ChitChak

Voice-first chat

A room your friends can just be in.

Servers, channels and live audio, for a handful of people who already know each other. No feed, no algorithm, no ads — somewhere to talk, and to leave running while you do something else.

Download ChitChak Open in browser instead

Free. You will need an invite code from whoever runs your server.

Voice that stays out of the way

Join a channel and you are in the room. Push-to-talk or voice activation, per-person volume, and a level meter so you can see who is actually talking.

Small by design

Servers, channels, ranks and per-channel permissions — the parts that a group of friends actually uses, without the thousand-member machinery around them.

Yours to run

One server, one domain, one Docker stack. Accounts and messages live in your database, and the desktop app updates itself from your own machine.

Downloads

Current version —. The desktop app keeps itself up to date after the first install.

First run

The builds are not code-signed — certificates cost more per year than this project costs to run — so both operating systems will object once, in their own way. Neither warning means anything is wrong, and you should be suspicious of a download that does not tell you to expect them.

Windows

SmartScreen says “Windows protected your PC”. Click More info, then Run anyway.

macOS

Gatekeeper says “ChitChak is damaged and can’t be opened”, which is not true — it is what an unsigned app gets. Drag ChitChak to Applications, then run this once in Terminal: 

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/ChitChak.app

On first use macOS will ask for the microphone. If you share your screen it will also ask for Screen Recording, and that one only takes effect after you quit and reopen the app.