{"slug": "conversations", "name": "Conversations", "category": "communication", "category_name": "Email and chat", "description": "Open-source XMPP chat client for Android with OMEMO end-to-end encryption.", "recommenders": 10, "commenters": 13, "warners": 2, "score": 7.792, "rising": 6.02, "first": "2025-11-10", "latest": "2026-09-26", "why": "Liked as a stable, crash-free Android XMPP client that families and friend groups have used for years, and for delivering UnifiedPush notifications to other apps on Google-free phones.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 11, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 4, 4, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Reliability", "Family chat"], "caveat": "Outdated OMEMO", "short_quote": "thank you for Conversations, Daniel, it has been my go-to for years for communicating with friends and family.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://conversations.im", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Conversations"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked as a stable, crash-free Android XMPP client that families and friend groups have used for years", "cites": [{"id": 791134608, "item_id": 49445913, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49445913", "by": "account42", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Conversations doesn't crash at all for me.", "excerpt": "Conversations doesn't crash at all for me. And I moved to Conversations because I needed a client that wasn't as crashy as Xabber was for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "Android XMPP client", "switched_from": "Xabber", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence"}, {"id": 790781472, "item_id": 49423842, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49423842", "by": "4chandaily", "date": "2026-08-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use conversations literally every day, and cannot recall the last time it crashed.", "excerpt": "As a counterpoint, I use conversations literally every day, and cannot recall the last time it crashed. My partner and kids have used it for at least the last 7 or 8 years to communicate with me and each other. I don't claim there are no issues, but \"crashes often\" isn't something I would expect to hear about it. I don't find the UX to be clunky either, but I acknowledge that could just be my familiarity with the pro", "context": "uses it with partner and kids", "use_case": "XMPP chat on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence"}, {"id": 797690736, "item_id": 49855671, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49855671", "by": "4chandaily", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "thank you for Conversations, Daniel, it has been my go-to for years for communicating with friends and family.", "excerpt": "Customer support has gotten so terrible. Now that all big companies have terrible support, none of them are punished for it. You can still occasionally find people who give a shit in small business, but that is it. Google is probably one of the worst offenders of all. I don't know what the solution is, it seems like the only way to get any satisfaction on an issue at a big corp anymore is a social medial call-out lik", "context": "", "use_case": "messaging friends and family", "switched_from": "", "story": "Breaking Up with Google Play: Why Conversations Is Now Free"}, {"id": 795192881, "item_id": 49699555, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49699555", "by": "Leonard_of_Q", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We just mostly Conversations or one of its forks on Android", "excerpt": "I've been using it for years, so has my family and recently a group of some 60 friends with whom we communicated about a large party ont of my friend and me organised. I made an invitation site with an instance of converse.js at the bottom of the page, pointed at an anonymous group on my (Prosody) server. We just mostly Conversations or one of its forks on Android - no fruit phones among us - and Converse.js on web, ", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP client on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: How Do We Gain Traction?"}]}, {"text": ", and for delivering UnifiedPush notifications to other apps on Google-free phones.", "cites": [{"id": 797724176, "item_id": 49857761, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49857761", "by": "ezst", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Conversations can be configured as a UP distributor, because of how good it is at that", "excerpt": "Conversations is a XMPP client, it's essentially the same protocol that delivers reliable notifications to every Android, Nintendo switch, etc. Unless you have an Android distro that kills every background app indiscriminately, you will be fine with Conversations delivering messages and notifications to you. Interestingly, the link you posted relates to Unified Push, which is a protocol that relies on a \"distributor\"", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP messaging and push notifications", "switched_from": "", "story": "Breaking Up with Google Play: Why Conversations Is Now Free"}, {"id": 790768960, "item_id": 49423060, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49423060", "by": "inputmice", "date": "2026-08-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the XMPP client Conversations can utilize its existing, permanent XMPP connection to deliver push notifications", "excerpt": "Indeed. And on a Google-free Android phone the XMPP client Conversations can utilize its existing, permanent XMPP connection to deliver push notifications to other (mostly open-source) apps using an alternative to Google push (FCM) called UnifiedPush. There was a talk at FOSDEM about that. https://gultsch.video/w/gRGZqKKvNBvvMesyWNQzoK", "context": "Google-free Android user", "use_case": "XMPP client on de-Googled Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence"}]}, {"text": " The main caveats concern encryption: one commenter says it uses an outdated OMEMO implementation", "cites": [{"id": 763306480, "item_id": 47706655, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47706655", "by": "RandomGerm4n", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "most clients use an outdated and insecure implementation of OMEMO. This includes popular clients such as Conversations and Gajim.", "excerpt": "The problem with XMPP is that most clients use an outdated and insecure implementation of OMEMO. This includes popular clients such as Conversations and Gajim. Currently only Profanity and Kaidan use the latest version and you must always assume that the encryption has been secretly downgraded because the other person is using an insecure client. I highly recommend Soatek's blog post on this topic. https://soatok.blo", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP messaging with OMEMO", "switched_from": "", "story": "Session is shutting down in 90 days"}]}, {"text": ", and another says it won't send to a group when some members' keys are unknown.", "cites": [{"id": 795179504, "item_id": 49698719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49698719", "by": "zajio1am", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Some clients (Conversations) do not allow to send message to a group when they do not know some keys", "excerpt": "I use XMPP (with OMEMO) extensively and my main problem with it is absence of some basic key trust chains and bad handling of group chats 1) With OMEMO, each client/device of a user has its own key, but there is no trust relationship between them or some common master key. I can verify and trust counterparty key, but then counterparty adds another client/device and i have to do manual verification again. 2) Group cha", "context": "extensive XMPP user", "use_case": "XMPP group chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: How Do We Gain Traction?"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Reliability", "summary": "Long-term users report it rarely or never crashes; one switched to it from the crashier Xabber.", "quotes": [{"id": 791134608, "item_id": 49445913, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49445913", "by": "account42", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Conversations doesn't crash at all for me.", "excerpt": "Conversations doesn't crash at all for me. And I moved to Conversations because I needed a client that wasn't as crashy as Xabber was for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "Android XMPP client", "switched_from": "Xabber", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence"}, {"id": 790781472, "item_id": 49423842, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49423842", "by": "4chandaily", "date": "2026-08-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use conversations literally every day, and cannot recall the last time it crashed.", "excerpt": "As a counterpoint, I use conversations literally every day, and cannot recall the last time it crashed. My partner and kids have used it for at least the last 7 or 8 years to communicate with me and each other. I don't claim there are no issues, but \"crashes often\" isn't something I would expect to hear about it. I don't find the UX to be clunky either, but I acknowledge that could just be my familiarity with the pro", "context": "uses it with partner and kids", "use_case": "XMPP chat on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence"}, {"id": 795192881, "item_id": 49699555, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49699555", "by": "Leonard_of_Q", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We just mostly Conversations or one of its forks on Android", "excerpt": "I've been using it for years, so has my family and recently a group of some 60 friends with whom we communicated about a large party ont of my friend and me organised. I made an invitation site with an instance of converse.js at the bottom of the page, pointed at an anonymous group on my (Prosody) server. We just mostly Conversations or one of its forks on Android - no fruit phones among us - and Converse.js on web, ", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP client on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: How Do We Gain Traction?"}]}, {"label": "Family chat", "summary": "Used for years to keep in touch with partners, kids, friends and family.", "quotes": [{"id": 797690736, "item_id": 49855671, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49855671", "by": "4chandaily", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "thank you for Conversations, Daniel, it has been my go-to for years for communicating with friends and family.", "excerpt": "Customer support has gotten so terrible. Now that all big companies have terrible support, none of them are punished for it. You can still occasionally find people who give a shit in small business, but that is it. Google is probably one of the worst offenders of all. I don't know what the solution is, it seems like the only way to get any satisfaction on an issue at a big corp anymore is a social medial call-out lik", "context": "", "use_case": "messaging friends and family", "switched_from": "", "story": "Breaking Up with Google Play: Why Conversations Is Now Free"}, {"id": 790781472, "item_id": 49423842, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49423842", "by": "4chandaily", "date": "2026-08-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use conversations literally every day, and cannot recall the last time it crashed.", "excerpt": "As a counterpoint, I use conversations literally every day, and cannot recall the last time it crashed. My partner and kids have used it for at least the last 7 or 8 years to communicate with me and each other. I don't claim there are no issues, but \"crashes often\" isn't something I would expect to hear about it. I don't find the UX to be clunky either, but I acknowledge that could just be my familiarity with the pro", "context": "uses it with partner and kids", "use_case": "XMPP chat on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence"}, {"id": 795192881, "item_id": 49699555, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49699555", "by": "Leonard_of_Q", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We just mostly Conversations or one of its forks on Android", "excerpt": "I've been using it for years, so has my family and recently a group of some 60 friends with whom we communicated about a large party ont of my friend and me organised. I made an invitation site with an instance of converse.js at the bottom of the page, pointed at an anonymous group on my (Prosody) server. We just mostly Conversations or one of its forks on Android - no fruit phones among us - and Converse.js on web, ", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP client on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: How Do We Gain Traction?"}]}, {"label": "Self-hosting fit", "summary": "Pairs with self-hosted servers like Prosody and web clients in an all-free-software setup.", "quotes": [{"id": 781422241, "item_id": 48838890, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48838890", "by": "hagbard_c", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "clients using only free software - prosody for the server, Conversations/dino/gajim/converse.js for the clients", "excerpt": "They won't scan my messages since I run my own XMPP server and clients using only free software - prosody for the server, Conversations/dino/gajim/converse.js for the clients. OMEMO (the encryption scheme used by 'modern' XMPP systems) uses the same double-ratchet encryption as Signal without the dependency on a central Signal server. Prosody can run on just about anything and is mostly maintenance-free, give it a tr", "context": "runs own XMPP server", "use_case": "XMPP client", "switched_from": "", "story": "EU now one step away from reviving private message scanning rules"}, {"id": 791659184, "item_id": 49478699, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49478699", "by": "nik_ca", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use 'Conversations' (from F-Droid) on my Android", "excerpt": "I use 'Conversations' (from F-Droid) on my Android and self-hosted 'XMPP Web' on my PC https://github.com/nioc/xmpp-web This combination covers 99% of my needs.", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP client on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence"}, {"id": 795192881, "item_id": 49699555, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49699555", "by": "Leonard_of_Q", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We just mostly Conversations or one of its forks on Android", "excerpt": "I've been using it for years, so has my family and recently a group of some 60 friends with whom we communicated about a large party ont of my friend and me organised. I made an invitation site with an instance of converse.js at the bottom of the page, pointed at an anonymous group on my (Prosody) server. We just mostly Conversations or one of its forks on Android - no fruit phones among us - and Converse.js on web, ", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP client on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: How Do We Gain Traction?"}]}, {"label": "Push notifications", "summary": "Can act as a UnifiedPush distributor, reusing its XMPP connection to deliver notifications for other apps.", "quotes": [{"id": 797724176, "item_id": 49857761, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49857761", "by": "ezst", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Conversations can be configured as a UP distributor, because of how good it is at that", "excerpt": "Conversations is a XMPP client, it's essentially the same protocol that delivers reliable notifications to every Android, Nintendo switch, etc. Unless you have an Android distro that kills every background app indiscriminately, you will be fine with Conversations delivering messages and notifications to you. Interestingly, the link you posted relates to Unified Push, which is a protocol that relies on a \"distributor\"", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP messaging and push notifications", "switched_from": "", "story": "Breaking Up with Google Play: Why Conversations Is Now Free"}, {"id": 790768960, "item_id": 49423060, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49423060", "by": "inputmice", "date": "2026-08-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the XMPP client Conversations can utilize its existing, permanent XMPP connection to deliver push notifications", "excerpt": "Indeed. And on a Google-free Android phone the XMPP client Conversations can utilize its existing, permanent XMPP connection to deliver push notifications to other (mostly open-source) apps using an alternative to Google push (FCM) called UnifiedPush. There was a talk at FOSDEM about that. https://gultsch.video/w/gRGZqKKvNBvvMesyWNQzoK", "context": "Google-free Android user", "use_case": "XMPP client on de-Googled Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence"}]}, {"label": "Android client", "summary": "Called an amazing Android client that supports modern features such as audio and video calls.", "quotes": [{"id": 754547954, "item_id": 47159247, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47159247", "by": "wahern", "date": "2026-02-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Conversations is a really amazing Android client.", "excerpt": "Several years ago I put up an XMPP server (Prosody) to chat with some friends, and it's still going strong. Years ago we used to have a mailing-list to keep in touch, but that eventually went quiet. I had run an XMPP server ~10 years ago (ejabberd), but that was before mobile chat utterly displaced everything else, it never took hold among my friends, and I stopped using it when Google Talk stopped federating, cuttin", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP Android client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who Is Using XMPP?"}, {"id": 734081091, "item_id": 45880068, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45880068", "by": "ekjhgkejhgk", "date": "2025-11-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Dino on Debian and Conversations on Android.", "excerpt": "On topic, collaborative docs with end to end encryption https://cryptpad.fr/ I use the Kanban app, it's so snappy. In comparison Trello is a bloated PoS. Also on topic, the XMPP protocl is federated and supports E2E encryption via OMEMO aka \"the signal protocol\". Go create an account and get your friends into it. I use Dino on Debian and Conversations on Android. These two clients support all the \"modern\" features th", "context": "Android user", "use_case": "XMPP client on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "How cops can get your private online data"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Outdated OMEMO", "summary": "One commenter says it uses an outdated, insecure OMEMO version, unlike Profanity and Kaidan.", "quotes": [{"id": 763306480, "item_id": 47706655, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47706655", "by": "RandomGerm4n", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "most clients use an outdated and insecure implementation of OMEMO. This includes popular clients such as Conversations and Gajim.", "excerpt": "The problem with XMPP is that most clients use an outdated and insecure implementation of OMEMO. This includes popular clients such as Conversations and Gajim. Currently only Profanity and Kaidan use the latest version and you must always assume that the encryption has been secretly downgraded because the other person is using an insecure client. I highly recommend Soatek's blog post on this topic. https://soatok.blo", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP messaging with OMEMO", "switched_from": "", "story": "Session is shutting down in 90 days"}]}, {"label": "Group encryption", "summary": "It refuses to send to a group when some members' keys are unknown, and OMEMO group chats scale poorly.", "quotes": [{"id": 795179504, "item_id": 49698719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49698719", "by": "zajio1am", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Some clients (Conversations) do not allow to send message to a group when they do not know some keys", "excerpt": "I use XMPP (with OMEMO) extensively and my main problem with it is absence of some basic key trust chains and bad handling of group chats 1) With OMEMO, each client/device of a user has its own key, but there is no trust relationship between them or some common master key. I can verify and trust counterparty key, but then counterparty adds another client/device and i have to do manual verification again. 2) Group cha", "context": "extensive XMPP user", "use_case": "XMPP group chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: How Do We Gain Traction?"}]}, {"label": "Agent use", "summary": "One commenter using XMPP for software agents rated it only 'okay' and needed custom modifications.", "quotes": [{"id": 790834082, "item_id": 49427130, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49427130", "by": "pavo-etc", "date": "2026-08-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Conversations, okay", "excerpt": "I have recently picked up XMPP as my agent communication layer, and its worked great. Each pi agent is given an account and wrapped in an XMPP client[0] that lets it speak to me and other agents when needed. This has worked well since I can spin up new accounts on demand and I can use existing server software (ejabberd, perfect) and clients (Fluux, great; Conversations, okay). I've had to make a few custom modificati", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence"}]}], "who": [{"by": "4chandaily", "context": "uses it with partner and kids", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49423842", "date": "2026-08-24"}, {"by": "inputmice", "context": "Google-free Android user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49423060", "date": "2026-08-24"}, {"by": "hagbard_c", "context": "runs own XMPP server", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48838890", "date": "2026-07-08"}, {"by": "ekjhgkejhgk", "context": "Android user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45880068", "date": "2025-11-10"}], "tags": ["for Android users", "for self-hosted XMPP", "for family chat", "for Google-free Android"], "use_cases": ["xmpp client on android", "xmpp client", "xmpp messaging and push notifications", "messaging friends and family", "xmpp group chat", "messaging"], "compared": [{"slug": "gajim", "name": "Gajim", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "prosody", "name": "Prosody", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "ejabberd", "name": "ejabberd", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "converse-js", "name": "Converse.js", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "dino", "name": "Dino", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49421536", "title": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49855315", "title": "Breaking Up with Google Play: Why Conversations Is Now Free", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49697643", "title": "Jabber/XMPP: How Do We Gain Traction?", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49590512", "title": "GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48834296", "title": "EU now one step away from reviving private message scanning rules", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47703065", "title": "Session is shutting down in 90 days", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"warn": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 4, "warn": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 797724176, "item_id": 49857761, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49857761", "by": "ezst", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Conversations can be configured as a UP distributor, because of how good it is at that", "excerpt": "Conversations is a XMPP client, it's essentially the same protocol that delivers reliable notifications to every Android, Nintendo switch, etc. Unless you have an Android distro that kills every background app indiscriminately, you will be fine with Conversations delivering messages and notifications to you. Interestingly, the link you posted relates to Unified Push, which is a protocol that relies on a \"distributor\"", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP messaging and push notifications", "switched_from": "", "story": "Breaking Up with Google Play: Why Conversations Is Now Free"}, {"id": 797690736, "item_id": 49855671, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49855671", "by": "4chandaily", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "thank you for Conversations, Daniel, it has been my go-to for years for communicating with friends and family.", "excerpt": "Customer support has gotten so terrible. Now that all big companies have terrible support, none of them are punished for it. You can still occasionally find people who give a shit in small business, but that is it. Google is probably one of the worst offenders of all. I don't know what the solution is, it seems like the only way to get any satisfaction on an issue at a big corp anymore is a social medial call-out lik", "context": "", "use_case": "messaging friends and family", "switched_from": "", "story": "Breaking Up with Google Play: Why Conversations Is Now Free"}, {"id": 795192881, "item_id": 49699555, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49699555", "by": "Leonard_of_Q", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We just mostly Conversations or one of its forks on Android", "excerpt": "I've been using it for years, so has my family and recently a group of some 60 friends with whom we communicated about a large party ont of my friend and me organised. I made an invitation site with an instance of converse.js at the bottom of the page, pointed at an anonymous group on my (Prosody) server. We just mostly Conversations or one of its forks on Android - no fruit phones among us - and Converse.js on web, ", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP client on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: How Do We Gain Traction?"}, {"id": 795179504, "item_id": 49698719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49698719", "by": "zajio1am", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Some clients (Conversations) do not allow to send message to a group when they do not know some keys", "excerpt": "I use XMPP (with OMEMO) extensively and my main problem with it is absence of some basic key trust chains and bad handling of group chats 1) With OMEMO, each client/device of a user has its own key, but there is no trust relationship between them or some common master key. I can verify and trust counterparty key, but then counterparty adds another client/device and i have to do manual verification again. 2) Group cha", "context": "extensive XMPP user", "use_case": "XMPP group chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: How Do We Gain Traction?"}, {"id": 793602225, "item_id": 49600139, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49600139", "by": "NewJazz", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you should take a look at e.g. Cheogram, Conversations, and Element and consider ways to enhance integration", "excerpt": "Yes I understand your point re: interoperability, and I think you've made a convincing case for RCS. I think in the short term, you should take a look at e.g. Cheogram, Conversations, and Element and consider ways to enhance integration. Address book integration, automatically extending contact do not disturb exceptions, and maybe even dialer integration. In the long term, it would be best to try to guage antitrust r", "context": "", "use_case": "messaging", "switched_from": "", "story": "GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard"}, {"id": 791659184, "item_id": 49478699, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49478699", "by": "nik_ca", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use 'Conversations' (from F-Droid) on my Android", "excerpt": "I use 'Conversations' (from F-Droid) on my Android and self-hosted 'XMPP Web' on my PC https://github.com/nioc/xmpp-web This combination covers 99% of my needs.", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP client on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence"}, {"id": 791134608, "item_id": 49445913, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49445913", "by": "account42", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Conversations doesn't crash at all for me.", "excerpt": "Conversations doesn't crash at all for me. And I moved to Conversations because I needed a client that wasn't as crashy as Xabber was for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "Android XMPP client", "switched_from": "Xabber", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence"}, {"id": 790834082, "item_id": 49427130, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49427130", "by": "pavo-etc", "date": "2026-08-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Conversations, okay", "excerpt": "I have recently picked up XMPP as my agent communication layer, and its worked great. Each pi agent is given an account and wrapped in an XMPP client[0] that lets it speak to me and other agents when needed. This has worked well since I can spin up new accounts on demand and I can use existing server software (ejabberd, perfect) and clients (Fluux, great; Conversations, okay). I've had to make a few custom modificati", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence"}, {"id": 790781472, "item_id": 49423842, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49423842", "by": "4chandaily", "date": "2026-08-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use conversations literally every day, and cannot recall the last time it crashed.", "excerpt": "As a counterpoint, I use conversations literally every day, and cannot recall the last time it crashed. My partner and kids have used it for at least the last 7 or 8 years to communicate with me and each other. I don't claim there are no issues, but \"crashes often\" isn't something I would expect to hear about it. I don't find the UX to be clunky either, but I acknowledge that could just be my familiarity with the pro", "context": "uses it with partner and kids", "use_case": "XMPP chat on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence"}, {"id": 790768960, "item_id": 49423060, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49423060", "by": "inputmice", "date": "2026-08-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the XMPP client Conversations can utilize its existing, permanent XMPP connection to deliver push notifications", "excerpt": "Indeed. And on a Google-free Android phone the XMPP client Conversations can utilize its existing, permanent XMPP connection to deliver push notifications to other (mostly open-source) apps using an alternative to Google push (FCM) called UnifiedPush. There was a talk at FOSDEM about that. https://gultsch.video/w/gRGZqKKvNBvvMesyWNQzoK", "context": "Google-free Android user", "use_case": "XMPP client on de-Googled Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence"}, {"id": 781422241, "item_id": 48838890, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48838890", "by": "hagbard_c", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "clients using only free software - prosody for the server, Conversations/dino/gajim/converse.js for the clients", "excerpt": "They won't scan my messages since I run my own XMPP server and clients using only free software - prosody for the server, Conversations/dino/gajim/converse.js for the clients. OMEMO (the encryption scheme used by 'modern' XMPP systems) uses the same double-ratchet encryption as Signal without the dependency on a central Signal server. Prosody can run on just about anything and is mostly maintenance-free, give it a tr", "context": "runs own XMPP server", "use_case": "XMPP client", "switched_from": "", "story": "EU now one step away from reviving private message scanning rules"}, {"id": 763306480, "item_id": 47706655, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47706655", "by": "RandomGerm4n", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "most clients use an outdated and insecure implementation of OMEMO. This includes popular clients such as Conversations and Gajim.", "excerpt": "The problem with XMPP is that most clients use an outdated and insecure implementation of OMEMO. This includes popular clients such as Conversations and Gajim. Currently only Profanity and Kaidan use the latest version and you must always assume that the encryption has been secretly downgraded because the other person is using an insecure client. I highly recommend Soatek's blog post on this topic. https://soatok.blo", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP messaging with OMEMO", "switched_from": "", "story": "Session is shutting down in 90 days"}, {"id": 754547954, "item_id": 47159247, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47159247", "by": "wahern", "date": "2026-02-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Conversations is a really amazing Android client.", "excerpt": "Several years ago I put up an XMPP server (Prosody) to chat with some friends, and it's still going strong. Years ago we used to have a mailing-list to keep in touch, but that eventually went quiet. I had run an XMPP server ~10 years ago (ejabberd), but that was before mobile chat utterly displaced everything else, it never took hold among my friends, and I stopped using it when Google Talk stopped federating, cuttin", "context": "", "use_case": "XMPP Android client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who Is Using XMPP?"}, {"id": 734081091, "item_id": 45880068, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45880068", "by": "ekjhgkejhgk", "date": "2025-11-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Dino on Debian and Conversations on Android.", "excerpt": "On topic, collaborative docs with end to end encryption https://cryptpad.fr/ I use the Kanban app, it's so snappy. In comparison Trello is a bloated PoS. Also on topic, the XMPP protocl is federated and supports E2E encryption via OMEMO aka \"the signal protocol\". Go create an account and get your friends into it. I use Dino on Debian and Conversations on Android. These two clients support all the \"modern\" features th", "context": "Android user", "use_case": "XMPP client on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "How cops can get your private online data"}]}