The Snikket Network

Communication freedom

We believe in communication freedom. Snikket is built on a number of different types of freedom:

  • The freedom to choose what software and what device you use to communicate.
  • The freedom to choose where your chat service is hosted, and who hosts it (this includes the ability to run it yourself)
  • The freedom to view, copy, and modify the source code that your device and the service are running

Freedom of software

The freedom to decide what software you use is an important one. Modern mainstream messaging apps typically only give you a single choice for what app you can use their service with: theirs.

We believe that everybody is different. Whether you want software that is more suited to your personal tastes, runs efficiently that old phone you still carry around, or simply software that meets your unique accessibility needs: it can be done.

Freedom of service

This freedom is fundamentally at odds with large corporations that currently control most mainstream messaging platforms. They focus on gaining users onto their service and making profits off those users. More users means more profit.

Rather than being exploited in this way, wouldn’t it be great if you actually trusted the operator of your chat service? We believe in an open network where anyone can participate as an operator by running their own service, and people can choose services run by people that they trust.

Open source

All the code that powers Snikket is open-source and free. We encourage people to copy, experiment with, and build on top of the code. Innovation and progress happen this way, and we’re happy to bring solid contributions back into the Snikket project where it can benefit everyone.

Open standards

Snikket is based on XMPP, which is a mature standard for internet messaging. There is a large network of non-Snikket XMPP software and services that are compatible with Snikket thanks to using XMPP. This includes bridges to non-XMPP networks and services, for example.

Join the network

Ready to join the network? Launch your own Snikket instance!