Getting started with XMPP/Jabber and PGP for federated, encrypted messaging

This is a short thread where I explain how I started using the XMPP protocol and PGP encryption for secure messaging. I am not a security expert, but I am a mathematician and I am confortable with the Linux command line. This guide is for people who want to use PGP for secure messaging easily. You will need to be okay with typing commands into the Linux command line in order to do this, but I will tell you exactly what to enter.

Part 1: XMPP

Mastodon is like email, but for social media. You sign up for an account with a server, and then you can talk with any other accounts that are signed up on other servers, as long as your servers are getting along. (No one wants emails from the sketchy spam server, and we want to be able to choose between Yahoo, Gmail, etc.) XMPP (a.k.a. Jabber) is the same thing for text messaging.

Just like signing up for an email/Mastodon account, you need to sign up for an account. You can find a list of servers at list.jabber.at/ and will probably at least need to provide an email addess when making an account.

Once you have made an account, you need a client. On Linux, I've been having a good time using Dino (dino.im/). You can then enter your account name and password to log into your XMPP account and start chatting! There are both public rooms and you can also message directly with your friends.

#security #PGP #XMPP #FOSS #Jabber #Dino #MonoclesChat

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Dino. Communicating happiness.

A privacy-friendly messaging app for the desktop. It uses the XMPP protocol and provides a clean UI with modern features.

^dino.im

My 10 yo nephew preferred Dino over Discord :) So, Dino it is!

He told me "It works super well! It is better than Discord!" "😍" "With Discord I had connection issues" (but I guess he was lost in the interface)

I am now tied to #xmpp, thanks @dino ;)

#dino

#XMPP enthusiasts out there: what would you say the ultimate Achilles heel of the XMPP ecosystem is, at present? Fragmentation of clients? What?

My sense is that it's this: when one goes to store an XMPP address in one's addressbook, there doesn't seem to be standard way to store an XMPP address. #Android doesn't have that as an allowable field, and #Thunderbird and #Nextcloud have an "Instant Messaging" field, where the type can be set to "XMPP". But are these two compatible with each other when trying to sync between them? Edit: Yes, but there's a catch: *the XMPP address must be prefixed with "xmpp:"*

So "user@foo.bar" is not an OK XMPP address, but "xmpp:user@foo.bar" is.

Then to make matters worse, now there's a wish to change the labeling of "XMPP Address" to "Chat ID": gultsch.social/@daniel/1140129…

It might be a long time before the address synchy-ness ever works again between Android <-> #Davx5 <-> Nextcloud <->Thunderbird

Note: Android allows a "Jabber" type for an IM address, where you *don't* prefix the address with "xmpp:".

(#DeltaChat gets to gloat hard here, as they have plain-old email addresses)

#prosody #conversations #gajim #dino #snikket #monocles #monal

Daniel Gultsch

2025-02-16 09:41:01

Absolutely nobody knows what an XMPP address is, so just go ahead and call it a:

#XMPP #Conversations_im #Jabber

I looked at the "XMPP Software Comparison" page:
xmpp.org/software/software-com…
...and put my 4 favorite #XMPP clients in there: #Conversations #Gajim #Dino and #Monal. It compares compatibility across many XEPs.

Alas, when it comes to #OMEMO, no distinction is made as to the version of OMEMO.

#Dino #StreetArt #Bratislava:

Slobodná a žiadna iná

From now on, you can message #anonymously on @wpn with a disposable account.
Sign up at `anon.woodpeckersnest.space` with #gajim or #dino. I only have #conversations on my phone and I don't think anon login is available there.. let me know if any other Android/iOS client works for you.

#xmpp

To be noted: S2S connections are denied for anon accounts, for good reason - It's not like I want my server to become a spammers' heaven.

To be noted²: I'm testing, everything might change.

#JohanaBhuiyan suggests to #autoDelete messages and I agree with her.

theguardian.com/technology/202…

While this is not a "hard" security measure and might lead to a false sense of security, it is an easy and effective method of #dataHygiene.

I wonder, if any #Jabber clients have this feature?

#Conversations by @daniel, #Dino by @dino, #Gajim by @gajim, #Monal by @Monal, #SiskinIM by @tigase, anyone?

#XMPP

Opt out: how to stop tech companies spying on your phone as Trump promises mass deportations

There are no federal privacy regulations to protect your information – here’s how you can do it yourself

^{Johana Bhuiyan (The Guardian)}

During the Berlin XMPP sprint, some XMPP developers worked on message formatting. Previously, formatting was done using simple markup (e.g. *bold*), which sometimes leads to unintended formatting and is limited in functionality. We now decided to transmit formatting information outside of the normal text, with optional fallback to markup for legacy clients. We worked on improving the specification and on support in three different clients, including @dino.

#dino #xmpp

Over the last months, we've completely redesigned and rewritten @dino 's accounts and settings dialogs. The dialogs are combined into a single one now, which is adaptive and offers additional features like an option for OMEMO by default. The rewrite also resolves a number of issues and feature requests that were raised with the old implementation. It's still work in progress and will require further polishing.

#dino #xmpp #gtk #libadwaita

@daniel @kas @mdosch

Seems not to work with #Gajim by @gajim, but with #Dino by @dino.

Dino 0.4 is released! 🎊️

Dino now supports message reactions and replies. Furthermore, we switched to GTK4 and libadwaita. #dino #xmpp

Release blog post: dino.im/blog/2023/02/dino-0.4-…

Find the clients behind it here:

dino.im/
@dino

conversejs.org/
@jcbrand

#XMPP #jabber #chat #ConverseJS #Dino

Dino. Communicating happiness.

A privacy-friendly messaging app for the desktop. It uses the XMPP protocol and provides a clean UI with modern features.

^dino.im

Welcome our Google Summer of Code contributors!

- Patiga will work on more flexible file transfers in #Dino summerofcode.withgoogle.com/pr…
- PawBud will work towards adding support for A/V #communication via #Jingle in #ConverseJS summerofcode.withgoogle.com/pr…

#XMPP #GSoC #Google #Standards

You were right, the #Windows fork works nicely. I hope patches will be merged back to #dino upstream.

For basic users the GTK file dialog can be a bit distracting as it is different from what they are used to. The rest GTK design should be ok for them by my opinion.