 | |
| Developer(s) | AVM Software |
|---|---|
| Initial release | June 1998 |
| Stable release(s) | |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www |
Paltalk is a proprietary video group chat service that enables users to communicate by video, Internet chat, or voice. [3]
| | |
| Developer(s) | AVM Software |
|---|---|
| Initial release | June 1998 |
| Stable release(s) | |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www |
Paltalk is a proprietary video group chat service that enables users to communicate by video, Internet chat, or voice. [3]
In 2007, the filmed suicide of one of the service's users was widely reported in the media. Concerns were raised over the possibility that it could inspire further suicides. [4]
Paltalk filed a series of patent lawsuits against video game developers claiming they were infringing U.S. patents 5,822,523 and 6,226,686 "Server-group messaging system for interactive applications", patents they purchased from the now-defunct company HearMe in 2002. [5] Paltalk first brought a case against Microsoft in 2006, claiming Halo and Xbox Live violated its patent rights, and later settled out of court. [6]
In 2009, Paltalk then moved on to Sony, Activision Blizzard, NCsoft, Jagex and Turbine, Inc., claiming that these companies are also violating Paltalk's patents whose damages range in the "tens of millions of dollars". [7] [8] In 2010, a US judge dismissed the lawsuit against Jagex and stated "After reviewing source code for the RuneScape video game made available by Jagex, Paltalk and Jagex agree that the RuneScape video game does not infringe the patents-in-suit." [9]
In June 2013, it was revealed that Paltalk was targeted by the National Security Agency's PRISM surveillance program. [10] [11]
In December 2014, online chat website Tinychat was acquired by Paltalk. Paltalk stated that Tinychat would remain a standalone application. [12] Tinychat allowed users to communicate via instant messaging, voice chat, and video chat, and to create their own virtual chat room on any topic. [13] Tinychat ran on HTML5 compatible browsers and standalone apps for Android or iOS. The chat rooms could contain a rolling maximum of 12 video and audio feeds. Tinychat, including all of its services, was owned by PeerStream. [14]
On November 16, 2009, Tinychat launched Tinychat.tv, which offers users the ability to live stream any video or show hosted on Tinychat. The service used Tinychat's API and provides the ability to launch a personalized page and channel for initiating multi-user shows. Tinychat announced that it would not charge for the cost of bandwidth. [15] Based upon restrictions, Tinychat.tv has been closed.[ citation needed ]
In February 2010, Tinychat launched Tinychat Next, a service similar to Chatroulette. Tinychat Next differed from Chatroulette with the addition of topic-based rooms. [16] In January 2011, Tinychat raised $1.5 million in funding. [17]
On December 16th 2024, an announcement that Tinychat had ended services and closed down appeared on the Tinychat website. The shutdown announcement page featured an advertisement for Paltalk. [18]
Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate (real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involving simple text message exchanges, modern IM applications and services tend to also feature the exchange of multimedia, emojis, file transfer, VoIP, and video chat capabilities.
RuneScape is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex, released in January 2001. RuneScape was originally a browser game built with the Java programming language; it was largely replaced by a standalone C++ client in 2016. The game has had over 300 million accounts created and was recognised by the Guinness World Records as the largest and most-updated free MMORPG.
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Camfrog is a video chat and instant messaging client that was created by Camshare in October 2003. The app allows users to contact others worldwide and find or create chat rooms to gather communities that share similar interests.
FunOrb was a casual gaming site created by Jagex. Launched on 27 February 2008, and closed on 7 August 2018, it was the company's first major release after their successful MMORPG, RuneScape. All of the games were programmed in Java.
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Chatroulette is an online chat website that pairs random users with a choice between two other users for webcam-based conversations. Visitors to the website begin an online chat with another visitor. At any point, either user may leave the current chat by initiating another random connection.
HipChat was a web service for internal private online chat and instant messaging. As well as one-on-one and group/topic chat, it also featured cloud-based file storage, video calling, searchable message-history and inline-image viewing. The software was available to download onto computers running Windows, Mac or Linux, as well as Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. Since 2014, HipChat used a freemium model, as much of the service was free with some additional features requiring organizations to pay per month. HipChat was launched in 2010 and acquired by Atlassian in 2012. In September 2017, Atlassian replaced the cloud-based HipChat with a new cloud product called Stride, with HipChat continuing on as the client-hosted HipChat Data Center.
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Voxer is a Dallas-based mobile app development company best known for its free Voxer Walkie Talkie app for smartphones.
Messenger, also known as Facebook Messenger, is an American proprietary instant messaging service developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the client application of Messenger is currently available on iOS and Android mobile platforms, Windows and macOS desktop platforms, through the Messenger.com web application, and on the standalone Facebook Portal hardware.
Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of the multimedia Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually available for only a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. The app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring users' "Stories" of 24 hours of chronological content, along with "Discover", letting brands show ad-supported short-form content. It also allows users to store photos in a password-protected area called "My Eyes Only". It has also reportedly incorporated limited use of end-to-end encryption, with plans to broaden its use in the future.
Old School RuneScape is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), developed and published by Jagex. The game was released on 16 February 2013. When Old School RuneScape launched, it began as an August 2007 version of the game RuneScape, which was highly popular prior to the launch of RuneScape 3. The game has since received engine improvements, new content, and quality of life updates largely decided by the community via in-game polls. Despite originally having a smaller development team and a slower update schedule relative to RuneScape, Old School RuneScape is now the more popular version of the game, with an all-time record of 205,521 concurrent players in November 2023. A mobile version for Android and iOS was released in October 2018.
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