Products · Product
XMPP
Raised as a usability problem by 77 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 64 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Conversation history doesn't sync across devicesUnreviewed
20092026- Only one device receives messages; other devices miss them and history never syncs2022-05-27
- Couldn't properly sync messages and conversations between phone and PC clients2019-03-12
- Can't access conversation history made on another device; desktop clients lack support2017-01-07
Users can't tell which features they'll get, extension support variesUnreviewed
20092026- Users can't tell which features they will get, since extension support varies by client and server2026-08-25
- Different clients don't support the same features, making the experience a mess2023-08-14
- Users cannot tell which features work between a given client and server2023-05-09
Non-technical people must understand underlying protocols to use clientsUnreviewed
20092026- Setting up and choosing clients requires protocol knowledge that non-tech users lack2021-09-02
- Clients are unusable for non-technical people who must understand underlying protocols2021-01-08
- Protocol is confusing with steep learning curve for developers2020-08-07
Group chats lose rejoin tracking after server restartsUnreviewed
20092026- Self-hosting a group chat server is disastrously hard to get working2026-04-21
- Can't navigate to find old group chats; notifications and message history sometimes fail2021-06-18
- Group chats break constantly on mobile devices and need ugly workarounds2020-01-30
Users can't tell which device is connected or where messages wentUnreviewed
20092026- Leftover notifications appear on other devices for messages already read and replied to2026-08-25
- Notifications for calls and texts are unreliable on iOS unless the app is open2026-02-16
- Messages silently not received unless client sends presence; hard to debug which device gets messages2015-08-11
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Leftover notifications appear on other devices for messages already read and replied to2026-08-25
- Users can't find or join chats, and users they try to add can't be found or don't receive invites2026-08-25
- Users can't tell which features they will get, since extension support varies by client and server2026-08-25
- Self-hosting a group chat server is disastrously hard to get working2026-04-21
- IOS client stops receiving messages when the server certificate changes, with no clear fix2026-02-17
- Notifications for calls and texts are unreliable on iOS unless the app is open2026-02-16
- Official XMPP docs are confusing, with huge RFC lists and unclear terminology2026-02-10
- Group chats don't show sender name or avatar, so users can't tell who sent each message2025-10-06
- IOS XMPP clients don't follow Apple's HIG and are ugly or unusable2025-10-06
- Friends face decision deadlock choosing which XMPP server supports needed extensions2025-07-30
- Clients and servers quietly do the wrong thing unless configured exactly right2025-06-16
- Joining XMPP is an ordeal because servers stop registrations and clients are unmaintained2025-01-13
- Open chat protocols suffer from usability and discoverability problems2024-09-29
- No iOS XMPP client has an interface as good as Conversations, so the commenter stopped using it2024-02-14
- Different clients don't support the same features, making the experience a mess2023-08-14
- Finding XMPP clients that work well is hard2023-06-21
- Clients implement emojis inconsistently, making interoperation hard to get right2023-06-20
- Users cannot tell which features work between a given client and server2023-05-09
- Features spread across inconsistent XEP implementations; some clients are fiddly to configure2022-10-08
- Only one device receives messages; other devices miss them and history never syncs2022-05-27
- Early XMPP clients had a user experience the commenter found unusable2022-05-26
- Rarely works out of the box; must find the right client or fiddle with settings2022-04-24
- After aborting group creation, the create button stops responding when retried2022-04-23
- Clients miss needed extensions, so features vary and users must check feature matrices2022-04-23
- XML hard to handle in code and painful to debug2022-04-23
- Leading XMPP server could only be configured by editing source code2021-11-18
- Can't tell which XMPP clients support needed features without reading source code2021-11-15
- Setting up and choosing clients requires protocol knowledge that non-tech users lack2021-09-02
- Finding a decent XMPP client for iPad was a nightmare2021-08-23
- Normal users can't find a practical, reliable provider accepting new users2021-07-27
- Hard to install and use; non-technical users find it unworkable, so the company abandoned it2021-06-19
- Can't navigate to find old group chats; notifications and message history sometimes fail2021-06-18
- XMPP is a failure on mobile, a usability problem the commenter finds frustrating2021-04-07
- Users must trial many XMPP clients and struggle with group chat, key management and multi-device use2021-02-04
- Building XMPP clients and bots feels overly complex, requiring huge dependencies for simple apps2021-01-31
- Clients are unusable for non-technical people who must understand underlying protocols2021-01-08
- Messages silently go missing, so users wrongly think friends are ignoring them2020-12-08
- Matching modern messaging needs hours of config-file editing2020-10-19
- Protocol is confusing with steep learning curve for developers2020-08-07
- Multi-user chat and chat history were a pain to get working2020-07-09
- Open source clients and servers fail to interoperate, requiring constant debugging to message friends2020-02-14
- Group chats break constantly on mobile devices and need ugly workarounds2020-01-30
- Messaging over XMPP has terrible UI/UX and is not mobile friendly2019-09-25
- Messages delivered to wrong device and encrypted with a different key, lost2019-04-07
- Messages often delivered to wrong device with a different key, becoming unreadable and lost2019-04-07
- Couldn't properly sync messages and conversations between phone and PC clients2019-03-12
- Must fake Edge user agent for calls but normal one for history2019-01-05
- Duplicate messages and weird errors make iOS XMPP clients unusable in production2019-01-04
- Fractured client support means users never know whether features will work2018-12-20
- Overall user experience is poor, so people avoid it2018-10-16