Snikket Server - Your own messaging server in a box

[jdaviescoates]

I just came here to post this, looks like a great option for XMPP!

They recently published these which give a bit more detail about what they are all about:

Snikket is an ambitious project to build a new kind of XMPP-based messaging platform.

Until now, the XMPP ecosystem has been very fragmented - a collection of projects with a mixture of different designs, terminologies and quality. Diversity is excellent, and the foundation of any healthy ecosystem. But we also need to have some amount of consistency. Snikket aims to provide this consistency, and provide a friendly entrance to the world of XMPP.

Snikket aims to:

• Provide an XMPP client for every major platform, with each client having consistent branding, terminology, and features.
• Provide a simple XMPP service that is easy to deploy and maintain, and provides all the necessary features for Snikket clients out of the box.

From https://snikket.org/about/goals/

For our Android client we selected Conversations. For iOS, Siskin. The server is based on Prosody.

All of these projects are good projects on their own. But by combining them under a single brand, performing focused interoperability testing and improving UI/UX consistency, we gain a new project that is greater than the sum of its components.

To be clear, these are not “hard forks” of the projects. Quite the opposite. We work closely with the developers, and have sponsored features in both Conversations and Siskin to get to where we are today. Our work on invite-based onboarding grew into a whole new feature in Prosody. Everything that makes sense in the upstream project gets pushed upstream. Lessons learned in UI/UX will likewise get added to the Modern XMPP documentation for other client developers to benefit from.

Snikket is not about replacing any of the individual projects, but about joining them together in a neat way and extending XMPP’s reach to new audiences.

From https://snikket.org/blog/products-vs-protocols/

Here is there quick start guide:
https://snikket.org/service/quickstart/

They've also started work on a web portal for the server
https://github.com/snikket-im/snikket-web-portal

[micmc]

@jdaviescoates said in Snikket Server - Your own messaging server in a box:

I just came here to post this, looks like a great option for XMPP!

This is exactly what I thought as I recently saw a few more than usual requests for XMPP server on Cloudron.

I find interesting the fact that this server is based on XMPP because it's an old standard and it's everywhere, and so makes it compatible with a lot of client apps, which would be quite open to reach more people instantly on the start a new Snikket server service.

On the user end, I'd think it would also be much more convenient and less complicated for many users who wouldn't need an additional app to join your server.

Cheers!
Andy

[murgero]

@micmc Would love to finally see an XMPP service on Cloudron - Ejabberd, prosody, and/or Snikket would be nice. Snikket probably more so since it seems to aim to be more easily installable and is even based on prosody.

[jdaviescoates]

@murgero said in Snikket Server - Your own messaging server in a box:

even based on prosody

It's by the same people too. I think the lead developer of prosody is also the lead developer of Snikket

[murgero]

@jdaviescoates Oh that would be cool. Looks like snikket just needs input on domain name and email as a basic starting point - which is nice. Assuming I am following the documentation it supports MUC and http file uploads too and uses the Conversations app on Android (not sure about iOS) and probably even supports push notification too.

[jdaviescoates]

@murgero said in Snikket Server - Your own messaging server in a box:

not sure about iOS

For iOS, the Snikket app is based on Siskin

[murgero]

I have a test server running, it works pretty well given it's an early-release beta. PM me if you want to try it out.

[3699n]

@murgero Are there any updates on your app? I would love to use it!

[djxx]

@murgero - sorry, not seeing an option to PM you. Can you give us an update here on how Snikket is working for you? I'm willing to put some money towards making a custom app for this. I think doing Snikket + 2-3 more configuration options will be enough for more self hosters.

[archos]

Hi, I just want to dust off the XMPP discussion a bit. It's a real shame that there is no XMPP on Cloudron yet. I've been using Snikket for maybe 4 years on another VPS and in all that time there hasn't been a problem. I'm just doing server updates. Snikket is really fast and hassle free for a smaller group. Unfortunately I am not skilled enough to install Snikket on Cloudron. It would be really great if an app could be added to Cloudron.

[girish]

@archos running prosody is a big challenge with so many options. Unfortunately, we (cloudron team) has no expertise in this to even package prosody reliably. It's one of the reasons we gave up on jitsi too. It's too complex and not clear what is needed and what is not.

[LoudLemur]

@girish We have been running Jitsi on Cloudron for agest and it still works well.

I hope somebody can manage XMPP on Cloudron for us soon.

[archos]

@girish Yes, I understand. Thank you for the information.

[LoudLemur]

Snicket seems to only have clients for Android and Mac:
https://github.com/search?q=topic%3Aapp+org%3Asnikket-im&type=repositories

[jdaviescoates]

Here is the web portal:

https://github.com/snikket-im/snikket-web-portal

And here are the self-hosting instructions:

https://github.com/snikket-im/snikket-selfhosted

And here is the source repository for building Snikket service Docker images:

https://github.com/snikket-im/snikket-server

[murgero]

@LoudLemur Snikket is just an XMPP server - any XMPP client that supports the same XMPP Extensions it uses it will work fine.