[Discuss] What (free software) options are people using for chat?

[ingegnue at riseup.net (IngeGNUe)]

For me the most important feature of chat is encryption. I have used:

* For texting, Silence formerly SMSSecure formerly TextSecure -- but
everyone is using Signal these days (because it is highly promoted?), so
I'm gonna probably move on to that once I get the chance to sit down and
work on bypassing the need for Google Apps. I guess Signal is not
totally free software, which is annoying, but its free components can be
used.

* For IRC, irssi and XChat, both have plugins to force SSL and plugins
to do OTR (Off the Record) or PGP encryption

* For traditional IMs, Pidgin with OTR is my go-to app. I've tried Tox
but had connection problems.