Caprine review: Customize Facebook Messenger on Windows 10

Facebook Messenger is one of the world's nearly pop messaging services, and there are a number of means to use it on Windows 10. You tin can use Facebook's own first-party Messenger, message from your web browser, or utilise a number of messaging clients such every bit Messenger 10.

Caprine is another Windows customer for Facebook Messenger. Information technology's centered effectually a customizable interface and ability-user features such equally keyboard shortcuts. It's an attractive alternative and is a proficient option for anyone who is on Facebook regularly.

Caprine is available for free on Windows x. It's a fork of an app bachelor on GitHub, just the fork was done with the original programmer's permission, according to Caprine's description.

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Making Caprene your own on Windows

Caprine takes the general Facebook Messenger interface that you lot're used to and gives it a number of customization options. Yous can toggle between calorie-free and dark modes, hibernate elements of the interface, such as final seen indicators, and toggle the sidebar. The last of those is especially useful because Caprine scales well when resized, but if y'all make Carpine as narrow as possible, the sidebar takes up too much room. Existence able to turn that on or off with a keyboard shortcut is great and lets yous either switch between messaging different people quickly or fit the app into a small window. Yous tin besides hide the top card, which is the least attractive aspect of the app and looks like information technology'south from Windows 95.

I don't love the bluish-based nighttime theme that Caprine offers, but that's more of a personal sense of taste. What I practice like is that information technology has options. If you're going to switch away from apps or websites that already work, there needs to exist an incentive. Looks are a big factor considering messaging apps require your eyeballs to exist on the screen quite a bit.

Caprene brings the power

The principal differentiator between Caprine and most other ways to use Facebook Messenger are the keyboard shortcuts. Most of the interface changes mentioned above tin can be switched on or off with a combination of keys, but you lot tin also interact with Caprine using keyboard shortcuts. There aren't a lot of ability features that could work with Facebook Messenger, but Caprine brings as many as it tin to the table.

A co ofuple common controls are that you can use Command + G to insert a GIF or Control + E to place an emoji into a message. In that location are a number of shortcuts that permit you keep your hands on the keyboard for more of your messaging sessions. The downside is that these aren't customizable, every bit far equally I can tell. That means if your system or some other app already uses a combination of keys, you'll run into issues.

Caprene is a RAM eater

Caprine looks nice and has some solid features, merely it takes upward a lot of RAM when idle. In my testing, Caprine took up around 176MB when idle compared to Messenger's 3MB to 4MB. When actually running, I found that Caprine used less RAM than Messenger past a little bit.

Caprine is powered past the Electron framework and with that comes downsides when it comes to RAM. If you're going to run Caprine perpetually in the groundwork, be gear up to requite up some infinite.

Is Caprene worth the switch?

Caprine offers a customizable interface with light and nighttime themes, the option to toggle elements of the interface on and off, keyboard shortcuts, and more than. These are excellent features and I'm always a fan of more options. But customizing Facebook Messenger might non be as of import to many as customizing an app like Slack, which many people look at all 24-hour interval.

If you're on Facebook Messenger a lot, I recommend giving Caprine a endeavor. Information technology's more just a web wrapper and I think options are always a positive.

Even if yous are more than of a casual Facebook Messenger user, there'due south no reason not to requite information technology a try. Caprine is free, easy to apply, and works well.

Some volition criticize Caprine for being Electron based, but I don't hold the hatred that many practice for Electron. Caprine ran fine on my systems, but it did take up significantly more than RAM than Facebook's commencement-party app when idle. If you're opposed to Electron or just accept a machine that doesn't accept a lot of RAM, Caprine probably isn't for you.

Pros

Customizable pattern
Keyboard shortcuts
Free

Cons

Electron-based
Eats up RAM
Doesn't have customizable shortcuts

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