privsecfossJun 19, 2023

IMHO XMPP / Jabber is the best Instant Messenger (IM) protocol

https://feddit.dk/post/103685

IMHO XMPP / Jabber is the best Instant Messenger (IM) protocol - Feddit.dk

It is battle tested, standardized, widely used, have open source servers and apps, end-to-end encryption (OMEMO), self-hostable and are low on ressources and more. I use it with family and friends. Conversations and blabber.im [http://blabber.im] on android and Gajim on Linux. There’s also apps for windows and Apple. Curious if anyone here use it and why, why not?

Show threadfoucJun 20, 2023
It's trivial to self host. I'm running a server on a small VPS for the family. Best part is they don't even know they are running XMPP, just installed Conversations and that was it.
Show threadChobbesJun 24, 2023
I switched to iOS from android a while ago, but conversations was an AMAZING app and I wish there was something even half as good on iOS. That said… isn’t it the case that conversations is a paid app on Google play, and only free on fdroid? It’s totally worth the $2 or whatever it was on Google play, but I feel like it’s a hard sell for normal people who are used to free chat apps? Did you have any problems with that, or has the situation changed since I last looked?
Show threadfouc
Yes Conversations is still a paid app on Play Store. The F-Droid version also doesn't support Google cloud notifications so some message notifications will go missing occasionally. For Android there's also Quickly which is a Conversations fork and aTalk which works OK but reminds me of 90s Windows software. It's still quite usable though. Honestly Conversations is totally worth the money if only for the amount of effort gone into modernising the platform which also a testament to its extensibility.
Jun 24, 2023 at 8:17amWeb
Show threadChobbesJun 24, 2023
Oh, I totally agree that conversations is worth the $4 or whatever. I just have a hard time convincing friends to switch over to a new chat application to talk to only me when it’s not even free for them, you know? And if it’s a less technical person getting them on fdroid is a tricky proposition too. I don’t begrudge conversations for charging, but I do think it would be easier to get people on XMPP otherwise.