Why use CoyIM?
CoyIM is a standalone chat client for computers that focuses on safety and security. It is a self-contained program that runs on Windows, Linux and macOS, and that is safe from the moment it starts up. CoyIM only supports one chat protocol - XMPP (sometimes known as Jabber). When creating CoyIM, we carefully evaluate and pick the features that are necessary to create a good chat experience, while keeping the attack surface of the system to a minimum. At the same time, we want CoyIM to be part of an open ecosystem. You will not be locked in by using CoyIM. You can talk to people using other XMPP and OTR clients as well. CoyIM also allows you to use accounts you have already created with other programs.
It also has built-in support for Tor, OTR and TLS. The Tor support allows your connection to be anonymous while chatting, OTR makes end-to-end encryption of communication possible, and TLS adds another layer of encryption to the communication with the chat servers.
These features are core parts of the application; they are not plugins or extras in any way, and you never have to turn them on to use them. They will be available to protect you without any extra actions on your part.
CoyIM is implemented in the Go programming language. Many other implementation languages open up the door for a large number of attacks; we try to minimize those risks by using Go.
The source code for CoyIM is publicly available under the GPLv3 license. CoyIM is free software which anyone can download and use. You are free to make your own modifications as well. CoyIM uses many different libraries to function, and is a part of the wider open source ecosystem. Being open source means that anyone can verify that the source code does what it is supposed to, and it also means that you can build your own copy of the program if you need to make sure no modifications have been made. All of this significantly improves the security of the project.
