As well as one-on-one and group/topic chat, it also featured cloud-based file storage, video calling, searchable message-history and inline-image viewing.

The software was available to download onto computers running Windows, Mac or Linux, as well as Android and iOS smartphones and tablets.

[1][2] Since 2014, HipChat used a freemium model, as much of the service was free with some additional features requiring organizations to pay per month.

[5][6] HipChat was founded by Chris Rivers, Garret Heaton, and Pete Curley, who studied together at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and also created HipCal and Plaxo Pulse.

On July 26, 2018, Atlassian announced that HipChat and Stride would be discontinued February 15, 2019, and that it had reached a deal to sell their intellectual property to Slack.

[3][28] A guest access mode allowed users outside of the organization to join a group chat via a shareable URL.

[35] Administrators were able to access 1-to-1 chat histories if the customer's company policies permitted viewing of employee communications.