@paco jitsi. one of the demoscene groups runs an instance for folks to use. it's on a VPS with four cores and 512MB of RAM. we ran an event on it during lockdown and it handled over a dozen people on a call with no problem. folks dialled in from their phone while walking through a park and they came through clear. super easy to use. fully web UI, no messing about with apps needed.

@paco no accounts needed either. give someone a meeting URL (and optionally a password if you set one up) and they can join the call.

@gsuberland Interesting. I set up my first Jitsi server like 20+ years ago (as an alternative to AIM!) I haven’t used it in 12+ years.

I know apps aren’t _required_ but some users like them. My buddy is an MBA with a Windows laptop and an android phone. So Apps are a benefit, not a disadvantage. How is the spit-and-polish on Jitsi these days? I can handle whatever. But I need painless and seamless as much as I can get. Mattermost looks just like Slack.

@paco I used it heavily throughout lockdown, never had any issues with it, and non technical folks had no issues navigating it. it's very low friction as a user.

there is a Jitsi Meet app on Android (presumably iOS too but idk) but I've never bothered using it. the web version works great.

@paco and keep in mind I'm saying this as someone who is very critical of the way a lot of FOSS folks delude themselves about usability and poor UX. when I say it's low friction for users, I really mean it.

@gsuberland @paco The app is basically a requirement for iOS. Jitsi doesn’t work in Safari at all, if lockdown mode is enabled. Not even when relaxing it for the site. And if lockdown mode is off, the phone gets *really* hot. With the app, it’ll just drain the battery quite fast.

@schrotthaufen @paco ah, interesting. I never tried it on iOS.

@gsuberland @paco I didn’t know the app existed, so the first Jitsi on iOS experience was quite frustrating. Until someone told me about Jitsi Meet. Suddenly it wasn’t frustrating anymore 😂

@gsuberland @paco +1 for Jitsi, but do read up on what their definition of E2EE entails and includes (notably not session chat).