List of FOSS chat systems

^2021-09-13

With corporations and governments become ever more invasive I’m looking into alternative communication channels to stay in touch with my contacts. Alas, I haven’t been able to convince any of them to switch permanently (damn you network effects!). Still, I’m using some of these alternatives as they have proven to be useful.

Below is a list of FOSS chat protocols and associated applications I’ve found. While this is by no means an exhaustive list, I believe all of them have a real potential to displace the potential of current proprietary messengers. All of the listed messengers allow you to self-host.

• Matrix: A messenger protocol that can easily interoperate with other messengers. I frequently use it to participate in IRC and Discord rooms. I also use with Facebook Messenger using a puppet bridge.
  • Features: federation, E2EE, voice calls, interoperability
• Jami: A distributed chat protocol: data does not go through a central server but is instead sent peer-to-peer.
  • Features: E2EE, voice calls, video calls
• Revolt: A Discord clone: the UI/UX is a direct copy of what is present in Discord.
  • Features: voice chat
• XMPP: An extensible messenger protocol.
  • Features: federation, E2EE, extensibility