Purpose
Franz is a desktop communication aggregation tool for people who need to frequently switch between client chats, team chats, email follow-ups, and private conversations throughout the day, such as recruiting consultants, consulting consultants, founders, and operations staff. It brings messaging apps, email, and Signal together into one desktop workspace, reducing information missed due to switching back and forth between multiple apps.
Main capabilities
- Unified cross-channel view: Supports more than 75 services, including WhatsApp, Slack, Gmail, Signal, Discord, and Telegram. Each service runs in its own separate container, and provides unified notifications and unread badges across all services. Any website can also be added as a custom service.
- Magic Bar: Behind a single shortcut, it integrates four types of actions: "find, go, do, ask," so you can find the right message, go directly to the work you need, perform supported actions, or ask the Franz assistant for help.
- Email handling: Provides a priority inbox and sender intelligence to help handle formal handoffs, approvals, and follow-ups, and supports local search that understands the work content.
- Native Signal: Signal is built in as a native sub-app rather than a web wrapper, supporting voice message transcription, thread summaries, and action item extraction, keeping sensitive conversations in the same workflow.
- Voice dictation: Hold a key to speak, and when you release it, the text lands where you are writing. Recognition runs locally on Mac and is not sent externally. Requires macOS 26 or later and an Apple Silicon Mac, and is included in Franz Pro.
- Calendar integration: Brings Google, Microsoft, and Apple calendars together in one view, displayed side by side with messages and email.
- Workspaces and side-by-side view: Services can be grouped by mode, team, or priority, letting Franz reorganize the entire setup around the current focus; two services can also be displayed side by side in one tab, making it easy to compare threads and reply across tools.
- Multiple accounts and tasks: Separate accounts for team, client, and personal use can run at the same time without repeatedly logging in and out; the built-in task manager can turn messages into tasks, keeping follow-ups, deadlines, and next steps visible.
- Calls and screen sharing: You can join calls and share your screen directly within Franz.
- AI options: You can choose local AI, Franz Cloud, or use your own API kHey, trade-offs among speed, privacy, and cost are yours to make.
Privacy by design
Franz is built in the EU. Privacy Shield blocks trackers and fingerprinting in the services used; Franz Mail neutralizes invisible email pixels before they can call back; private insights stay on the device and user data is not sold; passwords, tokens, and credentials are stored encrypted in the operating system keychain. When Cloud AI is used, processing takes place in the EU with zero data retention, nothing is stored or used for training. Anonymous product event statistics are limited to a small number of events (app launch, adding the first service, clicking upgrade, first use of AI, etc.), and crash capture is also on Franz's own servers in the EU, can be turned off with one click in settings, and does not involve ad networks or data brokers.
Platforms and how to use it
Franz is available for Mac (Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows, and the free plan can also be used on multiple computers; after signing in, services, workspaces, and settings sync across desktop devices. Each license corresponds to one person and can be used on their personal devices, but multiple people sharing one account or sign-in is not allowed. Team members can each hold a license, or use Franz for Teams with a single administrator handling billing.
Plans and limits
- Free: up to 3 services, 1 workspace, Basic AI runs on the device; free users may encounter a brief loading pause once per hour.
- Pro: unlimited services and workspaces, plain text snippets, Smart Translate, Privacy Shield, app lock, and 1Password autofill and dictation on supported platforms; AI runs on the model configured by the user (their own provider or local machine), with fees charged by the provider.
- Max: includes all Pro features, plus smart snippets that can populate people, topics, and dates from conversations, sender intelligence, and 5 million tokens per month of Franz Cloud AI, with processing in the EU and zero data retention; you can also use your own model.
- Lifetime: one-time payment, includes all messaging services, all workspaces, and future updates, running on models the user supports themselves (including local execution); optional Franz Cloud AI is $4 per month. The pricing page shows Pro at about $5 per month (saving $12), Max at about $10 per month (saving $24), and Lifetime returns to $239 after the launch period ends; prices shown exclude tax, and national VAT may apply at checkout. A reminder email is sent before renewal.
Use cases and limitations
Suitable for individual workers who need to switch frequently among customer chats, team chats, email handoffs, and privacy-sensitive conversations. WhatsApp runs as a webview, while Signal is a built-in native desktop client, and both support full AI features such as conversation summaries, voice message transcription, action items, group intelligence, and smart replies. User feedback mentions that Google Calendar sometimes has minor issues, and official materials do not provide more detailed fix notes. Some features (such as voice dictation) have clear system version and hardware requirements, and other details not explained in the materials are not currently provided.