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Question: self-hosted instant messanger. (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Bahnd@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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Question: What do people in this community recommend for self-hosted instant messanger projects? I host a VOIP service for my nerd herd and due to recent events i'm attempting to migrate out groups chats off of the major platforms (Discord, Google chats, Slack, Etc.) as well.

There are a few notes that were requested/requirements.

Self-hosted
Supports images
Has a decent mobile app
Encrypted communication
Expected load ~25 users.

I am doing my own digging but wanted to hear the communites opinions on some of the projects that came up in searches.

IRC/XMPP - dosent really work for the request but is a classic, so I feel had to mention it.
Rocket.Chat - seems like the best option so far, but I was having trouble finding current reviews, and its licensing is a bit much.
Matrix also is close to checking all the boxes, but it wasnt clear how it works on mobile (Element seemed like the mobile app that was recommended).
Revolt was high on the SEO results but most of the discussion around it was about drama with the maintainers (that is what prompted this post, i'm fishing for more current opinions).
Zulip seemed similar to Rocket.Chat, but more expensive if we had to get a license.

I appreciate peoples opinions and recomendations on this topic.

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[–] Black616Angel@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

We host a small Matrix-server. The server is for 4 people but barely uses the 2 cores 4GB RAM.

Storage is mostly media, but stayed under 100GB in about 3 years.

We also host a web frontend and use Schildichat as app, but Element X could be better nowadays. Both also have a desktop client.

A big plus are all the bridges. My girlfriend uses WhatsApp, no problemo, there is a bridge for that. That one club only has a signal group? Use the bridge.
One of us uses Fb-Messenger via a bridge. Telegram also works and there are lots more.

The server is also low maintenance. It's an ansible playbook, that I irregularly run.
It takes around an hour twice a year due to changes in the playbook.

Also matrix is feature rich beyond your requests. I don't know much about the others, but matrix had emoji-reactions before WhatsApp and has threads inside of chatrooms and spaces which are collections of chats for common topics.
Also polls, sharing current/live location (not bridged to WA), voice messages and stickers.

[–] sk@hub.utsukta.org 1 points 1 week ago

@Black616Angel Also for storage, you can define message retention (1 year or similar) so your storage would also not balloon over time. In my opinion chat is ephemeral in nature.

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