Getting started

The easiest way to join the XMPP network is to install Quicksy from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. It uses your phone number for registration, contact discovery, and password recovery. The Quicksy account works like any XMPP account and can be used from any XMPP client.

I recommend Quicksy to the majority of people who

• don't want to spend time selecting a server,
• don't use a password manager, ¹¹ For some reason, most public XMPP servers don't provide any kind of account recovery. The upside is that you don't even need to provide an email address to register. The downside is that people who don't use password managers are quite likely to get locked out of their account. and
• don't mind using their phone number to register.

If that's you - install Quicksy, and skip ahead to check out some more clients to use your Quicksy account with.

If that's not you, you need to select a server, make an account, and install a client. ²² Even if your account is not on Quicksy, the Quicksy website allows you to associate your account with your phone number for a fee. That makes it easier for your Quicksy contacts to discover your account.

Public server recommendations may be found at providers.xmpp.net or compliance.conversations.im/old. Some servers support registering from the client (called In-Band Registration - IBR), others require you to register on their website to prevent spam.

If you're interested in self-hosting a private server, Snikket aims to make it really simple. It also rebrands popular XMPP servers and clients to provide an experience similar to centralized services. ³³ Users don't install app Foo on Android and app Bar on iOS, and you don't need to explain that all the apps and services work together…everything is just "Snikket".

Snikket and conversations.im also offer paid hosting.

You can use migrate.modernxmpp.org to migrate accounts. ⁴⁴ I've never tried it, so do let me know of your experience with it.

For clients, we recommend…

1. On mobile devices
   • Monocles Chat or Cheogram ⁵⁵ Monocles Chat and Cheogram are both forks of Conversations. Cheogram has some additional features. Monocles Chat has even more, and takes many cues from WhatsApp. for modern Android devices
   • Yaxim or Bruno for old/low-end Android devices
   • Monal or Siskin for iOS
   • Convo for KaiOS/JioPhone
2. On the desktop
   1. Monal for Mac
   2. Gajim for Windows
   3. Gajim for GNU/Linux ⁶⁶ Dino is another option for GNU/Linux, but it's in pretty early stages and has many issues. It's also the only XMPP client which supports group AV calls at the moment.
   4. Poezio or Profanity for the terminal
3. Movim (social-network-like) and Converse.js in the browser ⁷⁷ Prose (similar to Slack or Discord) is very new and incomplete, but worth keeping an eye on.

More clients can be found at xmpp.org/software. There's an excellent table comparing clients at apps.xmpp24.de/en.

Avoid clients with poor XMPP support, such as Pidgin and Thunderbird.

You can join the JoinJabber General Chat to ask any XMPP questions you may have.