Snikket Server - November 2025 release

It’s time! We’ve been busy preparing a new release of the Snikket server software for you to enjoy. Although this release isn’t heavy on visible new features, a lot of internal changes and improvements have gone into this release to increase reliability and to pave the way for future plans.

Notable changes

Changes to limited user accounts

Snikket allows you to configure chosen accounts as “limited”. These limited accounts can only communicate with other people on the same instance of Snikket. They are commonly used for children, guests, and similar purposes.

Until this version, it was documented that limited accounts prevented outbound messages, but inbound messages (if someone knows the address) were still accepted. While this provided a certain level of protection, inbound messages will now also be blocked. This ensures that even if a limited user’s address becomes somehow known, it will still be impossible to send them messages.

We believe that the new behaviour aligns with what the vast majority of people expect and want from the limited accounts feature.

Docker health checks

Some of our containers provided health checks. In practice these were noisy, causing excessive log entries. They checked various things, but were never a full guarantee that Snikket is working successfully.

These built-in health checks have been removed from this release. We recommend external monitoring if you want to make sure your Snikket instance is up and running. The docker health checks were never able to fully provide this.

Compatibility with SDK-based apps

We have been working on an SDK which makes it easier to develop cross-platform apps for Snikket and other modern XMPP services. You can read the latest SDK news in this blog post.

The first new apps using the SDK will be a dedicated Snikket web app (so you will finally be able to chat using your Snikket account in a web browser) and we are also working towards a future update to our iOS app based on the SDK.

This Snikket server release adds certain protocol features, such as upgraded push notification APIs, which are used by the SDK-based apps. This makes it easier for developers and early adopters to test the new apps and iron out any issues before they reach general availability.

Upgrading

Upgrading an existing installation is super simple and takes less than a minute! You can find instructions in the ‘Upgrading’ section of the release notes.

If you have any questions or feedback about the new release, come and join the discussion in our community chat.

We hope you enjoy Snikket. Happy chatting!