Movim: An Open-Source Decentralized Social Platform Based on XMPP Network

Brief: Movim is an open-source decentralized social media platform that relies on XMPP network and can communicate with other applications using XMPP.

We’ve already highlighted some open-source alternatives to mainstream social media platforms. In addition to those options available, I have come across another open-source social media platform that focuses on privacy and decentralization.

Movim: Open-Source Web-based Social Platform

Just like some other XMPP desktop clients, Movim is a web-based XMPP front-end to let you utilize it as a federated social media.

Since it relies on XMPP network, you can interact with other users utilizing XMPP clients such as Conversations (for Android) and Dino (for Desktop).

In case you didn’t know, XMPP is an open-standard for messaging.

So, Movim can act as your decentralized messaging app or a full-fledged social media platform giving you an all-in-one experience without relying on a centralized network.

It offers many features that can appeal to a wide variety of users. Let me briefly highlight most of the important ones.

Features of Movim

• Chatroom
• Ability to organize video conferences
• Publish articles/stories publicly to all federated network
• Tweak the privacy setting of your post
• Easily talk with other Movim users or XMPP users with different clients
• Automatically embed your links and images to your post
• Explore topics easily using hashtags
• Ability to follow a topic or publication
• Auto-save to draft when you type in a post
• Supports Markdown syntax to let you publish informative posts and start a publication on the network for free
• React to chat messages
• Supports GIFs and funny Stickers
• Edit or delete your messages
• Supports screen sharing
• Supports night mode
• Self-hosting option available
• Offers a free public instance as well
• Cross-platform web support

Using Movim XMPP Client

In addition to all the features listed above, it is also worth noting that you can also find a Movim mobile app on F-Droid.

If you have an iOS device, you might have a hard time looking for a good XMPP client (I’m not aware of any decent options). If you rule that out, you should not have any issues using it on your Android device.

For desktop, you can simply use Movim’s public instance, sign up for an account, and use it on your favorite browser no matter which platform you’re on.

You can also deploy your instance by using the Docker Compose script, the Debian package, or any other methods mentioned in their GitHub page.

Movim

Concluding Thoughts

While the idea of decentralized social media platforms is good, not everyone would prefer to use it because they probably do not have friends on it and the user experience is not the best out there.

That being said, XMPP clients like Movim are trying to make a federated social platform that a general consumer can easily use without any hiccups.

Just like it took a while for users to look for WhatsApp alternatives, the craze for decentralized social media platform like Movim and Mastodon is a possibility in the near future as well.

If you like it, do consider making a donation to their project.

What do you think about Movim? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

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