«Jami» is a SIP-compliant peer-to-peer distribution and SIP-based instant messenger
The launch of the new version of the decentralized communication platform Jami, distributed under the codename "Világfa", was announced . It comes with countless bug fixes and improvements to existing functions, but the most important innovation of this version is the Swarm for small groups.
For those unfamiliar with the project, Jami aims to create a peer-to-peer (P2P) communications system that enables both large group communication and individual calls with a high level of confidentiality and security. Jami, formerly known as Ring and SFLphone, is part of the GNU projects.
Unlike traditional communication clients, Jami is able to transmit messages without resorting to external servers by organizing a direct connection between users using end-to-end encryption (end-to-end, the keys are present only on the client side) and X.509 certificate-based authentication.
Main novelties of Jami «Vilagfa»
In this new version, as we mentioned at the beginning, the main novelty is that the development of the swarm group communications system was continued.
What's interesting about Swarms is that it allows the creation of fully distributed P2P chats , whose communication history is stored jointly across all users' devices in a synchronized manner. While previously only two members were allowed in a swarm, the new version of Swarms now allows small group chats of up to 8 people (there are plans to increase the number of members allowed in future versions and add support for public chats).
Another notable change in the new version is the addition of a new button for creating group chats and the ability to configure chat options. After creating a group chat, you can add new members and remove existing ones.
There are three categories of participants : guests (added to the group, but not yet connected to the chat), connected, and administrators.
Each member can send invitations to other people, but only the administrator can remove from the group (for now there can only be one administrator, but in future versions there will be a flexible system of access rights and the possibility of appointing several administrators).
In addition, this new version of Jami "Vilagfa" also features a new panel with information about the chat , such as the participant list, the list of sent documents, and the settings.
On the other hand, one-on-one conversations already have many features and some of them have been updated to work in multi-member conversations, as well as if a file is transmitted in a conversation. Any member who has the file can submit it. This allows participants to receive files even if the original sender is not online.
Other notable changes in the new version of Jami «Vilagfa» include:
- Added various types of flags about reading a message and writing.
- Added an interface to search for messages in chats.
- Added support for setting reactions using emoji characters.
- Added an option to show information about the current location.
- Experimental support for a group chat accompanying a video conference has been added to the desktop client.
- Support for multiple administrators and multiple permission levels is planned in the future.
Finally, it's worth mentioning that Jami, formerly known as Ring and SFLphone, is a GNU project and is licensed under GPLv3. If you're interested in learning more , you can find the details at the following link.
For those interested in obtaining the new version, it should be noted that the binaries are prepared for different systems, such as Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, SUSE, RHEL, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Android TV, and several options for interfaces based on Qt, GTK and Electron are being developed.