Modern messaging: Running your own XMPP server

Post by dingnuts » Mon, Oct 06, 2025, 6:38 PM UTC

SJC_Hacker wrote: post #99

pkulak wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> designed a terrible protocol Have you looked at the protocol? Have you built things in both? I have, and I think the Matrix protocol is pretty good. The goals are different. It's not a send once and forget kind of thing, like XMPP, Signal and email. It's about keeping your chats synced on your server, and with any other server you happen to be federating with. It's Discord or Slack, except federated. That's not eas…

> It's not a send once and forget kind of thing, like XMPP, Signal and email. It's about keeping your chats synced on your server, and with any other server you happen to be federating with. It's Discord or Slack, except federated. That's not easy, and it's not simple, but it has huge advantages too. And huge disadvantages. I don't understand why everything has to be centralized/ routed through an intermediary. Well…

Post by dtj1123 » Mon, Oct 06, 2025, 6:40 PM UTC

zaik wrote: post #42

dtj1123 wrote: post #30

Although material like this is extremely important, instructions like 'Fill in the IPv6 addresses accordingly.' are a roadblock to anyone who isn't particularly knowledgeable about networking. You could argue that those people should go away and learn, but not everyone has the time or frankly the ability to do so.

Take a look at https://snikket.org .

Post by morshu9001 » Mon, Oct 06, 2025, 6:57 PM UTC

bogwog wrote: post #20

pkulak wrote: post #14

Last time I tried this I couldn’t even find an iOS client that supported reactions. Hate on the complexity of Matrix all you like, but at least when you ask your family to use it, they get a modern experience and don’t feel like they’re giving up everything vs every other messenger they are used to.

I recently tried to move people over, and the iOS situation is bleak. It seems like notifications don't work at all in any app, which is a big problem for chat. Also, one of them (I think Siskin?) doesn't display sender name/avatar in group chats, so you can't tell who sent what. There's also some weird behavior with how E2EE works, which is causing me problems in group chats. Initially it worked, but now people are…

Post by morshu9001 » Mon, Oct 06, 2025, 7:00 PM UTC

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #78

neilalexander wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There isn't a single XMPP client for iOS that properly follows the iOS HIG and isn't ugly or unusable. There are very few clients that are even fully featured. The XMPP landscape on macOS is even more bleak.

Isn’t this true of most open source software in iOS? The intersection of developers who want to develop on and for a proprietary walled platform and also want to work on open source clients for open standard, descentralised protocol must be pretty small.

Post by morshu9001 » Mon, Oct 06, 2025, 7:02 PM UTC

dingnuts wrote: post #44

pkulak wrote: post #14

Last time I tried this I couldn’t even find an iOS client that supported reactions. Hate on the complexity of Matrix all you like, but at least when you ask your family to use it, they get a modern experience and don’t feel like they’re giving up everything vs every other messenger they are used to.

when my family used matrix for a couple years the e2ee features would randomly fail to decrypt history and would present my non technical family with that "match these emojis to unlock your account" screen all the time. between that and the unwanted features (federation, spaces) that aren't useful in a texting context, no way to search message logs, and a server to maintain. ... I went back to RCS