Chat and video calls
Module 7: Collaborating, apps and security · Reading time: 10 minutes
Learning objective: After this lesson you can choose a European alternative for chat and video calling and organise the move from Teams, Slack or Zoom, including what to do with your chat history.
Key concepts: chat, conversation or channel, video meeting, guest without an account, lobby (waiting room), moderator, transport encryption, end-to-end encryption, chat history, retention obligation, open standard (Matrix), self-hosting
Why chat is the trickiest part
Mail, calendars and files have open standards: IMAP, CalDAV, WebDAV. You can copy those from one provider to another. Chat and video calling are different. Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom and WhatsApp each have their own system. You can't "import" a conversation from Teams into another chat app. So you start again.
That sounds worse than it is. For Bakkerij De Korrel, it comes down to three things: quickly asking a colleague something ("are the currant buns ready yet?"), a weekly meeting with the bakers who work from home to plan things, and the occasional video call with a customer or supplier. Any modern chat programme can do that. The tricky part lies in the habits and the old messages.
What do you need? Four questions
Before choosing a programme, answer four questions:
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Who talks to whom? Only colleagues, or customers and suppliers too? | People from outside your organisation need to be able to join without an account (guest link). |
| How many people are in a video call? | 2 to 10 people works almost anywhere; 50 or more needs a programme built for that. |
| Does anything need to be kept? | Agreements made in chat can be business data. Think about retention obligations and what happens when someone leaves. |
| How sensitive is what you discuss? | Determines whether transport encryption is enough or whether you want end-to-end encryption. |
European and open alternatives
There are broadly two kinds of solutions: chat and calling as part of your cloud environment, and standalone programmes.
| Solution | What it is | Behind the software | Self-host? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nextcloud Talk | Chat, calling and video meetings in Nextcloud, alongside your files and calendar | Nextcloud GmbH, Germany; open source | Yes, or with a Nextcloud provider |
| Matrix with Element | Open standard for chat; Element is the best-known app. Servers can talk to each other (federation) | Element (London, UK); the Matrix standard is managed by the Matrix.org Foundation | Yes, or with a provider |
| Jitsi Meet | Video meetings in the browser, without an account | Open source, developed by the American company 8x8 | Yes, many European parties run their own Jitsi server |
| BigBlueButton | Video meetings for lessons and webinars (whiteboard, breakout rooms) | Open source, originally from Canada | Yes, or with a provider |
| Threema | Messaging app with end-to-end encryption, also a business version | Threema GmbH, Switzerland | No (but there is a business management environment) |
| Wire | Business messaging app with end-to-end encryption | Wire Swiss GmbH, Zug (Switzerland), development in Berlin | Limited (for large customers) |
Two things stand out. Switzerland and the UK are not EU members. For both countries, the European Commission has adopted an adequacy decision: data may go there without extra measures (lesson 2.1). And "open source, developed by an American company" (Jitsi) means something different from "service run by an American company". If you run Jitsi on your own server or with a European provider, your conversation doesn't go via 8x8. The software belongs to everyone; the service belongs to whoever runs the server.
Transport, end-to-end, and who runs the server
Almost all programmes encrypt the connection between your device and the server. This is called transport encryption. Someone on the same Wi-Fi network can't read along, but the server itself can, in principle.
With end-to-end encryption, only the participants can read or hear the conversation, not even the server administrator. Threema and Wire do this by default. Matrix can do it per conversation, and in Element it's switched on by default for private conversations. For Nextcloud Talk and Jitsi, it depends on the version and the server settings. Assume that the server administrator can see chat messages unless your provider states otherwise in writing.
For a bakery discussing the schedule, transport encryption is usually enough, provided the server is run by a party you trust and that falls under European law. If you discuss medical data or confidential negotiations, end-to-end encryption matters more.
Guests, lobby and moderators
Customers and suppliers don't have an account in your environment. That's what a guest link is for: anyone with the link can join via the browser, without installing anything. That's convenient, but also a risk, because a link can be forwarded.
Three habits keep it safe:
- Put a password on the link and send it via a different channel, for example by text message.
- Use a lobby (waiting room): guests wait until a moderator opens the meeting and lets them in.
- Switch off guest access afterwards, or create a new conversation for each meeting.
What do you do with the old chat history?
Messages from Teams, Slack or WhatsApp don't come with you. So decide in advance:
- What needs to be kept? Agreements with customers, decisions, quotes that were discussed in chat. These shouldn't really be kept only in chat. Put them in a document or an email before you switch over.
- What can go? Most of it: "running 5 minutes late", photos of lunch, one-off questions.
- How do you keep the rest? Teams and Slack have export functions for administrators (in Microsoft 365 via eDiscovery, in Slack via the workspace's export function, depending on your plan). You then get files (often JSON or HTML) which you keep as an archive in a folder with restricted access. They won't be searchable in your new chat programme.
- For how long? Keep the archive for as long as needed for your records or agreements, and no longer. If it contains personal data, the GDPR also applies to the archive.
Also set aside the files shared in Teams channels separately. In Microsoft 365 these are usually stored in SharePoint or OneDrive and move across with the file migration (lesson 6.1), not with the chat.
The switch itself
A chat programme only works once everyone uses it. Switching halfway is the worst option: then nobody knows where a message is. So:
- Choose one date on which the new programme becomes the only chat programme.
- Create the conversations you need in advance: a general conversation, one per team (at De Korrel: "bakery", "shop", "delivery") and one for the weekly meeting.
- Have everyone install the app on phone and computer before that date (lesson 7.2).
- Pin a message in the old programme: "From Monday we'll chat in Talk. Please don't reply here any more."
- Set the old programme to read-only after a few weeks, then stop using it.
In practice: what it looks like with a provider
In this example we use Nextcloud Talk in a WebOké Nextcloud. Talk is included in packages with an Office licence. You open Talk via the icon at the top. On the start page your conversations are on the left; the Start meeting now button immediately creates a meeting with a link, and Check devices lets you test your camera and microphone. You switch on guest access per conversation under Conversation settings, under Administration; that's also where you set a password. The lobby is under Meeting. Recording conversations and calling ordinary phone numbers isn't possible in this environment.
With other Nextcloud providers, and with Matrix, Jitsi or BigBlueButton services, it works in a similar way: guest link, password, waiting room and moderators may have different names, but the idea is the same.
Summary
- Chat conversations don't move across to a new programme. Put anything important into a document or email beforehand, and export the rest as an archive.
- Choose based on four questions: who, how many, what needs to be kept, how sensitive.
- Transport encryption protects data in transit; end-to-end encryption also protects against the server. Who runs the server matters.
- Keep guests safe: password, lobby, guest access switched off afterwards.
- Switch over on one fixed date, with the apps already installed.
Quiz
Exercise
Exercise E7.1: Preparing your chat switch. Answer the four questions from this lesson for your own organisation, make a list of the chat groups and channels you currently have, and determine for each group: what needs to be kept, where it will be stored, and which conversation in the new programme will replace it.
Exercise E7.1: Preparing your chat switch
Plan the chat switch so that nothing important gets lost and everyone switches on the same day.
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Further reading
The steps in these articles apply to WebOké's services; with other providers it works in a similar way.
- Nextcloud manual 10.1: What is Talk and who has it?
- Nextcloud manual 10.3: Video calling and meetings: camera, microphone, background and raising your hand
- Nextcloud manual 10.5: Inviting guests via a link (without an account)
- Nextcloud manual 16.22: Guests in a Talk meeting with a waiting room (lobby)
- Video calling in Nextcloud Talk not working: causes and solutions
- Matrix specification: https://spec.matrix.org/