Lightweight team chat messengers with low RAM consumption
In the modern world of remote collaboration and gaming, efficient communication is the key. Whether you're discussing business questions with your team, playing video games, or simply enjoying a casual conversation with friends, voice chat has become an integral part of any online activity. However, many applications used for work or leisure, such as design apps, video-making apps, or games, are quite resource-consuming. Thus, the demand for reliable lightweight team chat messengers for voice and video chats is increasing. In this post, we will discuss challenges faced by teams and gamers.
What team chat messenger can be used for?
Team chat messengers have gained popularity in the world of remote collaboration, where performance, security, and reliability play a leading role.
Thus, let's see why companies and individuals may need a team chat messenger:
- Audio and video chats
- Instant messaging in private and group chat rooms
- New channels
- Task management
- File sharing
- Searchable conversation history
- Online presence indications and monitoring
- Remote teams' communication and collaboration
- Voice chat for gamers
- Video conferencing
Top team chat apps with low RAM consumption
High RAM / CPU usage is one of the problems users of team chat messengers may face, especially Slack or MS Teams users. It is very troublesome when the team chat app starts lagging while you are using voice chat together with a high-performance application like a video-making tool or a video game. Thus, for those users who value their PC resources, it is important to have a team chat app with low RAM consumption. Here is our list of top team and gaming chat messengers:
Virola Messenger
Virola is a low-latency, self-hosted, secure team chat app that consumes about 60-70 MB of RAM during voice chats. Virola is straightforward in installation. You can either install it on your own or on a virtual server.
For gamers, Virola offers a handy feature — the ability to suppress the sound of other applications during voice chats. Moreover, it is completely free for small teams up to 10 users. Virola Messenger also provides a set of powerful features for efficient collaboration and communication. This makes it the number one chat messenger with low RAM and CPU consumption for gamers and team collaboration.
Mumble
Mumble is a free, open-source, low-latency, high-quality voice chat application. It is popular among gamers who prioritize performance, low latency, and security during voice communication. Mumble focuses on simplicity and low resource usage. It boasts excellent voice quality and positional audio, making it ideal for team-based games. However, Mumble has a quite basic user interface and lacks built-in chat or social features like friends lists, emojis, or media sharing.
Discord
Discord is great for playing games and communicating with friends. It delivers comprehensive experience with configurable servers, voice and text channels, and supports cross-platform communication. It also integrates seamlessly with major gaming platforms. Discord is more than just a voice messenger — it's a full-featured social and collaboration hub for gaming communities.
At the same time, Discord desktop app consumes a lot of RAM — 400–600 MB. Thus, if you need to avoid latency, use a browser version instead.
Element
Element is a secure, open-source chat and voice messenger built on the Matrix protocol. While it's not as mainstream in gaming as Discord, some users, especially privacy-conscious or technically savvy gamers, like using Element while playing games. However, it is known to be a powerful collaboration platform used by organizations of any size. To avoid latency while using Element, you need to switch to a browser version (Element Hydrogen).
Conclusion
No matter whether you play games, render videos, or work on projects that consume a lot of RAM and CPU resources, you need a stable, secure, and low-latency voice chat messenger to communicate with your team. However, many low-latency team chat apps are primitive and lack features important for efficient collaboration. Virola Messenger combines all the features you need to stay productive and save your computer resources.