I was I heavy XMPP user back in the 00s. But on the whole it never really took off, and when Google killed XMPP support in their chat it was a severe blow. As for why it didn’t reach a larger userbase, I think the reasons that Moxie described in The ecosystem is moving[0] are spot on.
Last week I selfhosted Snikket: https://snikket.org, me and my partner use it to text. It has been smooth, everything works without issue: read receipts, audio/video calls, status.
👤 a456463
Using with JMP.chat/Snikket for family.
👤 MarsIronPI
I use JMP.chat[0] for my primary phone number. Being able to text from my PC with a real keyboard is very convenient. If I ever bite the bullet and use Discord I want to set up Slidcord[1] so that I don't have to use a separate app. I'm still figuring out how to migrate people to XMPP natively.