[cjmoran]

I've been looking into telegram alternatives for a while. The best one I've found is the Matrix protocol (https://matrix.org), which is sort of like a cross between telegram and slack but it's open-source and you can self-host it. There are several app/webapp clients that you can use with your server, like https://riot.im.

It's got end-to-end encryption by default (although you need to manually enable it in some clients like Riot), Riot's mobile app works well, and supports audio and video calling through your server.

[beagle3]

Last I checked, you couldn't get notifications on iOS running through your own server - that's sort-of-inherent in how iOS notifications work, of course, but that makes the self-hosting feature unusable for a lot of users.

[cjmoran]

I get notifications with the Riot iOS app. I did take a little extra time to set up my toy matrix server with LetsEncrypt certificates, not sure if that makes a difference.

[rickdg]

Nowadays, you have to assume that people's expectations of a messaging app include, for example, managing tons of uploaded videos.