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Franz β Messenger for WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, Slack & Hipchat
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Installed and hooked up Slack, Messenger and Whatsapp. Great experience, straight to the point. Got up and running in no time.
Not sure about the icon design. Is it a hipster mustache passing as a bridge? Why not just the mustache and lose the two pillars that look like walrus fangs?
@pddro Agreed. After much discerning, I think the "fang" looking things are supposed to be mutton chops.
@pddro quick question.. are you still using Franz for all these? I tried it for a while but switched back to the native apps except for Gmail and Whatsapp
@pddro I do agree that the logo is not ideal, but it resembles the beard that Franz Joseph I of Austria was known for. The app's name "Franz" is derived from him, as well.
Awesome application with a sleek design!
Is there any way to re-order services aside from deleting and re-addng? Also little numbers on the top bar might be useful for using the keyboard shortcuts (e.g. like in the Slack when you have multiple teams)
@shimmb just sit back and relax and let the auto update to it's job :)
Btw.. there is one coming today. π
There is a horrible thing with this kind of things. Probably not your fault but electrum. In the Mac, the close button should minimize by design, not close the app. I want it running in the background and giving me notifications. Not close... Slack manage to do it well on Mac. Any ideas about this? I do not use the Hangouts Chrome App for the same reason, as I end closing it by default and not receiving notifications.
@themiguelamador This is actually the reason why I stopped using Franz already. Just bad user experience
@stephanduq This is a general problem with the framework behind this apps, rather than Franz only.
@themiguelamador This is actually a relatively easy fix with Electron, the main fix is just removing this code:
app.on('window-all-closed', function () {
app.quit();
});
unfortunately Franz doesn't seem to be open source.
@rajington @themiguelamador it's a bit trickier than this... BUUUT, there is an update coming today fixing this and some other issues and adding support for re-arranging tabs.
iMessage support? This is great, but I typically switch from Messenger to Messages, so is it possible for the desktop app to read and send iMessages? If so I'd absolutely use it.
@shanemileham unfortunately it's currently not possible to offer iMessage support.
@smalzner @shanemileham Would it be possible to use AppleScript to talk to Messages in the background?
@adamengst @shanemileham this is definitely a very interesting idea π
@smalzner @adamengst - If Franz adds this, I'll definitely be using it and telling all my friends :) Let me know if/when you add support. Thanks for the idea Adam!
@shanemileham @smalzner And to up the ante, I would certainly review Franz in TidBITS if such a feature appeared. :-)
Definitely going to give it a try, however on first look I can't use Messenger. The text input box for typing is hidden below the border of the window and expanding the window doesn't fix it.
@itsthisjustin does your tabbar have two rows? There is currently an issue if you have too many services.
I like how HipChat has an option to persist on whichever screen your on. Does Franz have that option?
That's a great idea! Do you intend to support custom HipChat urls? We use hipchat.ourcompany.com (self-hosted) but I can't put in this url.
@louisdv thank you very much for bringing this up! I honestly haven't thought of that yet.
I will look into this. Anyone else using HipChat as a self hosted service?
In case you have any questions about Franz, feel free to ask. I am more than happy to answer all of them.
@smalzner have you built keyboard shortcuts yet? specifically toggling btwn different chat windows
@smalzner love it but theres 3 things which i hate
1) i cant receive pictures (skype - shows up as not authorized)
2) cant audio/video call straight from franz i always have to log back into skype
3) it keeps logging me out of skype and hipchat and i need to relogin
@batkom we are working on a fix for sending attachments in skype and it will come with one of the next updates. Skype calls is a bit trickier but we are working on that one too.
About logging you out of Skype and HipChat... can you please head over to franz.zendesk.com and open a ticket, would love to get more information.
@nadia_yun from our website :)
Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria had a rough time following the downfall of the Austrian Empire. Why not give someone with the presumably exceptional communication skills of an emperor a second chance?
Awesome! Looking forward to the Windows version. Is there any place that we can subscribe to be informed once Windows version is out? @smalzner
@aparkhills sure, on www.meetfranz.com scroll down and you'll find a signup for the mailing list :)
@smalzner @aparkhills I subscribed before reading this comment and assumed that I'd have access to a Beta version of the app for Windows. Please be more specific for next users, state that the Win version is in development and the mailing list is just to be informed when it'll be available. ;)
@damiencasoni sorry, will add this info. However, starting the rollout next week.
Oh, I'm quite jealous now of those who user macs at work! Any plans for an iOS or Android development?
@marietatibouet The way how Franz is built would not work on mobile without destroying the whole usability. But we never now what the future might bring ;)
@smalzner @marietatibouet and Linux development? does electron help you with that or not? Thanks for an amazing product!
@eevmanu @marietatibouet electron makes allows Franz to rudimentarily run on linux. Unfortunately there are way too many UX issues with the systems integration to even name an approximate release date for that / if it's possible at all.
Within hours of installing, Franz shows this error and hangs. I couldn't find a link to support on the site. 
@arunpattnaik Unfortunately there is a bug that may damage the settings of Franz. What you can do is to go to your finder press Cmd+Shift+G and go to "~/Library/Application Support/Franz/settings" and delete the "settings.json"
I'm sorry for the inconvenience.
@smalzner That worked. But it deleted all the apps I connected. Blank slate now. 
@smalzner The same error is back. It's a hassle to add all the accounts again. Do you have a fix/patch/update yet?
Quick ques - Telegram gives an option to send media in both high and low quality. What's the default in Franz? Do you plan to allow the user to choose?
I think there is some improvement to do on notifications. When you click on a banner, it should redirect to the service and ideally to the conversation concerned by the notification (it may be though to implement). Anything planned for this?
@_yannbertrand thanks for your feedback. This is coming with a future update.
Kudos, this looks really neat and handy! I've used it for a little while and here are my 2cents:
* Cmd+W should only close the window but keep Franz running in background and fetching new messages
* The app could really use a manu bar item indicate new unread messages (like we do with http://www.boxyapp.co)
* Maybe it could also lose the native top bar, it kinda gives aways the webapp nature of the app
Congrats, I'm really seeing myself using this daily :)
Amazing app! Thanks for building it. Our full team is already testing. Would it be possible that Franz accesses Safari plugins so that voice and video calls would work in Skype?
@mikeseeh wow, love to hear that! Unfortunately Franz does not support external plugins yet but i'm looking into it.
Tested the memory footprint is less than using the apps for each in separate. Getting 1gb with Skype, Slack, Hangouts, Whatsapp and Messenger on! Usually the individual apps used 400mb each.
Great idea! What is the main difference than using with new Chrome windows with 4 tabs? Except of centralized notification system.
@yigitkonur thanks a lot! For me it was always a pain to not be able to use cmd+tab to quickly focus my chat windows. Having one window that is instantly identifiable (with the icon) while going through tabs or clicking the dock icon does the trick for me. I usually have 50+ tabs in multiple browser windows and I accidentally close the windows/tabs way too often.
Waffle