# List of FOSS chat systems
<sup>2021-09-13</sup>

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**][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**][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**][revolt]: A Discord clone: the UI/UX is a direct copy of what
  is present in Discord.
  * Features: voice chat

* [**XMPP**][xmpp]: An extensible messenger protocol.
  * Features: federation, E2EE, extensibility

[matrix]: https://matrix.org/
[jami]: https://jami.net/
[revolt]: https://revolt.chat/
[xmpp]: https://xmpp.org/