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JAMI

Secure and private comms made easy

Nick Peers takes a fresh look at an old favourite – Jami, a tool that aims to cover all your communication and sharing needs.

Credit: https://jami.net

OUR EXPERT

Nick Peers would love to say he only uses open source, private messaging systems, but convincing others of the merits of Signal (never mind Jami) is a tough sell at times.

OUR EXPERT

Nick Peers would love to say he only uses open source, private messaging systems, but convincing others of the merits of Signal (never mind Jami) is a tough sell at times.

QUICK TIP

For a technical guide to Jami, visit the site’s documentation at https://docs.jami.net/en_US/- there’s little practical explanation for how to use Jami, but lots of technological detail, including how Jami’s distributed network works to connect you securely to your contacts.

QUICK TIP

For a technical guide to Jami, visit the site’s documentation at https://docs.jami.net/en_US/- there’s little practical explanation for how to use Jami, but lots of technological detail, including how Jami’s distributed network works to connect you securely to your contacts.

Looking for an alternative messaging and communications platform that isn’t leakier than a colander and doesn’t demand personally identifiable information when you sign up? You need Jami (https://jami.net). It may not attract the same levels of attention as the big boys, but reduced visibility usually means less unwelcome attention – helped by the fact that Jami runs on a distributed network, which means no central servers exist as tempting targets. Connections are peer-to-peer and protected by end-to-end encryption. You don’t even need to provide any personal info to set up an account.

Traditionally, Jami has suffered a little in terms of performance and stability, but those issues are being ironed out, and with each new major release, it’s becoming better and slicker. Back in November, Jami rolled out its latest major new release – Eleutheria – that resolves longstanding issues with connectivity and performance.

Since we last featured Jami (LXF271), it’s undergone radical changes – the most notable of which is swarms, a new technology that ensures fully synced history across all devices you’re logged into, plus guaranteed message delivery, even when there’s a connection dropout. Since its introduction in September 2021, when swarms were restricted to one-to-one chats, it’s expanded to be usable with groups of any size.

The new release unveils a new built-in extension store, too, along with numerous UI improvements, including the ability to edit messages after they’ve been sent. With all this added goodness, what better time to revisit Jami and see if it’s the perfect fit for all your chat needs?

Getting in a Jami

Jami works on all major platforms, and that includes mobile (iOS, Android and e/OS via F-Droid). Visit https://jami.net and click Download to reveal links for Linux, Mac OS and Windows.

The Linux page reveals direct download links for major distros, including Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora and Red Hat, but we recommend clicking the >_ button instead to reveal the commands required to install Jami via Snap ( sudo snap install jami ) or its own repo, ensuring it remains up to date going forward. The following works on Ubuntu LTS-based distros, including Mint:

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Linux Format
March 2024
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