WhatsApp, Slack, Signal, Telegram, Gmail, Outlook and 75+ services in one fast desktop app — no more juggling ten browser tabs. Franz 6 adds a built-in AI assistant that summarizes long chats, transcribes voice notes, triages your inbox and drafts replies — all on-device, so your conversations stay private (EU-hosted Cloud optional). 1M+ downloads. Free, cross-platform, made in Vienna. Winner: Product Hunt Golden Kitty, Desktop App of the Year 2016.
This is the 3rd launch from Franz Messenger. View more
Franz 6
Launched this week
WhatsApp, Slack, Signal, Telegram, Gmail, Outlook and 75+ services in one fast desktop app — no more juggling ten browser tabs. Franz 6 adds a built-in AI assistant that summarizes long chats, transcribes voice notes, triages your inbox and drafts replies — all on-device, so your conversations stay private (EU-hosted Cloud optional). 1M+ downloads. Free, cross-platform, made in Vienna. Winner: Product Hunt Golden Kitty, Desktop App of the Year 2016.
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Launch Team / Built With
Franz Messenger
Hi Product Hunt 👋
Ten years ago I launched Franz here as a weekend prototype. The community gave it 837 upvotes on launch day and, later that year, the Golden Kitty for Desktop App of the Year. That award has been on my shelf, and on my mind, ever since. So launching Franz 6 here, almost exactly a decade later, means a lot.
Franz has always been "that app that puts all your messengers in one window." Over a million downloads later, that part hasn't changed. But for the 10-year release I rebuilt it from the ground up around three ideas:
One window for everything. WhatsApp, Slack, Signal, Telegram, Messenger, Teams, Gmail, Outlook, and 75+ more, each in its own isolated container, with unified notifications and unread badges. Signal runs as a proper native client, not a web wrapper.
AI that actually helps, without the privacy tax. "Catch me up" on a 200-message group chat, transcribe voice notes, triage your inbox, draft replies. It runs locally on your device, so your conversations never leave your machine. (Want more speed? There's an EU-hosted, zero-retention option too.)
Privacy as a default, not an upsell. Built-in tracker blocking in every service, on-device processing, EU infrastructure. Made in Vienna, GDPR-native.
The emails I love most are from people who've used Franz for ten years and are telling me Franz 6 is their favorite version yet. Reading those genuinely makes all of it worth it.
Franz is free (3 services, a workspace, and the full on-device AI) and runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Ten years on, it's still built in Vienna, and the feedback from this community over the years has shaped every version since. I'd love more of it now: what's missing, what feels off, what you'd want next. I'll be here all day.
And a little 10th-birthday thank-you: 25% off all monthly and annual plans with code TENYEARSPH25, valid through July 15.
Thank you, really 🙏
findable.
@smalzner kudos @ launching 🏆
Franz Messenger
Thanks @__tosh! This one's special coming from you. You hunted the very first Franz here 10 years ago and you've been backing it the whole way since. Really grateful for that 🫶
And for everyone else stopping by: how many chat apps do you have open right now? I'm at 8 permenant ones, which is pretty much why Franz exists. Curious where you all land
@smalzner 10 years from weekend prototype to a million downloads is an impressive grind.
Congrats on Franz 6.
Franz Messenger
@matthew_goley "Grind" is the honest word for it. There were definitely stretches where it felt more like a hobby that refused to die. Glad it made it to 10 🙏
@smalzner congrats ! kind of free the chains of social platformes! ( where is signal though ? )
Franz Messenger
@benjamin_nid in Franz 6, where you'd expect it 😉
the 1M downloads and Golden Kitty from 2016 is real history but the messaging aggregator space looks very different now than it did then. Notion, Arc, and a dozen others have tried the everything in one window approach and the recurring problem is that native apps on mobile don't have this option so the workflow breaks the moment you're not at your desk. how are you thinking about the mobile gap because that's usually where unified messaging tools lose people after the initial enthusiasm
Franz Messenger
@ansari_adin Really fair question, and I won't pretend mobile isn't a gap, it is. But I'd frame it a bit differently.
The core problem hasn't changed in 10 years, even if the players have. It's professionals at their computer drowning in messaging and productivity apps that were meant to make work easier and instead became the main source of distraction. That context-switching tax is real, and it's worst exactly where you do your focused work: at your desk. That's the problem Franz exists to solve, and it's a desktop one.
Mobile is a genuinely different problem. On your phone you're already in a one-thing-at-a-time context, so the "everything in one window" value mostly falls away. The pain we're solving barely exists there. So for us, not being on mobile isn't the same churn trap it was for the broader "unify everything" tools. We're not trying to be the everything-app on your phone. We're trying to give professionals their focus back while they actually work. That focus is deliberate, not an oversight.
I am using Franz on my Apple Mac because there still is no app for Whatsapp for Mac. I've tried many other alternative apps but Franz beats all of them! I am a happy user. Since I am a student the price of 3 Euro per month is not too much but next to all of my other expenses, it still has to wait. Unfortunately.
Franz Messenger
@gruttepier_rw Thanks Ruurd, really glad Franz beats the alternatives for you! One thing though: if WhatsApp is your main use, the free tier covers up to 3 services, so you can keep using it for free, no rush to upgrade. And if you ever do want the paid features down the line, there's a launch code TENYEARSPH25 for 25% off through July 15, which might help on a student budget.
The "catch me up" feature would probably be my most-used feature. After being offline for a few days, digging through hundreds of unread messages spread across all those apps is brutal. Congrats on the launch!
Franz Messenger
@jared_salois Thanks Jared! It's part of my morning ritual now, first thing I do every day. The part people don't expect is that with Franz Mail it covers your email across multiple accounts too, so you get one summary instead of going app by app. And it all runs locally, so none of it leaves your machine.
The on-device AI plus optional EU-hosted cloud is a smart split — when does the AI actually leave the device? If I record a voice note, is it transcribed locally or sent to Franz's servers before the summary comes back?
Franz Messenger
@sounak_bhattacharya thanks! Transcription is happening exclusively on your device using whisper.
really cool ! saving a lot of time to overview all acounts, please add signal !
Franz Messenger
@benjamin_nid with Franz 6, Signal is onboard 😉