I guess that sucks because I make a living working in cyber security. What do I know, amirite? 🤷

No. XMPP would be the best choice.

Wait till everyone, including audiophools, find out how their super hi-res old recordings are made. :)

Check out "monocles chat" as replacement for Cheogram. They look very similar but monocles comes with some functionality and UI tweaks.