Videoconferencing

Audio/Video Calls in Libervia — Encrypted Audio/Video Calls in multi-frontend XMPP client

Libervia is a multi-frontend, multi-purpose XMPP client. It doesn't just focus on instant messaging, and uses the open standard to provide features such as blogging/microblogging, calendar events, file sharing, end-to-end encryption, etc.

Some of the last major missing features include audio/video conferencing and desktop sharing. The goal of this project is to implement one2one calls first and then multi-user conferencing and desktop sharing, while using the e2e encryption mechanisms provided by the ecosystem where possible. These features will be available on the various front-ends, including web, desktop, and even command line.

Compatibility will be ensured with the wider XMPP ecosystem, to ensure that calls can be made without problems with other software such as Conversations or Movim.

Read more about Audio/Video Calls in Libervia.

BigBlueButton server-side plugins — Server-side extensions for BBB videoconferencing tool

BigBlueButton is a widely used free and open source conferencing tool. This project will create a server-side extension mechanism for BBB, which would allow additional functionality to be exposed. Third-party applications such as for instance a Learning Management System like Moodle, can then request that BigBlueButton send a POST request with credentials to connect back when a room is created - meaning it can access real-time session data, process it, and interact dynamically with the session.

Read more about BigBlueButton server-side plugins.

Dino — User-friendly and secure instant messaging

Dino is an open-source messaging application. It uses XMPP as an underlying protocol, which allows federated, provider-independent communication and offers a world-wide network of interconnected servers. Dino aims to be secure and privacy-friendly while at the same time offering a good user experience and a modern feature set. This project will add encrypted audio/video calling functionality between two or more parties. The implementation will rely on existing standards to interoperate with other XMPP applications.

Read more about Dino.

Federated webinars for eduMEET — Extended platform for distributed online webinars based on eduMEET

The main aim of the project is a new functional scope of eduMEET: federated webinars for big online meetings. eduMEET is a free and open-source video conferencing (VC) application that allows organisations of any size to build and deploy cost-effective on-premises web-based VC services. It is an easy-to-use solution that originated within the European Research and Education community. It is focused on security and privacy, and designed to give full control and ownership of ones own data and video streams.

A key aspect of the project is providing efficient engines for communication between distributed eduMEET instances, in order to provide support for large scale webinars. Additionally, eduMEET will add dedicated layout for webinars (speaker’s view), specific user roles and privileges (Panelist and Passive Participant) as well as a management module. The end result will be a full featured webinar platform that is an attractive low cost alternative to expensive proprietary services.

Read more about Federated webinars for eduMEET.

Follow-me slideshow for Collabora Online — Accessible slideshows for videoconferencing tools

Collabora Online is an open source online office suite built on LibreOffice technology, enabling web-based collaborative real-time editing of word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and vector graphics. This project improve the presentation mode with a feature where one leader can control the presentation and others can remotely follow this easily, including slide transitions, animations and other complex content. This includes some accessibility support and integration into existing open-source video call software.

Read more about Follow-me slideshow for Collabora Online, Follow-me slideshow for Jitsi.

Galene — High quality libre videoconferencing server

Galene is a complete self-hosted videoconferencing system that has been designed to be easy to install and to manage, to preserve the users' privacy, and that uses very moderate server resources. Galene has been continuously used in production to host university lectures and staff meetings since September 2020, as well as to host a number of international conferences during the COVID pandemic. The goal of this project is to improve Galene to make it use state-of-the-art networking and video algorithms, to improve its management features, and to add a number of user-visible features, such as background blur and automatic subtitling.

Read more about Galene, Galene.

Interpretation feature for Big Blue Button — Adding translator streams for live interpretation to BBB conference software

BigBlueButton is one of the leading open source videoconference solutions. The project will add support for simultaneous interpretation to BigBlueButton. Participants of a meeting will be able to choose the language they would like to listen to. Interpreters can choose which language they listen to and into which language they interpret. The solution can be combined with classical radio setups for interpretation already used in grassroot events to enable interpretation in hybrid situations.

Read more about Interpretation feature for Big Blue Button.

Kaidan A/V — Secure audio and video calls for Kaidan and QXmpp

Kaidan is a user-friendly and modern chat app for every device. It uses the open communication protocol XMPP (Jabber). Unlike other chat apps, you are not dependent on one specific service provider. Instead, you can choose between various servers and clients. Kaidan is one of those XMPP clients.

In contrast to many other XMPP clients, it is easy to get started and switch devices with Kaidan. Additionally, it adapts to your operating system and device's dimensions. It runs on mobile and desktop systems including Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, Plasma Mobile and Ubuntu Touch.

The user interface makes use of Kirigami and QtQuick. The back-end of Kaidan is entirely written in C++ using Qt and the Qt-based XMPP library QXmpp. This project aims to add audio/video calls to Kaidan in a standards-compliant manner.

Read more about Kaidan A/V, Kaidan.

Macaw Instant Messenger Web/Desktop — XMPP client written in Rust

Macaw Instant Messenger is a cross-platform retro-modern federated chat client utilising the Jabber/XMPP protocol. It takes the best from all of the eras of instant messaging to build a fast, featureful and fun application which runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, the web, and eventually mobile, all backed by a shared core logic in Rust. The intention for this grant is to port the current web client to Tauri, which enables the client logic to run natively within a desktop application, as well as to implement new features such as group chats and sticker/emoji packs to improve usability. Further, to lay the groundwork for later development of features such as group video calls and end-to-end message encryption, as well as ports to other platforms.

Read more about Macaw Instant Messenger Web/Desktop.

Movim — Add end-to-end encrypted videocalls to Movim XMPP

Movim is a web-based social and chat platform that acts as a frontend for the XMPP network. The goal of this project is to modernize and extend the long-existing audio and video conferencing features in three major steps. First, the existing UI will be completely refactored and redesigned to better integrate the conferencing features into the existing pages and flows. Secondly, Movim will support one-to-many call features and offer full compatibility with other XMPP clients building upon the step-one features but without relying on a central server to handle the media streams. And finally, to handle conference calls with a large number of participants, Movim will standardize and integrate SFU (Selective Forwarding Unit) support that will then lift the streams network bottlenecks offering a complete and scalable experience to its users. With those three steps fulfilled Movim will then be able to greatly simplify fully standard XMPP audio and video conferencing calls on the web.

Read more about Movim.

Mustang - UI components — Integrated email, team chat, video conference, calendar and file exchange

Mustang (also known as Parula) is an Open-Source desktop and mobile app that seamlessly integrates email with team chat, video conference, calendar and file exchange into a single app for communication. It is available for Windows, macOS, Linux and planned for Android and iOS. It respects user privacy and data sovereignty, keeping the data on your own computer systems. By supporting various open protocols (and optionally through extensions also closed protocols of multiple vendors), it allows for a smooth transition to openness. In this project, certain UI components will be developed, the File Sharing UI be improved, and a prototype UI for Structured Data in email (SML) be implemented. As time permits, other components will be developed as well.

Read more about Mustang - UI components, Mustang UX.

Sylk Contacts — Cross-protocol real-time communications client

The connection between the end-user experience of communication applications and the open standards that power them has long been sought, yet often remains unresolved. Sylk Contacts provides this missing link—a crucial building block that makes SIP and WebRTC protocols more user-friendly in terms of interface and overall customer experience. It offers a solid foundation for developing applications that start from an existing or newly created contact list, and automatically synchronize those contacts across multiple devices, whether desktop or mobile, when using the same SIP account. This, in turn, enables a clean and reliable way to handle calls and chat messages seamlessly across devices, significantly improving the usability of SIP-based applications.

Read more about Sylk Contacts.

Sylk Mobile — Secure real-time mobile communications

Internet communications privacy is important to users, and there is a limited set of encrypted multiparty audio and videoconferencing solutions available to consumers and businesses today. The market, predominantly occupied by proprietary services that often require risky plugins, lack introspection and transparency, proved to expose users to significant security and privacy issues. This trend must be counteracted by better open source equivalents. Sylk Mobile provides a multi-party video encrypted conferencing solution mean to run on an end user computer or a mobile device. It is based on the WebRTC standard, and has a focus on user privacy and easy of use.

Read more about Sylk Mobile.

Sylk Persistent Group Chat — Encrypted enterprise-ready persistent group chat over SIP

Sylk is a feature-rich standards based communication suite and conferencing server. Originating from the SIP world and building on a mature protocol stack, it provides a FOSS softphone alternative to proprietary platforms. Currently, Sylk supports end-to-end encrypted one-to-one messaging and multiparty audio / video calls. This project will add fully encrypted group chat capabilities, bringing end-to-end encryption to multiparty conversations. This development would help position it as a privacy-first alternative to mainstream platforms for individuals and businesses, while maintaining its core strength of being a self hostable, standards-based communication platform.

Read more about Sylk Persistent Group Chat.

Better Sound for Open Source Video Calls — Voice isolation and optimization for FOSS conferencing tools

Speech on web based videoconferencing is notoriously hard to get right, as microphones pick up ambient audio as well. This project will deliver speech optimisation for FOSS video calls platforms by integrating WASM based sound quality improvements - which is compatible with E2EE and which can run client-side, allowing the user to have nicer audio while not straining the conferencing servers. Well-processed audio makes voices sound more natural, engaging, and pleasant, which reduces listener fatigue, supports concentration, and enhances overall communication.

Read more about Better Sound for Open Source Video Calls.

Element Call on Cisco Room hardware — E2EE Matrix video conferences on existing Cisco hardware

This projects aims to develop plugins for using browser-based video conferencing software on existing Cisco Roomkit devices (Matrix/Element). This means a functional upgrade and longer utilisation for existing Cisco/Webex meeting room hardware, as found in both private companies and public institutions. The project will develop plugins for deployment and operation of Matrix/Element - a browser-based, open source video conferencing solution. This will remove the dependency on the proprietary cloud-based back-end provided by the vendor and thus allow this expensive hardware to continue to be used after Cisco stops supporting the hardware. The same equipment can even be upgraded to support end-to-end encryption for secure communication.

Read more about Element Call on Cisco Room hardware.