W mejlu rozsyłanym do użytkowników Riseup informuje, że wyłączą swoją usługę XMPP już w sierpni tego roku. Decyzję motywują chęcią przeznaczenia zasobów poświęcanych temu rozwiązaniu na bardziej popularne rozwiązania. Zachęcają też do paru alternatyw (Matrix, Signal, Delta chat) w celu utrzymania posiadanych na Jabberze kontaktów.

Treść mejla;

Hello, we are writing to you to inform you about our plans to deprecate our XMPP service (also known as Jabber) in August 2021. The reason for this is because we need to focus our resources on our more actively used services. We urge you to look up for alternatives so you can stay in touch with your contacts.

I use this, what do I need to know?

Sadly, migrating away from an XMPP service to another is not easy task. You will need to create an account in another XMPP server and re-add your contacts into your new account… Or manually define with them other ways of contacting.

Are there other alternatives? How do I migrate?

There are different alternatives according to your needs. The simpler one is switching from XMPP provider and re-adding your contacts, but there are other options today that can be better according to your use.

  • Matrix: Is a federated system very similar to XMPP, you or your organization can run your own server if you want to where everybody connects. The main clients have support for end-to-end encrypted communications.
  • Signal: Is a very known end-to-end encrypted communication that relies on mobile phones to work. Your contacts need to know your phone number, but unlike other communication solutions your metadata has stronger protections than other systems.
  • DeltaChat: Uses your e-mail account + OpenPGP to encrypt messages. It should be the easiest solution to migrate to.

What you pick up depends on your needs, you will need to actually coordinate with your contacts to use an alternative.

But why?!

We have a couple of problems with XMPP, the most important one is that our labor resources are limited and we need to prioritize services that more people relying on. Also, the past several years have brought new alternatives which do similar work, while providing important features which XMPP does not have…

Can you please keep it?

Sorry, no. You are welcome to run your own server, if you wish to.