We have been using HipChat for the last two years for one of our two major products at work and have very recently moved to Slack for the other. While notifications on HipChat work most of the time, they are still very patchy. I personally use the Mac client, while others in my company use the web, Windows, and Linux clients and we've all been bitten by missed notifications on applications one too many times to actually become a nuisance for us. Until the very last update to the Mac client, I became used to frequently finding the client freezing up on me. The windows clients, on the other hand, is even more infamous for this. Plus, the iOS app isn't something I really look forward to using (judging by the fact that I've had it installed on my iPhone for far longer than the Slack app, yet I leave it signed out almost completely, while I enjoy using the Slack app).

I used HipChat on Windows, Mac, and Android for 1.5 years and never experienced any of that. My team didn't, either. Those issues must have started happening after I stopped using it. Maybe Atlassian hasn't prioritized HipChat after buying it.

They certainly appear to have been working on it, judging from the updates being released. I feel they have a long way to go, though.

Sounds like HipChat has the unfortunate distinction of being the Friendster of the chat space, sometimes the gods are fickle.

My current theory is that HipChat was purchased (and marketed) to be part of the Atlassian suite. They may have believed there wasn't enough upside in a chat client to market it as a standalone product.