just asking what is a good one
Matrix
but what good client that isnt designed for just businesses
I’d say Element is the one to go for. A list of clients is available here:
https://matrix.org/ecosystem/clients/Personally I like Sable, it feels closer to Discord, has call support, and “just works”
Seconding Sable.
Cinny is also still a very good option! Especially if non-techy people are gonna be using it, as its UI is more stable (as in, changes less)
Cinny is an awesome desktop client, as is Element, Fractal (GNOME, no spaces support though) and NeoChat (KDE)
For mobile, I personally prefer FluffyChat, but there’s other options too.
edit: I currently use Sable (a fork of Cinny I think), still using FluffyChat on Android.
Gomuks and Sable
For one to one chats and the occasional group chat? XMPP is pretty awesome and has lots of good clients (Conversations on Android, Monal on iDevices, Dino, Gajim, etc. on Linux)
If you want something closer to Discord and host public communities or very large chatrooms, Matrix is very good. You can self-host it with Continuwuity, and there are lots of clients too (Cinny, FluffyChat, Element, Fractal, NeoChat, etc.)
If you just need voice chat, Mumble is simple and works well.
Matrix, and I recommend selfhosting Continuwuity as it is lightweight and easy to spin up. Your other option could be XMPP with Snikket or proper Prosody.
Though do you have any particular features you wanna bring over from Facebook Messenger?
Matrix and element clients
I tried a bunch. Right now I’m running Snikket (xmpp) and it’s been very reliable.
Pidgin, maybe. I like it.
Edit: Oops, I might have misread/misunderstood what you were asking. If you’re asking about server software, I’d suggest XMPP :)
Though I know Matrix is very popular (as shown by people others suggesting it)
Man, I haven’t used pidgin in almost 20 years. Throwback, or whatever the kids say these days.
Man I remember using Pidgin for ICQ!
Are you asking just for general self-hosted messengers? Why did you mention Facebook specifically?
Because it hasn’t been mentioned:
IRC
Sometime also mentioned SimpleX, which I’m looking into myself, but have no experience currently.
I love IRC but it’s absolutely not usabale for non-tech people
There is quite a bit of friction in the setup. After that, it’s smooth.
Honestly no.
How do you join a channel? How to start private message? How to setup e2ee? How do I recieve messages when I’m offline (bouncer)? how do I send files/images/video? There’s lots of things to learn, understand and setup
Yep. That’s the friction of which I was speaking.
simplex
Fluxer (more like discord) or Matrix
Mattermost
matrix
