Table of Contents

• Screenshots
• Features
• Quick Start
• Command-Line Options
• Technology Stack
• Support & Community
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Contributing
• License
• Star History

Screenshots

Features

Messaging

• Reactions, Replies & Styling - Emoji reactions with quick toolbar, threaded replies, and rich text formatting (bold, italic, code blocks with syntax highlighting)
• Emoji Autocomplete - Type : and a keyword to complete emojis inline, with arrow-key navigation and Enter or Tab to insert
• Message Retraction & Moderation - Delete your own messages or moderate room messages with full audit trail
• Link Previews - Automatic Open Graph previews for shared URLs
• File Sharing - HTTP uploads with drag-and-drop, thumbnails, progress indicators, image lightbox, and text file preview
• Polls - Create polls in rooms with emoji voting, deadlines, single or multi-vote modes, and live result tallies

Group Chat & Collaboration

• Multi-user Chat - Complete MUC support with roles, affiliations, custom hats (role badges), @mentions, and bookmarks
• Private Messages in Rooms - Mediated private messages (whispers, XEP-0045 §7.5) to a single occupant, shown as a distinct private thread you can reply to privately
• Quick Chat - Instantly create ad-hoc group conversations and invite contacts by name
• Per-User Ignore - Mute specific users per room, synced across devices
• Activity Log - Persistent feed of events: invitations, subscription requests, reactions, poll votes, joins and leaves

Search

• Full-text Search - Instant offline search powered by an IndexedDB inverted index, supplemented by live server archive queries
• Find on Page - Cmd/Ctrl+F to search within the current conversation with highlight and scroll
• Smart Filters - Type filter pills, in: prefix autocomplete, quoted exact-phrase matching, and keyboard-navigable results with context preview

Theming & Personalization

• 14 Built-in Themes - Catppuccin, Nord, Dracula, Gruvbox, Tokyo Night, Rosé Pine, Solarized and more, in light and dark mode
• Custom Themes - Import/export themes as JSON, pick a custom accent color, or write CSS overrides in the built-in editor
• Synced Across Devices - Theme, accent, and font size preferences are stored server-side and follow you everywhere
• Internationalization - 34 languages including complete EU coverage

Privacy & Security

• Self-hostable - Connect to any XMPP server, no vendor lock-in, no third-party dependency
• End-to-End Encryption - OpenPGP (OX-IM, XEP-0373/0374) for 1:1 chats; messages are encrypted and signed; automatic key discovery, peer verification with cross-device sync, secret key backup, and encrypted MAM history decryption
• FAST Authentication - Modern SASL2 with token-based reconnection for instant, password-less session resumption
• Contact Blocking - Full block/unblock support with a dedicated management screen
• In-Band Password Change - Change your account password without leaving the app

Desktop & Cross-Platform

• Cross-platform - Available on the web, macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon), Windows, and Linux (deb, rpm, flatpak, AUR)
• Auto Updates - Built-in update checker with release notes and one-click install (desktop)
• Native Notifications - Desktop notifications with click-to-focus; web push notifications even when the tab is closed
• Auto-Away - Automatically sets your status to away on system idle and restores it on activity
• Offline Support - IndexedDB storage with automatic sync and stream management session resumption on reconnect

Power User Tools

• Command Palette - Keyboard-accessible launcher for conversations, contacts, rooms, and actions
• Keyboard Shortcuts - Shortcuts for navigation and message actions, with a categorized help overlay and AZERTY support
• Built-in XMPP Console - Live stanza inspector with exportable connection-health diagnostics for scheduler suspension, sleep, reconnection, and deferred unread-badge updates
• Server Administration - Manage users, rooms, and server commands right from the client (for admins)
• User Profiles - User info popovers with vCard details, connected devices, timezone, and last seen status

Developer-Friendly

• Headless SDK - Reusable @fluux/sdk package for building custom XMPP clients or bots
• 50+ XEPs Implemented - MAM, MUC, Stream Management, Message Carbons, HTTP File Upload, Reactions, OpenPGP (OX-IM), FAST, and many more.
• Compatible - see Compliance of Fluux.
• Open Source - AGPL-3.0 licensed

Quick Start

Want to try it first? Head over to demo.fluux.io for a live demo, no installation needed.

1. Download the latest release for your platform from the releases page.

2. Install using the instructions for your platform below.

3. Connect to any XMPP server with your credentials and start chatting!

Windows (x64)

Format	How to install
.exe	Run the setup wizard (recommended)
.msi	Run msiexec /i Fluux-Messenger_*_Windows_x64.msi or double-click to install

macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon)

Format	How to install
.dmg	Open the image and drag Fluux Messenger to Applications (recommended)
.app.tar.gz	Extract with tar xzf and move the .app to Applications

Both x64 (Intel) and arm64 (Apple Silicon) builds are available.

Linux (x64 & arm64)

Format	How to install
.deb	sudo dpkg -i Fluux-Messenger_*.deb (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint...)
.rpm	sudo rpm -i Fluux-Messenger_*.rpm (Fedora, RHEL, openSUSE...)
.flatpak	flatpak install Fluux-Messenger_*.flatpak
.tar.gz	Extract with tar xzf and run the binary directly

Both x64 and arm64 builds are available for all formats.

Arch Linux users can install from the AUR: fluux-messenger

Web (self-hosted)

Download the fluux-messenger-*-web.zip asset from the releases page, extract it, and serve it with any web server (the app must be served over HTTP). This also works as a PWA on mobile devices when served from your own domain.

Build from source

See the Developer Guide for instructions on building and running Fluux Messenger locally.

Need help? See the support options below.

Command-Line Options

The desktop app accepts a few command-line flags. Run fluux-messenger --help to list them:

Warning: --dangerous-insecure-tls turns off TLS certificate validation for the connection to your XMPP server, which exposes it to man-in-the-middle attacks. Use it only for local development or testing (for example, against a server with a self-signed certificate), never in production.

Technology Stack

• Frontend: React 18 + TypeScript
• Desktop: Tauri 2.x (Rust-based, lightweight)
• Styling: Tailwind CSS
• State Management: Zustand + XState
• Build System: Vite + Vitest
• XMPP: @xmpp/client + @fluux/sdk
• Storage: IndexedDB with idb

Support and Community

We have a lot planned for Fluux Messenger, and we welcome questions, feedback, and bug reports.

• GitHub Issues - Use Issues to report bugs, request features, or track tasks. We use Issues as our lightweight roadmap for upcoming improvements, and we're open to new ideas, so tell us about yours.
• GitHub Discussions - Use Discussions for questions, ideas, or general conversations that don't require formal tracking. Great for brainstorming, getting help without opening an Issue, or suggesting documentation improvements.
• XMPP Chatroom - Join fluux-messenger@conference.process-one.net for live chat with the community and maintainers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Have suggestions for this FAQ? Ask questions or propose additions in our Q&A Discussions.

Installation & Compatibility

Which XMPP servers are compatible with Fluux Messenger?

We aim to create an XMPP client that respects standards, but currently the project has been tested exclusively with ejabberd. We're eager to receive feedback on compatibility with other servers.

Will there be other installations methods? Can I run it on my own server?

Yes. A pre-built static web bundle (-web.zip) is available on the releases page. Extract it and serve it with any web server.

We also plan to publish Fluux Messenger on F-Droid, and possibly on the Google Play Store.

My XMPP server only listens on the standard TCP port (5222), can I still use Fluux Messenger?

Yes, on the desktop app: it ships with a built-in WebSocket-to-TCP proxy. It first tries WebSocket (via XEP-0156 discovery), then falls back to TCP/TLS.

The web version requires WebSocket on your server, with CORS configured to allow the origin from which Fluux is served.

Encrypted attachments don't open or preview in the web version

The web version downloads each encrypted attachment and decrypts it in the browser before displaying it, so the host serving your uploaded files (HTTP File Upload) must also send CORS headers allowing the origin from which Fluux is served. This is the same CORS requirement as the WebSocket endpoint above, applied to your file-storage host. The desktop app downloads files through its native HTTP client, so it is not affected.

Features & Roadmap

Does Fluux Messenger support end-to-end encryption?

Yes. OpenPGP (OX-IM, XEP-0373/0374) is implemented for one-to-one chats. Messages in 1:1 conversations are encrypted and signed using each participant's published OpenPGP key. Features include automatic key discovery, peer verification with cross-device sync, secret key backup, and MAM history decryption. Group-chat (MUC) encryption is not yet supported. OMEMO may follow: beyond the implementation work it raises licensing questions we want to address properly. We're also watching MLS as an option for large-scale group chats.

When will voice and video calls be available?

We know it's important and we want to bring it. We can't commit to a timeline yet: there's real work to do on both the client and server side, especially for group calls which need a media-mixing SFU to be reliable.

Does Fluux Messenger support read receipts?

Not yet. Read receipts are on our list and we plan to start with 1-to-1 chats. For group rooms we're still weighing the question: how useful they actually are at scale, how best to implement them and the privacy implications of broadcasting read state to every participant.

Does Fluux Messenger support Spaces (bundles of rooms)?

Not yet. Spaces (XEP-0503) have started to appear in the ecosystem (Movim has an experimental implementation) and we're watching how it evolves before committing to an approach.

Can I contribute a translation for my language?

Yes, translations are welcome. Locale files live under apps/fluux/src/i18n/locales/. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the general contribution workflow. Open an issue or discussion first if you have questions.

Is there a roadmap?

There's no formal roadmap document, but we track upcoming work through GitHub Milestones and Issues. Follow, comment or open a new issue for anything you'd like to see.

Troubleshooting

My antivirus flags the Windows installer as malicious, is the app safe?

Yes. Two things can trigger warnings right now:

• Starting with 0.15, the Windows binary is temporarily not code-signed while we work through the signing infrastructure (see #290).
• The combination of Tauri and NSIS used to package the app is also a known source of antivirus false positives affecting many legitimate apps.

If you'd rather verify for yourself, build the app from source.

Closing the window doesn't quit the app, is that normal?

Yes. By default, closing the main window minimizes Fluux to the system tray or menu bar so it can keep your XMPP session alive and deliver notifications. To fully exit, use the Quit entry from the tray menu.

On the web version, why do I have to log in again after closing the tab?

Fluux never persists your password to local storage. If your XMPP server supports FAST authentication tokens (SASL2), Fluux stores a short-lived token in local storage so reconnection across page reloads works without storing the password. Without FAST support, the session credentials disappear when the tab closes and you must log in again.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING for detailed guidelines.

To get started with development, see the Developer Guide.

License

Fluux Messenger is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later. See LICENSE

Star History

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