Ask HN: Can you suggest self-hosted chat/audio system with Android/iOS client

Posted by long_warmup on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @07:44AM
from the ask-hn dept.

Apologies if this question was already asked, I could not find good answer here but maybe I was not using the right keywords.

I would love to host a system for my family (including my grandma who is not very technical) and friends that would let us communicate over messages and audio calls (if video calls would be possible then I would be in 7th heaven)

Can you share what you are using (if you have done something like that)?

( 13 comments | 4 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Can you suggest self-hosted chat/audio system wit... by maxbaines on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @07:49AM (#25746124)

Jitsu, is an option https://jitsi.org/jitsi-meet/

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Can you suggest self-hosted chat/audio system wit... by long_warmup on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @08:00AM (#25746209)

Thanks for sharing! Looks nice, there is even android app.

Looking through their android app it seems to be similar to google meets, I will definitely keep this in my bookmarks!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Can you suggest self-hosted chat/audio system wit... by j1elo on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @10:02AM (#25747751)

Others have mentioned very good choices for messaging. For self-hosted audio and video calls, another option is OpenVidu Call: https://openvidu.io/openvidu-call

(that page also includes a demo deployment)

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Re:Ask HN: Can you suggest self-hosted chat/audio system wit... by long_warmup on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @10:19AM (#25747970)

openvidu is nice, in many ways it looks very similar to google meet. And the "get a room" functionality reminds me of a system I used to use long time ago called appear.in (seems they are out of business..)

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Re:Ask HN: Can you suggest self-hosted chat/audio system wit... by j1elo on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @10:26AM (#25748048)

I work on the OpenVidu development platform thus the Call application example was an easy recommendation... we have a public server with demo deployments, of which Call is just one.

Appear.in went through some changes (not sure of exactly what) and became "whereby" (sincerely the previous name was so much better).

Another all time favorite of mine (not self-hosted though) is talky.io

And of course there is Jitsi Meet, a very well-known get-a-room application that can also be self-hosted. And they maintain a public deployment too.

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Re:Ask HN: Can you suggest self-hosted chat/audio system wit... by LockAndLol on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @08:36AM (#25746635)

Self hosted Matrix server? They also use jitsi for voice and chat, so I don't know if you have to set that up separately. Maybe they have an ansible role or docker-compose that does both.

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Re:Ask HN: Can you suggest self-hosted chat/audio system wit... by long_warmup on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @09:07AM (#25747043)

I'm thinking about setting it up in podman, matrix is something I will check, though I must say after seeing NextCloud I might try that first, it looks very similar to Whatsapp (at least on screenshots I could see). This is something my older family members are familiar using so it would be easier for them to switch.

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Re:Ask HN: Can you suggest self-hosted chat/audio system wit... by ramtatatam on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @08:10AM (#25746316)

Nextcloud

Mentioned here (was you searching for web chats?): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25663233

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Re:Ask HN: Can you suggest self-hosted chat/audio system wit... by long_warmup on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @08:12AM (#25746344)

Wow! This looks like whatsapp!

https://nextcloud.com/talk/

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Re:Ask HN: Can you suggest self-hosted chat/audio system wit... by mister_hn on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @08:17AM (#25746385)

Rocket Chat or NextCloud

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Re:Ask HN: Can you suggest self-hosted chat/audio system wit... by long_warmup on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @09:05AM (#25747016)

RocketChat looks very nice, and they claim to also have audio/video calls.

https://rocket.chat

And there is also Android app! Nice, thanks for sharing!

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Re:Ask HN: Can you suggest self-hosted chat/audio system wit... by gostsamo on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @08:01AM (#25746221)

Matrix

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Re:Ask HN: Can you suggest self-hosted chat/audio system wit... by long_warmup on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @08:05AM (#25746263)

Nice! The list of clients/servers: https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now/

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