Tox

The great thing about Instant Messaging (IM) tools is that they allow you to stay in touch with friends, family members, and so on. The not-so-great thing about IM tools is that you never know who is listening in, you never know who is snooping on you. Tox is based on the premise that you should be able to use IM software safe in the knowledge that no one is snooping on you. It is a free IM client that takes privacy seriously.

Tox is available for Windows, for Mac OS X, and for Linux. No matter if you have a PC, a Mac, or a Linux machine, you can use Tox to securely and conveniently communicate with others.

Tox has a good looking and easy to figure out interface. Down in the bottom left hand corner, you will find the following 4 buttons:
Add Friends – use this button to add people to your list of friends.
Group Chat – use this button to communicate with a group of friends.
Switch Profile – this one is self-explanatory.
User Settings – view your Tox name and status message, view your Tox ID, access several settings that dictate how Tox works.

Tox offers the same kind of functionality you would expect from other IM clients: send messages to your friends, make audio calls to speak to your friends, make video calls to speak and see your friends. The awesome thing about Tox is that it takes your privacy seriously – consequently, all your messages are encrypted, all your audio calls are encrypted, and all your video calls are encrypted as well.

By using leading-class encryption, Tox makes sure nobody can snoop on you. You can socialize with your friends securely, conveniently, and for free!