Here are best free Tox Clients for Windows. These clients are open source software. Apart from messaging, these Tox clients can also make audio and video calls and the best thing about them is that you can also share various types of files with your friends, including images, songs, videos, and screenshots. Some of these clients can also push desktop notifications for new incoming messages and the number of unread messages can be seen from their tray icon.
Tox is nothing but a protocol that began in early 2013. The main idea behind this free and open source project is to provide a fast and secure messaging service that does not rely on a central server. More importantly, Tox provides a complete end to end encryption. These features make it difficult for others to snoop on your messages. Tox is currently run using various decentralized servers, so even if one server goes down, the service still keeps running. Tox is made up of using various open source cryptographic algorithms to encrypt the messages, profile, IP address, and operating system information. The data that you send over Tox network is end to end encrypted.
Only thing that you need to have a Tox chat with anyone is a Tox Client. And I will introduce you to 4 of those in this article. So, let’s see some Tox clients that use the Tox protocol for instant messaging.
Best Free Tox Client For Windows Toxygen
Toxygen is a free Tox client for windows that offers many interesting features than any other Tox client. It offers text messaging, audio and video calls. Additionally, you can also send stickers and smileys to your friend and get the same from him/her. Stickers in this are mostly PNG images, so you can also download new stickers and paste them in the stickers folder. In Toxygen, you can set a profile picture called Avatar. The Avatar will be visible to the recipient and you can also see the other’s avatar as well if available. And the very best thing about this Tox client for Windows is that it is an extensible client that supports many plugins, you can check out here.
Toxygen can show you notifications for any new incoming message and you can also customize the color of the unread messages on its tray icon. If you want to send a file from your PC, then you can easily do that. Toxygen lets you send almost any kind of file and you can also set a particular area by clipping it out from your screen.
It’s pretty easy to use Toxygen for the first time. You simply start by adding a person by his Tox id and then a request will be send to him. And when he finally accepts your request you can start your chat. Apart from chatting, you can also export your chat to a TXT and HTML file. You can see the below screenshot, showing Toxygen in action.
So, in this way you can Toxygen to chat with your friend which is private and fully encrypted and can only be visible at both ends. I found Toxygen to be the best Tox client for Windows. And if you want, you can also get it for Linux as well.
Portable Tox Client For Windows: Isotoxin
Isotoxin is a portable and lightweight Tox client for Windows. It has an intuitive interface and you can start chatting with your friend by entering his Tox id. After that a request will be sent to him, and when he/she accepts your request, you can start your chat. It supports text messaging, voice, and video calls for instant messaging and you can also make a conference call by adding multiple users. Additionally, you can add emojis in your text, and you can send almost any kind of file to the recipient. Another feature in this Tox client for Windows is that you can send a particular screen area from your end and export your TOX chat history to HTML and TXT file. It’s quite a smart Tox client as it notifies you via desktop notifications when you receive a message from any of your contacts. And you can see the number of unread messages from its tray icon.
It’s pretty easy to start with Isotoxin. You start by generating a Tox id for yourself, and a username that will be visible on the other end. I have already mentioned in the above description that you will have to send a friend request to start chatting. After that you can send almost anything to your friend with text messages. See the below screenshot.
Isotoxin makes it pretty easy to have a chat private that is invisible from everyone except the recipients. So, for simple and portable Tox client, Isotoxin is a good candidate.
qTox
qTox is another free Tox client for Windows. It’s a cross-platform software available for Linux, Mac, and Windows. It’s quite large in size, but offers various features that makes chatting more interesting. It offers lots of emojis that you often see on Facebook and you can share images, and other types of files from your PC with your friend’s PC. It offers text messaging, audio and video calls, and the best part is that it lets you open many chats separately in different windows. You can export your profile information to a file and can import it back by using a password. Also, you can logout after a chatting session. And the qTox will lock your profile and only you can unlock it. Additionally, it can push desktop notifications for new messages.
The process of getting started with qTox is very similar to what I explained for the above Tox client. You start by creating a Tox id for yourself and add your friend using his Tox id. After that you can start the chat. See the interface of qTox in the screenshot below.
So, it was one of the best Tox clients for Windows. qTox is loaded with many features that make it a very decent Tox client for Windows and other operating systems. However, I really wish that it would have been available in a portable version, so I can carry my profile anywhere and use it on any Windows PC.
uTox
uTox is another lightweight and free Tox client for Windows. It’s pretty simple Tox client that does not have a lot of additional features, but offers fast messaging and profile protection. Using uTox, you can send text messages and also make audio, video calls. However, there is a limitation in uTox that it cannot push desktop notifications for new messages. Apart from messaging, you can share various types of files with your friends in the same chat. It offers various themes that you can apply to make it look wonderful. Also, it asks you to specify a password when you create a Tox profile in it. And it uses that password to lock/unlock its interface.
It’s pretty easy to use uTox. Just create Tox id and share it with your friend or ask him for his Tox id to start chat with him. First, you have to add a friend by sending him a friend request, and when he finally accepts your request, you can start chatting with him. See the below screenshot, showing uTox in action.
In this way you can use this free Tox client for Windows for private chatting. It’s a quite minimal client, mainly focused around communication and privacy. If you are not so demanding, then I am sure that you will like uTox for its simplicity.
Closing Words
These were some really good Tox clients for Windows that I have found so far. Some of these clients also come with other features that I have mentioned in the context of each one of them. Personally, I really like Toxygen to be the best Tox client for Windows in my list. Let me know what you think in the comments down below.
