Missing Skype? Choose freedom and switch to GNU Jami

Microsoft Skype shut down for good on May 5, 2025. Shutdowns like this one or the end of support for Windows 10 are the best time to help people think differently about the tools they rely on for their most crucial communications, and to educate our loved ones about software freedom. Often, this involves encouraging them to switch to free communication tools like, for example, GNU Jami, a recipient of the FSF's Award for Projects of Social Benefit.

Give Jami a try next time you call a friend or family member.

We've been recommending GNU Jami along with other free communication tools for some time now. It, like many other actively developed free programs, has been steadily acquiring both new users and new features. According to a talk we had with a representative from GNU Jami's parent company, users have increased dramatically since Skype's shutdown. Considering how harmful network effects can be, this is a win for the free software movement.

Communication tools, like social networks, are only helpful so long as you can use them to actually communicate with others. Now more than ever, it's important to hold our most private conversations on free (as in freedom) software. At the same time, we need to be taking as many steps as possible to welcome users to free communication platforms, not only by making sure it runs on both free and nonfree operating systems, but by investing time and energy into accessibility and localization. By way of example, GNU Jami now allows for multi-byte Unicode usernames, an important feature for people speaking languages that don't utilize the Latin alphabet.

It's great to hear that free tools are growing, but it's even more refreshing to hear a developer say what they don't know about their userbase. In the case of Jami, data is only inferred instead of collected. Recording more detailed information about the network may be helpful to developers, but it also opens the door to later misuse, as happened for example, with Zoom's usage of the Facebook SDK. Whereas a proprietary software company's claims about encryption are often impossible to verify, free/libre software is not kept secret from the public. Free software is a prerequisite for true privacy.

Call to action

Try doing a Jami call, or talking with your friends on some other free communication platform like encrypted XMPP. There's a good chance it will have most if not everything you use in the nonfree app -- only now with freedom and privacy.

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