I've been using XMPP since about 5 years for family texting, file/video sharing, and video calling. It works great, and I would highly recommend it.
What works for us (all android) is Prosody + Conversations app (or Blabber is a free version). There are a few guides online for how to install & configure the prosody server. It's fairly non-technical.
Honestly, it works just as well as whatsapp - except there's actual privacy between users. Family messaging is a great use-case as everyone can be on the same server.
> Moving to XMPP - using prosody - worked really well for messaging, but the lack of real-time notifications on Sandra’s iPhone was sub-optimal, and the lack of any notifications for incoming XMPP calls on her phone was really undesirable.
A note to android users: prosody real time notifications & calls work great combined with the "conversations" app as a client. You see "user is typing", you can transfer files/photo, video. And best of all, you can do audio video calls with adaptive quality (adjusts to your bandwidth) & auto reconnects.
What works for us (all android) is Prosody + Conversations app (or Blabber is a free version). There are a few guides online for how to install & configure the prosody server. It's fairly non-technical.
Honestly, it works just as well as whatsapp - except there's actual privacy between users. Family messaging is a great use-case as everyone can be on the same server.