Download one of the best voice chat apps for iPhone and iPad on your phone, and you never have to worry about keeping in touch ever again.
It’s more important than ever today, as the constraints of a coronavirus pandemic make it challenging to connect with friends and family in one place.
Using a good chat app can be like staying in it, especially if those apps offer additional features like voice or video chat and the ability to play games, share photos, and support other tasks that you’d otherwise have done in person.
The chat apps that default on your phone and Apple create their own Message apps for iOS, including many features.
But if you search for a different approach or special features, the following chat apps may let you take your conversations the other way around.
These are the best voice chat apps for iPhone and iPad we’ve found so far.
1. Facebook Messenger
Thanks to the COVID-19 outbreak, all this time spent indoors has made Facebook Messenger the best chat app for your phone.
Messenger not only upgrades Facebook’s broad reach, letting you send messages to all your friends on the social network, but Facebook continues to add functionality.
It recently launched Facebook Messenger Rooms, a video chat feature supporting up to 50 people.
Even with a constant influx of features, Facebook Messenger works like before.
Users sign in through Facebook and can send regular chat messages, voice messages, and videos to other users.
Voice calls to other Messenger users, with additional features such as GIF support and photo and location sharing.
The app continues to benefit from the 2018 redesign that streamlined Messenger’s appearance, answering a long-standing call for the mobile app.
If Facebook is a regular part of your social media feed, you’ll need to make sure you have Facebook Messenger on your phone.
Just be sure to manage your settings to prevent Facebook from sharing your information.
2. WhatsApp
WhatsApp can be part of the Facebook family and add much Messenger functionality as Facebook seeks to consolidate its messaging offerings.
But Whatsapp has a passionate user base who thinks it’s the best chat app for their needs.
Users can send short text, picture, voice, and video messages to their WhatsApp contacts.
The app continuously adds new features to its tools, such as emojis and fully encrypted messages between WhatsApp users.
Like Messenger, WhatsApp includes video chat functionality, although chats are currently limited to eight people; eventually, this number will increase to 50.
You can learn more about most of the app’s features in our guide to using WhatsApp, but make sure the app is updated to add new features and protect against attacks.
3. Houseparty
Conversation is great, but sometimes, when you connect with friends through a messaging app, you want an element of fun and games, too.
This is what Houseparty offers as a video chat app that lets you play interactive quizzes and other games while enjoying face-to-face time with your friends.
There is undoubtedly a teen orientation with Houseparty, but others find it and use it to stay in touch in this age of refuge in place.
You’ll get a notice when your friends are “home” using the app and ready to talk; launching the game is as easy as clicking a cube icon in the app window.
Houseparty restricts you to chatting with eight people at a time, which seems positively exclusive when competing apps spread the number of people allowed into chats.
4. Viber
Viber is simple to set up and offers various features, even when new versions of the chat app hit the mobile app stores.
Viber uses your phone number as a connection, and the app syncs with your phone to help you find contacts using Viber.
This app can transfer free text messages, stickers, emoticons, photos, voice messages, and videos to other Viber users.
The Viber Out feature allows you to call non-vibrate numbers and phones worldwide for a fee.
Recent updates have introduced a new interface developed to speed up the messaging performance and group video calls that now support 20 users.
The self-destruct message feature, initially only available in secret chats, is now introduced in all one-on-one conversations.
5. Slack
The productivity-focused messaging app and team have been successful for businesses and casual users alike with a combination of messaging, scheduling, management tools, and app integration.
Slack covers your instant messaging basics with real-time synced messaging between devices and also supports tools for file sharing, instant messaging, and group messaging.
Additionally, the app has a chat channel system, allowing you to set up subgroups for discussion-oriented topics or tasks quickly.
Slack archives your communications, allowing you to find old messages, channels, and shared files, and includes integration with various services such as cloud storage, Asana, Zendesk, and more.
Premium plans offer more features like extended file storage and better application integration.
6. Telegram
Telegram, a mobile messaging application for the post-Snowden era, is aimed precisely at a security-conscious user.
Telegram has fast, encrypted chat messaging with client-server encryption for standard conversations.
Secure Chat Mode offers end-to-end encryption so that only you and your recipient can see it. You can even set messages to self-destruct.
You can share documents and videos and participate in group chats with up to 200 users.
7. Signal Private Messenger
Signal Private Messenger from Open Whisper Systems is another excellent messaging solution for security-conscious mobile users.
With two Open Whisper Systems private messaging and messaging applications, RedPhone and TextSecure, Signal is an unlimited calling and voicemail solution that uses military-grade end-to-end encryption. You can send text, voice, group, multimedia, and attachments.
The ease of use and robust open-source encryption, which is regularly monitored, make it a favorite for those who care about security, with compliments like Edward Snowden and other privacy advocates.
8. GroupMe
As the name suggests, GroupMe is a social messaging app with group chats.
Once you’ve created and set up an account, you can easily create groups and add contacts by searching them by phone number or email address for easy solo or group chat.
The GroupMe feature set covers your basics with emojis, stickers, GIFs, and URL content views in the chat window.
There’s even support for group SMS chats for family members and contacts without smartphones.
One of the cool characteristics we liked was the inclusion of a gallery in the app to help you keep track of photos and videos shared in your groups.
9. WeChat
With over a billion users, WeChat wants to expand its global reach beyond China, where it has become a top-rated chat app.
WeChat offers users free mobile instant messaging, video and voice calls, group chat, and multimedia messaging (pictures, video, audio, stickers, etc.).
The app also includes unusual features like “Friend Radar,” “People Near,” and “Shake” to get new people to chat with nearby quickly.
Android Wear & Apple Watch apps can also bring chats to your wrist.
10. Line
As WeChat is for China, so is Japan. No Line has grown beyond its commercial base and now serves more than 600 million customers worldwide.
Line is one of the best voice chat apps for iPhone and iPad, providing chat messages, photos, videos, audio, animated stickers, location sharing, and a social media-like weather system.
The app supports calls and monstrous group calls with up to 200 participants and offers the ability to make paid international calls to landlines and mobile numbers.
Additionally, Line allows users to follow the official channels of their favorite brands, celebrities, and businesses to get recent news on them.
Keep’s features make storing specific pictures, messages, and videos easy to share with your friends.
11. Discord
Discord has speedily become one of the best voice chat apps for iPhone and iPad gamers who want to communicate and coordinate in & out of the game.
Discord allows users to create and join groups and group servers with robust voice and text chat features.
Organize discussions around named voice and text channels for easier separation of discussion threads.
Users can participate in voice chat, send text and picture messages, and easily send login calls to their contacts’ servers.
Gamers will especially appreciate the Go Live feature, which lets you privately stream games to up to ten friends over the voice channel of your Discord server.
While Discord is free, a $9.99 per month Nitro subscription offers cutting-edge features like animated avatars, custom emojis, and extensive photo and file transfer restrictions.
12. Skype
Although Microsoft’s Skype is best known for the functionality of voice and video calls, the app also has a relatively robust instant messaging system.
It enables you to send text messages, photos, and even short video messages to other Skype users, even when they are not online.
Plus, you can use Skype Credit to make calls to landlines and mobiles.
The cross-platform functionality between desktop and mobile, the professional features of the business versions of Skype, and the absolute ubiquity of the app allowed the former workaholic to remain relevant even in the face of fierce competition on mobile.
Microsoft also endeavored to increase bots’ power on Skype because it allows artificial intelligence programs to handle tasks like reservations.
13. Voxer
Voxer takes a more vocal approach than most other best voice chat apps for iPhone and iPad, allowing users to send similar voicemail messages to a walkie-talkie or push-to-talk device.
Users can listen to live messages in the app or read messages such as voicemail later; they can send and receive text messages, photos, videos, and location messages.
In addition to instant messaging, the app supports groups of up to 500 people and possibly encrypted messages using the Signal protocol.
Voxer is a free subscription, but premium unlocks features like unlimited message history, message retrieval, admin controls for group chats, a hands-free walkie-talkie mode, and an option for extreme notification mode, compelling for noisy environments.
