Blog
Sovereign XMPP, self-hosting guides, and honest comparisons.
The messenger that doesn't forget you
A rented messenger belongs to its vendor, so every update is the vendor's chance to rearrange your experience. On sovereign XMPP the program is yours — it reopens exactly where you left it, and it doesn't yank you out of the middle of what you were doing.
ReadThe messenger that doesn't forget you
A rented messenger updates on the vendor's schedule and quietly rewrites your experience — new layout, reset window, rearranged chats. On sovereign XMPP, your messenger is your own: it updates on your terms and stays exactly where you left it. In v0.9.106 Infium remembers your window size and position, even across updates — a small fact about a large idea: the tool you own doesn't move your furniture around.
The encrypted conversation that doesn't get stuck forever
When an E2E session breaks, a rented messenger leaves a message hanging on "Waiting for this message…" forever — and the person at the other end never even learns it was lost. On sovereign XMPP the recovery repairs the session without breaking the conversation: it never deletes a session it isn't going to use, and it never lets a message vanish in silence.
A messenger that leaves you alone while you read
The most telling sign that a product is yours — not the other way around — is that it stops wedging itself between you and your own conversation. On sovereign XMPP the interface gets out of the way instead of nudging you toward one more action.
Missing on one device, never lost: how your history stays complete on sovereign XMPP
On a rented messenger, a message that vanishes on one of your devices is a silent, permanent loss — the gap gets sealed and forgotten. On sovereign XMPP your conversations live in an archive you own, so a gap is visible, diagnosable, and healed. Here's what changed and why it only works when the record is yours.
A message appears only when the messenger can prove who sent it
Encryption answers "who else could read this," but it doesn't answer "are you sure this is really the person you're talking to." On a rented messenger you take the server's word for who wrote a message. On sovereign XMPP, an incoming message now has to present proof of the sender's key — the sender's identity is verified before the words ever reach the screen.
The photo shows up right away — upload catches up in the background
On a rented messenger, sending a heavy photo is a pause: a spinner, a frozen bubble, the feeling that something got stuck. On sovereign XMPP the picture appears in the chat the moment you send it — compression happens first, and the upload trails along behind the bubble instead of holding the conversation hostage.
Your message gets there — even when your contact's phone doesn't
On a rented messenger, delivery is tied to one living copy of the app: switch phones and messages can stall. On sovereign XMPP, a message arrives and is readable no matter what happened to your contact's device — reliability is the foundation, not a feature on a list.
Do you know how much your messenger weighs?
In a rented messenger, the size of your chat history is a number the vendor keeps to itself. On your own XMPP server, the admin can open Settings → Administration → Host and see exactly how much the archive takes — and gets a heads-up at 2 GB.
Read on your phone, read on your Mac: receipts that sync through your own server
Read receipts are metadata too — who saw what, and when. Infium 0.9.78 syncs them across your devices through your own XMPP server, end-to-end encrypted, with no corporate cloud in the loop.
What your lockscreen reveals: notification privacy in a sovereign messenger
The text of a push notification sits in plaintext on a platform's servers and on your lock screen — a leak nobody counts as a leak. Here's how a sovereign, end-to-end encrypted messenger makes even the push carry ciphertext, and lets the client decide when you can read a message.
Your phone number is borrowed. Your chat identity doesn't have to be.
Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram tie your account to a SIM card — a number a carrier can port, suspend, or recycle. Sovereign XMPP gives your chats an identity that belongs to you: a name on a domain, not a lease on a phone plan.
Sovereign group chat: a community you run, not a room you rent
In a big messaging app, every group is a room rented from a platform that writes the rules, shows the ads, and can end the conversation on a whim. A sovereign group is a place your community actually holds. Here's what changes when you run your own.
Your chat history is yours: owning the record, not just the keys
Encryption hides what you say. Owning the archive decides whether the record of your conversations survives a reinstall, a new phone, and whoever runs the server. Here's what message history looks like when your messenger is yours.
XMPP is a living language, not a product you rent
ICQ got switched off by the company that owned it — a product dies when its owner decides. An open protocol can't be switched off by anyone. That's the real freedom from Big Tech, and it's what sovereign XMPP is built on.
Invite-only is the whole point: how a private XMPP network stays sovereign
An invite wall isn't a barrier to entry — it's the mechanism that keeps your server private, your community known, and your metadata out of the public graph. Here's why the invite model is central to a sovereign messenger.
How to actually move your chats to a messenger you own
Leaving WhatsApp or Telegram feels impossible until you realize what you really move — your people and your address, not your archive. Here is the honest how-to for a sovereign XMPP messenger.
Deleting a conversation is a quiet test of who owns your chat
Most 'delete' buttons don't delete anything you care about — they hide the message from you and keep the record elsewhere. Owning your messenger means knowing exactly what a fresh start really is.
The small fixes are the real test of owning your messenger
Read receipts that work, reconnection after a dead tunnel, history that survives a logout — sovereignty is decided in the small daily details, not just in the key exchange.
Sovereign chat is a trust decision, not a server decision
Every messenger is run by someone. The real question you're answering when you self-host is not 'which software' — it's who you trust to hold your conversations.
Metadata: the thing self-hosting your XMPP actually protects
End-to-end encryption hides your words. Self-hosting hides who you talk to, when, and from where. Here is what running your own XMPP server really changes about your privacy.
XMPP vs Signal vs WhatsApp: an honest privacy comparison
How sovereign XMPP stacks up against Signal and WhatsApp on encryption, metadata, and who controls your identity.
Self-host your chat on Prosody: a practical getting-started guide
A step-by-step guide to running your own XMPP server with Prosody on a small VPS — TLS, accounts, and where E2E encryption fits in.
What a sovereign messenger actually means (and why it matters)
A sovereign messenger is one you control end to end — your identity, your keys, your server. Here is what that buys you, and what it costs.