This story began almost a year ago, when I started thinking about adding a community chat room to my blogs and websites. I wanted that people would spend more time on my websites and I wanted that I would be able to make discussions with them, so that would we would know more about eachother and that they would buy something from me as well.
I started researching and trying out all kinds of applications and the first thing I learned was that Free ones are usually not worth it. Okay well if you really need only chat feature, then you can always use mIRC, but you need to know that it is a 2003 style without any feature else than sending messages.
I tried Chatwing, tawk, purechat, velaro, olark, hipchat and many others. Problem with these was, that my page was very slow and they doesn't really have the ability to manage the design just as much as I wanted.
I was researching and researching until I found a gem - one application that would have all the features I need and that would have a really nice design. That is when I found Rumbletalk Live group chat room for Websites | RumbleTalk
You wonder why I liked it so much right? The answer is that I still do and I will explain why as well.
* You can embed it to the wordpress, wix, youtube, facebook, joomla, any web page and you can use it as a floating chat as well.
* You can manage the design just as much as you want. They have a library of designs or you can use yours as well. You have full access to the CSS for infinite customization, change background, borders and font with a click.
* It has SSL secure connection, you don't need any servers, it doesn't slow down your website, you can use it on many platforms at the same time.
* You can export the chat logs - it works very well SEO wise.
* You can share pictures, videos, charts, files. It is possible to limit chatters, IP ban spammers.
* Record up to 10 seconds of audio and send to the group chat audience. You can also use video and voice chat when doing a private chat.
* You can invite friends from Facebook and Twitter directly from the chat room. Your audience will also have the ability to share comments from the group chat on Facebook and Twitter.
* The same group chat window can be placed across many websites or pages and the conversation is automatically synced. This means you can browse your content while remaining engaged in the online community.
* Notifications for new messages, users, calls and more can all be customized. Admin panel allows you to choose a different sound for each action or disable one or all notification sounds entirely.
* Rumbletalk has a bank of emoticons for your group chat. Choose to use all, some or none in the admin panel, you have full control.
* Group chats can be open for the public or restricted to a set list of participants. Within each chat, messages can be sent for all participants to see and participants can be allowed to send private messages to each other.
That is why I decided for Rumbletalk and it just works amazingly. I will try to manage my design a bit and will keep you updated with that.
I really hope that this short overview will help to someone who is strugling same as I was a year ago.