Top 10 WhatsApp and Telegram alternatives for work and personal chats

WhatsApp* and Telegram are the most popular messaging apps in Russia. People use them to chat with friends, read news channels and share stories, while companies run work chats and handle employee communication there.

But WhatsApp and Telegram users are running into outages more and more often. On August 13, 2025, Roskomnadzor restricted voice calls, so now you need other apps to make calls.

We've rounded up Russian messaging apps that can replace WhatsApp and Telegram and won't get blocked. At the end of the article, you'll find a list of Russian apps with a detailed comparison. All of these alternatives are similar to WhatsApp and Telegram: you can send messages, make calls and use other chat features.

We've split all the services into two categories:

• personal messaging apps, which work best for chatting with friends, family and acquaintances
• work chat apps, which are built for communication between employees at your company or on your team

Contents

Personal messaging apps

• VK Messenger
• MAX
• TamTam

Apps for communication between employees (team chat apps)

• Pachca
• eXpress
• VK Teams (VK WorkSpace)
• Yandex Messenger (Yandex 360)
• Link Chats (MTS Link)
• Loop
• Compass
• Full comparison table of Russian messaging apps

Personal messaging apps: WhatsApp and Telegram alternatives

VK Messenger

A popular messaging app from VK. It's essentially the VKontakte social network in a separate app. It only has chats and channels, and you can sign up with just your phone number, like in WhatsApp or Telegram.

You'll most likely find lots of people you know there, since the social network has been around for a very long time.

MAX

Another messaging app from VK. Unlike the previous one, it has nothing to do with the VKontakte social network. It launched in 2025 and is being developed as Russia's national (state-backed) messaging app.

Going forward, MAX will come preinstalled on all new devices in the country and integrate with the Gosuslugi government services portal. Not all of your contacts may use it yet, but that will change soon.

TamTam

And the last VK messaging app in this section :) This one is tied to the Odnoklassniki social network and is a separate app that only has chats.

When you sign up, you'll probably find fewer people you know than in the previous apps, but it still works well for chatting and calling with family. All you need to sign up is a phone number.

Team chat apps for work: the best WhatsApp and Telegram alternatives for companies

If you're looking for a work chat app or a team chat app for your team, check out purpose-built tools. Unlike WhatsApp and Telegram, they're designed specifically for work communication, with roles, security and integrations.

What matters when choosing a secure Russian team chat app for work:

• Data is stored on servers in Russia, as required by Federal Law No. 152-FZ (Russia's personal data law)
• Two-factor authentication and message encryption
• Role-based access and employee management
• Integrations with CRMs, task managers and corporate services

Pachca

Pachca is a Russian Telegram alternative for large and midsize businesses, with AI agents and advanced integrations. Data is stored on servers in Russia, and it supports 2FA, DLP and BYOK (bring your own encryption keys) for companies with stricter data protection requirements. It's listed in the Russian Software Registry. It's built by Primavera, an independent company fully focused on the quality of its team chat app.

The service has cross-chat threads: "comments" under every message where you can bring in any employee or team to discuss a question. These comments cut down on time spent forwarding messages and keep chats easy to follow: it's clear what was discussed during the day, and nobody gets unnecessary notifications.

The app also has group tags to automatically add new employees to the right chats, vacation statuses and a chatbot builder.

Another focus is the platform for AI agents. A personal agent (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code, Codex) connects through the MCP server or the CLI: it reads chats and threads and pulls task context straight from the discussion. A team agent is set up as a bot that colleagues @mention in threads. For integrations, there's an open API with full workspace management, an SDK, webhooks and a plugin in the official n8n catalog.

Customers: Ivi, Lamoda, Burger King, Yandex Practicum, SuperJob

eXpress

A team chat app for organizations that's turning into a corporate super app: companies can build other services into it so everything lives in one window. Large customers can also get a white-label version. You can use it as a team chat app for a local network. It also supports Federation, a model that lets users communicate across companies.

Customers: Russian Railways, Rosatom, Mosvodokanal, Nornickel

VK Teams (VK WorkSpace)

A business chat app from VK. The interface resembles VK Messenger and WhatsApp. It's part of the VK WorkSpace ecosystem, which also includes Mail, Calendar, Disk and Boards.

Customers: the Ministry of Digital Development, Rosseti, SPbU, VEB.RF, RusHydro

Yandex Messenger (Yandex 360)

Yandex's work chat app, with a simple interface and standard chat features. It's part of the Yandex 360 for Business ecosystem, which also includes Mail, Tracker, Telemost, Calendar, Disk, Boards and Notes.

Customers: INK, Azbuka Vkusa, Desport, GOTEK Group, Navicon

Link Chats (MTS Link)

MTS's team chat app for companies. It launched publicly last year, so it may still lack some basic features: chat folders, adding and removing employees in bulk, a task manager, a bot builder and an open API for connecting other services. It's part of the MTS Link ecosystem, which also includes Meetings, Boards and Hardware.

Customers: Chernogolovka, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University

Loop

A work chat app built on Mattermost. Since Mattermost's code is open source and free, Loop focuses on building the missing features itself and offering them to companies. The app has advanced features and is geared toward development teams.

Customers: Mamba, Drivee, DoDo, Lingualeo

Compass

A team chat app for the office and work communication. It has all the essential features plus advanced analytics for monitoring employee activity and how quickly colleagues respond. Its source code is open and available on GitHub.

We couldn't find any public case studies or named customers. According to its website, Compass's main customers are IT teams, content agencies, product teams and law firms.

Full comparison table of Russian messaging apps

* Meta Platforms Inc. (Facebook, Instagram) declared extremist and banned in Russia.