Gamers chat differently from most people. A good game chat includes a voice chat element, a text chat element, and a video chat element. Optionally, many modern ones also include a streaming element. They either tie directly into Twitch or have their own thing. It gets bonus points if it looks cool and has other features that lets people have fun. There are a surprising number of options out there, and gamers probably already know most of them. Here are the best gamer chat apps for Android.
The best gamer chat apps for Android
Band
Price: Free
Band is an up-and-coming app for all kinds of stuff. It’s a group chat app similar to Discord. You create a group, invite your friends, and then enjoy the features. It has an integrated calendar so you can plan stuff like game nights or events. It works pretty well and it’s fairly functional. You can do group voice calls and upload almost whatever you want in terms of video clips or memes. It’s set up for other types of stuff, but most of it can be jerry-rigged for gamer use. It’s also free to use like most gamer chat apps.
Discord
Price: Free / Up to $9.99 per month
We put Discord on this list as a formality. Everybody already knows what it is and how it works. That’s because it is, to my knowledge, the most popular gamer chat app available right now. You can create an endless number of servers, customize those servers for your needs. It has voice and video chats along with integrated streaming. You can log in with your gaming profiles and show people what you’re playing. To be honest, it’s probably your best bet. The free version works for like 97% of people. The only reason to pay for Nitro ($9.99 per month) is for sharing larger images, GIF emote support, and per-server features.
Element
Price: Free
Element is a gamer chat app that works from a security perspective. It offers fully encrypted messages, voice chat, and video chat. It otherwise delivers mostly the same experience as the rest. You can create servers, invite your friends, and chat as needed. This one is self-hosted so it requires a bit of a learning curve. Otherwise, it’s a decent alternative that puts a real emphasis on privacy. It has bugs, but it’s otherwise good.
Guilded
Price: Free
Guilded is an up-and-coming chat specifically for gamers. It competes with Discord by having things like custom emotes for each server, voice chats, broadcasting (streaming), video chat, and threaded conversations. The app even has stuff like bots. It supports a lot of gaming communities and really does make for a good competitor to Discord. It’s a bit smaller of an operation and can suffer from the occasional lag or bug. Whether it’s better than Discord or not depends on what features you hold most dear. This might blow up over the next few years.
Mumble (Mumla)
Price: Free / $2.99
Mumble is a power-user chat service. Mumla (linked at the button), is a client for Mumble. The service has a bunch of public servers you can drop into for whatever you need. However, we think most people host their own servers for their friends. The app includes Bluetooth headphone support, automatic reconnection if you get disconnected, a dark theme, and more. People like this option because it’s simple, it works pretty well, and it doesn’t ask you for a bunch of personal information. However, the downside is that it requires some tech-savvy in order to make it work.
Pinch
Price: Free
Pinch is one of the better gamer chat apps for mobile gamers. It’s built for use while playing mobile games specifically. It works in the background like most chat apps. It also shows you what your friends are playing in case you feel like playing with them. The app focuses primarily on voice chatting over things like text or video. The call shows up in a chat head bubble so you can do things like mute quickly if needed. It works pretty well for its intended purposes and we definitely recommend it for mobile gamers.
Skype
Price: Free / Varies
Skype has fallen out of favor with gamers in terms of popularity but to be honest, it’s still a perfectly reasonable platform for it. You can create group chats with a bunch of people, use voice and video calls, and you can upload basically any file you want to share with your friends. The app also lets you connect your SMS so you can text chat people as well. It’s not as feature rich as other gamer chat apps and the mobile version still needs some polish, but it’s perfectly serviceable otherwise.
TeamSpeak 3
Price: $0.99
TeamSpeak is one of the classic gamer chat apps. It’s primarily a voice chat where you and your friends can game it up in a voice chat room. The app also supports text chat, player status notifications, and more. Players can create their own private servers as well, giving you a little extra privacy. It’s a bit more involved than most others so those looking for an easy solution should keep looking. The desktop experience is better than the mobile experience, so we hope the developers keep updating this one.
In-game chat
Price: Free / Varies
Many games have integrated chats so you don’t really need a third party. Some examples include the text chat in FFBE: War of the Visions, the voice and text chat in Modern Combat 5, or the in-game chat in League of Legends: Wild Rift. There are some developers with third-party apps specifically for some games, like AmongChat (Google Play) as well. In most cases, something like Discord, Pinch, or Guilded is a better choice, but if all you need is some communication in-game, the in-game chat can work just fine.
Gaming platform apps
Price: Free
Most gaming platforms have apps these days, including Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation. Most of them have full access to the platform chat options. For instance, you can join an Xbox Live party with the Xbox app. Steam has a dedicated app just for its text chat. PlayStation lagged behind for many years, but has since included the functionality in its official app. I have personally used Xbox party chat for playing Minecraft with friends while on my phone. You can also still send and receive text messages as well just like you can on your actual console. It won’t displace Discord, but it’s a nice addition, especially if your friends are locked to a platform you don’t own and you play games with crossplay (like Destiny 2).
If we missed any great gamer chat apps, tell us about them in the comments. You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists.
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