The Portable Freeware Collection Forums

[Moderator note: this is the primary qTox program thread. View database entry]

----

qTox is an "official" Tox client which has finally reached a stable release. qTox is an alternative to Isotoxin which I have reviewed here.

qTox about:

qTox is a powerful Tox client that follows the Tox design guidelines while running on all major platforms.

qTox features:

- One to one chat with friends
- Group chats
- File transfers, with previewing of images
- Audio calls, including group calls
- Video calls
- Tox DNS and Tox URI support
- Translations in various languages
- Avatars
- Faux offline messages
- History
- Screenshots
- Emoticons
- Auto-updates on Windows and Mac, packages on Linux
- And many more options!

qTox links:
https://github.com/tux3/qTox - qTox project page
https://wiki.tox.chat/clients/qtox - qTox wiki page
https://github.com/tux3/qTox/wiki/Keyboard-shortcuts - qTox keyboard shortcuts
https://tox.chat/ - Tox web-site
https://wiki.tox.chat/clients - Tox clients
https://wiki.tox.chat/start - Tox wiki page
https://wiki.tox.chat/users/faq Tox FAQ
https://blog.tox.chat/ - Tox blog
https://www.facebook.com/toxproject - Tox at Facebook
https://twitter.com/ProjectTox - Tox at Twitter
https://www.reddit.com/r/projecttox - Tox at Reddit
http://alternativeto.net/software/tox/ - Tox at AlternativeTo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tox_%28protocol%29 - Tox at Wikipedia

qTox downloads:
https://build.tox.chat/view/qtox/job/qT ... 6_release/ - qTox portable x32 download page
https://build.tox.chat/view/qtox/job/qT ... 4_release/ - qTox portable x64 download page
https://build.tox.chat/view/qtox/job/qT ... e_release/ - qTox installer x32 download page
https://build.tox.chat/view/qtox/job/qT ... e_release/ - qTox installer x64 download page
https://wiki.tox.chat/Binaries - downloads for other Tox clients for several OS (Android, iOS, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows)

qTox direct download links:
qTox x32 Zip archive
qTox x64 Zip archive
These direct download links are for the latest stable release.

qTox screen-shots:
-1- qTox chat window: -2- qTox chat window in separate window: -3- qTox settings window: qTox portable:
Download qTox-stable_build_windows_x86_release.zip for x32 systems or qTox-stable_build_windows_x86-64_release.zip for x64 systems, unpack the archive, run qtox.exe, open Settings (the cog-wheel in qTox left panel- "Change your settings"), go to Advanced and check "Make Tox portable". qTox is not stealth- it creates an empty folder in AppData (C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\tox).

qTox license:
qTox is open-source released under GPL license and the source code can be downloaded at GitHub.

qTox note:
Compared to Isotoxin, qTox uses a bit more RAM (Isotoxin about 40 MB, qTox about 51 MB) and is not stealth but qTox (as the name implies it uses Qt) has the advantage of being cross-platform while Isotoxin runs only on Windows.

qTox reviews:
- Out in the Open: Hackers Build a Skype That’s Not Controlled by Microsoft - WIRED review
- TOX: an Encrypted Skype Replacement - Privacy Blog review
- Meet Tox, an open, privacy-focused Skype replacement - PCWorld review

@smaragdus: What prevents you from making a database entry

Impressive. It looks like they hit the 4 words necessary to make something like this work: "easy, secure Skype replacement." It's missing desktop sharing but at this point that's getting a gold coin for free and asking why it's not platinum.

That said, the critical test is always file exchange, which I'd like to test myself before celebrating some kind of big win.

@Checker
I have never added a program to the database and I am not sure I will do it right.
But sooner or later I will. Once I made the decision that the first program I would submit should be Nettalk- my all times favourite IRC client (in case someone else wouldn't do it).
About qTox- I have only 3 friends who use Tox protocol for communication (not on a regular basis- it seems they prefer Telegram while I prefer Tox) so I am not sure whether these Tox clients would be useful to anyone here.

smaragdus wrote:I have never added a program to the database and I am not sure I will do it right.

Use other database entries as reference and try your best. No one is expected to be 100% perfect at the first time. I (and a bunch of other users) will surely help you

BTW: I think this application is worth an entry.

@Checker & @webfork
Please feel free to submit to the database any program I have reviewed here in the forum.
I too think that Isotoxin, qTox and Telegram deserve to be included in the database because of their strong encryption.

webfork wrote:.. the critical test is always file exchange

Just tested with smaragdus on a cross-client test (qTox w/ Isotoxin) and it worked beautifully.

smaragdus wrote:I have never added a program to the database and I am not sure I will do it right.

Getting it started almost always helps get the ball rolling. Also, it's rare that someone posts something that I don't edit.

Regardless, I already said I'd cover this sometime soon.

webfork wrote:Regardless, I already said I'd cover this sometime soon.

Posted: qTox official entry: http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2755

@webfork
Thanks for submitting qTox- now we have our first Tox client in the database. By the way I was told that the Tox plug-in for Pidgin didn't work very well (I haven't tested it however).

Just did some testing with the qTox Mac client (the Rowen_Stipe build) -- negatively, it's crashing for us when using video calls and doesn't support drag-and-drop file transfers (have to click the paperclip icon). Otherwise it seems to work well.

Thanks for submitting qTox- now we have our first Tox client in the database.

Sure thing

By the way I was told that the Tox plug-in for Pidgin didn't work very well (I haven't tested it however).

Hopefully as the protocol matures, plugins will do like-wise. The fact that it's server-less and open is a pretty big improvement other options I've tested. IM tools are pointless if they occasionally just stop working. I know people who went back to cell phone texting rather than use IM just because it's simpler and more reliable.

Voted +5 !

@DarkShadow
Thanks.

qTox was reviewed at Softpedia and was given the rating 4.5/5 by the reviewer (Mihaela Teodorovici). However the version number is shown as 1.2.2 Alpha while to my knowledge 1.2.2 is a stable release.

qTox voice and video conference test: Win7x86 and a Mac 10.11 device.

• Audio: Excellent. Even better than some expensive commercial tools I've tested.
  Video: Untested. Mac client kept crashing.

Note that both machines were on a very fast network so this may not be an ideal test.

qTox at version 1.2.4. I have missed version 1.2.3 and I cannot find any change log. Because at GitHub the provided download links for the portable versions are not for the latest stable version but for the last successful build while at Tox.Chat only downloads for the installers are provided below I will give the direct download links again:

qTox 1.2.4 Portable x32
qTox 1.2.4 Portable x64
qTox 1.2.4 Installer x32
qTox 1.2.4 Installer x64

In contrast with the installer version of qTox, the portable version doesn't offer auto-update- it lacks qtox-updater.exe so keeping the portable version up to date is not an easy task. I cannot find qTox version history so for someone like me who has no idea of Jenkins everything seems a real mess.

qTox Portable has been reviewed at Softpedia and it got a rating of 4.5/5, however Softpedia shows a very strange version number for Portable qTox- 1.2-286-g67620f9 Alpha, while the installer version of qTox shows an entirely different version number- 1.2.3 Alpha. I suppose all this mess is due to the poor quality of Tox web-site and the Jenkins chaos I mentioned in my previous post.