Kaidan is currently featured on apps.kde.org as the recommended XMPP/Jabber client. At the time of writing, it has an over one-year-old bug (bug 503330, reported April 25, 2025) that renders the application completely unusable for new users: On a fresh install, clicking on the “chat address” field on the login screen unfocuses it after a single keystroke so that credentials cannot be entered. There is no workaround.
I am guessing that the maintainers don’t experience this bug because they have accounts that they logged into before this bug appeared, which is why it’s gone untriaged for so long.
The reproduction steps in the bug are:
Start a fresh install of Kaidan
Attempt to focus the text field
The only way to actually use this application is to have logged in sometime prior to this bug appearing (which is, again, over a year old).
I am raising this as a curation issue, rather than a bug fix question, because the bug fix path clearly hasn’t worked. Should KDE be hosting an application on its official directory when that application cannot actually be used?
The page does say “Kaidan does not have all basic features yet and has still some stability issues,” but someone who reads this might expect some occasional crashes, not the application being completely non-functional.
A few options that would all be improvements over the current situation:
Delist Kaidan from apps.kde.org until login actually works
If delisting is too aggressive, add a prominent warning banner to the listing page
At absolute minimum, triage and prioritize bug 503330, a bug as serious as “cannot use the app” should not sit in REPORTED status for over a year.
I fully appreciate that maintainers are volunteers and you can’t force what they do, but what gets included in the official application directory is a curation issue, rather than a development one and I don’t think the KDE website endorsing software that doesn’t run serves the wider community.
I installed and ran it. I had no issues with the chat address field at all. I did not go any further, and have never used Kaidan before now.
same.
when i used the automatic account creation option, i did get this notification
To verify your registration please reply to this message providing a valid mail address if you fail to comply within five minutes your account will be automatically deleted. Also this account is currently in a locked state and you will be unable to use it properly until the verification process is completed.
which i have no way to respond to since i didn’t give it any email address yet and there is no Reply button in the notification.
however, i was also able to use the “Add a new contact” dialog box to create a fake jabber-ID and added it to my list of contacts.
altho, when i tried to add one of the many public chat offerings, it would just blink at a me when i clicked on it.
i admit i’m out of my depth with such a client, as my only experience with anything “chat” are those insipid “chat with us” popups on every website nowadays and reddit’s chat feature, which i hate.
