama Blaze said:
It may just be an issue with their demo.

Can you post a link for your site? I wanted have a chance to chat in arrowchat on a live site to see how well it intergrates into Xenforo.
Click to expand...
Chat isn't available to guests or registered users on my site, only to full members of the community.
 
Martok said:
I disagree and I'm sure @ArrowSuites would too! Development may not be as quick and fast as you'd like but it's definitely happening.
Click to expand...
I know there is development. I really enjoyed the rapid feature full releases in 2012. After that it has really slowed down. It would be nice to see integration with XF user groups, report center, warnings, conversations, but with 1 release per year I am afraid that the chance on that is slim.
I have been asking for a few very basic features since 2011. Usergroup permission were announced to land in 1.8 but after waiting for another year. Its still not there.
 
Last edited:
ArrowChat has one of the best Admin Pannels I've seen on a 3rd party chat app. Arrowchat's admin is cleaner and easier to configure vs. CometChat.
 
Alfa1 said:
I know there is development. I really enjoyed the rapid feature full releases in 2012. After that it has really slowed down.
Click to expand...
The main reason for this is that the releases are now bigger with more content in each update. In 2012, we released a bunch of small updates throughout the year. Perhaps this is a better way to run things; I'll see what the team thinks.

Alfa1 said:
It would be nice to see integration with XF user groups, report center, warnings, conversations, but with 1 release per year I am afraid that the chance on that is slim. I have been asking for a few very basic features since 2011. Usergroup permission were announced to land in 1.8 but after waiting for another year. Its still not there.
Click to expand...
We receive about five feature requests per day. It's not that we aren't listening, we just get a lot.
 
That's understandable. Please consider that XenForo is the future and without solid integration like described above I think you will have little chance in attracting a good number of xenforo customers.
 
Alabama Blaze said:
The biggest bug I noticed in Arrowchat occurs when first trying to type a new message in mobile chat window. The second you type one letter in the message field the browser bounces back to the top of the conversation feed.

The user is forced to scroll back down a 2nd time to type their message. This is an annoying bug to have when your members have to scroll down a 2nd time everytime they want to type a new message on their phones.
Click to expand...

I can confirm this bug..
We crashed and crashed hard last night, the whole chat became embarrassing, with users either complaining of this bug - or that they couldn't type at all.
Was cringeworthy to be fair..

So far I was impressed, but then I had users join and faced several bugs.
Looks and feels right, but under strain (if 30 users in one room is strain? Don't know) she kind of belly flopped. A shame as it looks so bloody promising..
 
lol. No 30 users in a room is no strain at all. What is strain is the users that are not in the room, but still have chat functions loaded or keep pinging the chat server/ push network (pubnub) because there are no usergroup permissions. How many people are there on your website including guests when its really busy?
 
Alfa1 said:
lol. No 30 users in a room is no strain at all. What is strain is the users that are not in the room, but still have chat functions loaded or keep pinging the chat server/ push network (pubnub) because there are no usergroup permissions. How many people are there on your website including guests when its really busy?
Click to expand...

Exactly, 30 users is nothing!
As I said n the prior thread, you have a huge board, so I can understand load issues....
But we are still building up as a community. I've run many forum boards before, but this is my first XF board, and first site server a.. well.. Lifestyle choice..

Still, I didn't expect it to die on me, what's it going to take like.. a server reboot after each heavy usage?
Not many to be honest, maximum 100 or so and that's only including those whom opt for chat.
Maybe I should shut the bar down and, as I have now, add rooms to forum sections which they can join.
I don't know.

We're still building up and gaining pace very quickly.. so I have and do anticipate it to be a busy place, I need reliability.
But I know ultimately, it's going to have to cost ££'s ...
 
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