Apps had notification problems, and crashes. My gf stopped getting pictures unless she was on home wifi. Just weirdness. I set up another instance with docker on a different server, and that worked better, but 8 was tired of the silliness. Those were the main reasons I switched. I’m also a tinkerer, so I enjoy trying new projects.

I just switched to snikket from matrix in the last 2 weeks. I ran a matrix server for 6 years, for just 3 users. Snikket works perfectly, and the phone apps work so well without the need to constantly authenticate with a second device. Just log in.

XMPP is a stable protocol. And snikket has ssl certs, audio/video calling, and media uploads baked right in.

Give it a try on a modest vps and I don’t think you will be disappointed. I’m sure happy with it.