2026-09-10 –, Track Room 2
The LibreOffice project has been a champion of advocating open formats and rejecting proprietary ones for documents, in addition to its commitment to free software ideals. However, like in many communities, most of the communication channels of the LibreOffice project are hosted on Telegram, which is not based on an open protocol.
In this talk, I explore the possibility of switching to XMPP, a decentralised messaging system with considerable adoption in Free Software communities. XMPP is an open standard based on XML, which incidentally results in significant synergy with LibreOffice's own goals!
I will cover how the project can switch to XMPP, whether it is something TDF would like to self-host or use existing community run services, and present some practical advice.
This talk is meant to answer all the questions related to messaging protocols and how can we practically switch to XMPP. The XMPP protocol is similar to Matrix in principle (there are many apps and servers which can connect with each other), but lightweight and easier to self-host.
There are a lot of different server and client software available which ensures that the standard does not become too tied down to one specific implementation. I will cover how the project can switch to XMPP. Whether it is something TDF would like to self-host or use existing community run services, I will present some practical advice.
Looking to the nearer future, adoption of XMPP is good for the wider Free Software ecosystem, and LibreOffice can do its bit in driving this. Conversely, XMPP projects could help to raise awareness about us too. For example, in India, we already advertise LibreOffice at events related to Debian and Prav (an XMPP messaging app). Telegram, on the other hand, has no reason or incentive to promote LibreOffice.
Credits: Badrihippo, Praveen, Richard for proofreading.
References: https://joinjabber.org/
Ravi Dwivedi helps with LibreOffice marketing in India by having stalls at various free software conferences. He also runs LibreOffice mirrors in India. He is also a board of trustee of The Document Foundation (TDF). He is the CEO of the Prav Cooperative, which runs the Prav messaging app. Furthermore, he has worked in the project's outreach, website and server. He writes at ravidwivedi.in and toots on Mastodon with handle @ravi@toot.io.