there are so many services available to keep in touch with people, but lately ive been finding many of them to have major privacy and/or security flaws, googles more recent clients, MSN, skype, whatsapp, and kik is mobile device only (which is pretty stupid as its just glorified xmpp anyway)

but which is most private and secure? which one isnt going to have conversations recorded, monitored, or personal information copied?.. im looking for something as close to private as an in-person conversation an internet IM protocol could possibly be.. what are my options? jabber, wickr, something else?

https://jitsi.org/

https://jitsi.org/Documentation/FAQ

https://download.jitsi.org/jitsi/debian/

It worked for me in AntiX till I switched over to Hello Firefox in Iceweasel in Debian unstable repos.

well i need something thats also fairly simple to set up on multiple platforms, including android.. im trying to find one good messaging program to use and convince others to use too for privacy and security

is jabber and wickr as private as they claim to be?

Going from "who has your back" to
"The Most Trusted Messenger in the World." seems a bit of a stretch.

Both types of encryption are optional in XMPP, but Wildfire can be configured to accept only encrypted connections.
Wildfire is now openfire.

The most secure IM Protocol has to be xmpp (the jabber) protocol.
openfire server is simple to setup. Client software support Linux and Windows platforms.
Their native Spark Client is java-based, but I don't know if the
jabber program can connect to an Openfire Server. I don't see why it wouldn't.

http://www.igniterealtime.org/projec...fire/index.jsp
https://community.igniterealtime.org/docs/DOC-1091

Good Luck.

so then, XMPP/jabber is about the best out there?.. probably because its not maintained by any corporation and is largely open?.. what sort of encryption is best with it?, i'll look into openfire to see what the difference is, they do not have a mobile device app though but i wonder if it could connect to an XMPP client on android such as "xabber"

i looked at xabber beta as an android app (pidgin for PC) and both i believe offer OTR encryption and proxies.. doing more research into projects like jitsl and TOR, they seem to be XMPP based with OTR encryption as well

Private-SMS apps are easy to find, e.g. http://androgeek.com/best-texting-apps-android/.