If you login to your account on your Snikket server on all the devices you have at home, and you remain logged in for all the time you use your Snikket server, everything will be synced over all these devices.
Let me explain it further. You login to your Snikket server on 3 devices (desktop, laptop, and smartphone) and you use only these 3 with no re-installing the operating system and not factory resetting the smartphone, you will keep getting the history on these 3 devices - synced.
But you decide to try out a new XMPP client, let say monocles chat. Since that client is new for your account, that client will get its own encryption key. Because of this, monocles chat can not read anything you and the contacts you have communicated with. This also applies when you re-installing the OS or do a factory reset.
End-to-end encryption 101.
Let say this would not be the case and monocles chat do see the history of all of your chats, that data must remain on the server and can be decrypted by the new client with maybe a master encryption key of some sort. This is not end-to-end encryption 101. That would be a security breach.
However, letting you export the chat history from the other clients and importing the chat history to monocles chat, that would be much better. Because then it is you who decides if you want to keep the chat history or not. You will be in control over your own data. This is a feature I miss in XMPP clients.
The chat history is there until you change client/device and got a new set of keys. New encryption keys can't decrypt messages and files sent with a previous keys.
Snikket is FOSS, so yes, it's free when self-hosting :)
Seems to absolutely love Big Tech because they hide the APK download page quite well[1]
It's centralized
I use my own Snikket server to communicate with people using OMEMO (Signal Protocol). No phone number requirements, no centralized server, no Big Tech, just you and the people you write with, with your privacy fully intact. Just like in the good old days (as it should be to this days, greedy f*****s).
[1]: signal.org/download > Android redirects you to Google Play Store. signal.org/download/android > Download for Android redirects you to Google Play Store. signal.org/install redirects you to Google Play Store. You'll search "forever" to find the "download APK file" link until you give up and using a search engine: "signal apk".
Not until then you'll find signal.org/android/apk. And when you visit that page, a link to Google Play Store is listed on top, and below it, in the "danger zone", you'll find the APK download button. Yes, exactly, the Signal team wants you to be on the "safe zone" by downloading the app through Google Play Store.
"focus on privacy" my ass. Close to forcing someone to use Big Tech shitty stuff is NOT focus on privacy.
No, I'm not. All I am saying is that people are still using IRC. IRC is therefore not dead. But if you want to compare Discord with IRC, then yes, IRC is dead. But not dead-dead since people are still using it and can still recover. I know people that wants to start using IRC again.
Last time I used IRC (which was 1-3 years ago), I found over 4 servers that each had over 15 users. And since I am communicating with 5+ IRC users through XMPP, IRC is not dead. It's more dead today compared to 20 years ago, yes, but it is not dead-dead.
I highly disagree. I am in a group chat on XMPP that uses a IRC bridge and many of the users in that group chat are using that bridge.
And now to other stuff that I want to mention related to the discussion in this thread.
Services that does not meet modern standards like Mumble and XMPP, are not widly used because they "lack many important features". I say "bah, humbug" to that!
If MSN and ICQ worked flawlessly when those services was active, Mumble and XMPP works very well today, too. People are too spoiled by today's technology.
Here's an example.
I use my self-hosted Jitsi Meet server when communicating with people that refuses to talk to me unless there's video calls and screen sharing. Otherwise, I gladly use Mumble 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, every year! And for file sharing other than images? XMPP, baby!
A friend of mine invited a Discord loving person to my Jitsi Meet server few weeks ago. He/she said "it looks just like Discord, I'm sold!" My friend (also a Discord lover) agreed and does not hesitate for 1 second to join me on Jitsi Meet. My friend's Discord friend said he/she gladly join us more times.
I am apparently the privacy activist (not using Monero, SimpleX Chat, Degoogled Chromium, or Keypass, though). I do use uBlock Origin (Gecko ffs!) and Bitwarden (self-hosted Vaultwarden). Unfortunately, I am using Telegram, but trying to move all my contacts to my own Snikket server. It's a very slow process.
For me it was elementary OS. Dual-booted with Windows back in 2015/2016. Maybe 1 year later, I installed Linux Mint Cinnamon and gradually used it more than Windows. Now I am using EndeavourOS XFCE and only using Windows virtually... when I am bored or need to use Adobe Lightroom Classic.
And if someone doesn't have an account at GitHub? :) Can you please upload MAZANOKE to Codeberg? I rather use Codeberg (Germany) than GitHub (USA (Microsoft)).
This is my to-go solution before sending photos to someone. Excellent service!
But I miss adding options in Docker, for an example default quality. I often clear cookies and other data so it's kinda tedious to select the same options over and over again :)
That is what I was after! Not the leak, but the catch. Do you have the link to the source for the leak?