P2P caught my interest because of the possibilities that opens up when you remove the middle-man/server (even better call quality, no file size limits). But it doesn’t have to be P2P - I’m just a fan of “local first”, decentralization and democratization of technology in general.

I agree, we share the same sentiment about it. Unfortunatley I didn't find anything p2p near as either centralized or decentralized(federated) services are. I do have hope there will be good infrastructure and apps that are fully p2p with no blockchain scams around them in the near future around 5 years.

For now I think xmpp is the way to go. Here you have a list of servers, and there are plenty of clients avaiable. Clients: Web - inverse.chat, movim.eu (conversejs a framework to use xmpp on the web) Desktop - Gajim, Dino, Psi+ Android - Conversations (download from f-droid) <- this one is really good iOS - Monal

Here you have more info. XMPP also has it's own issues, for example metadata, different servers supporting different stuff, different client supporting different stuff but overall it is in a really usable state and stable. Just pick some servers that are not connected to companies or states.

Also a thing about matrix which is, from what I see, more popular than xmpp, my guess is due to more marketing. In my opinion it shouldn't be used nor should get any praise from privacy oriented people. Here is a good article going further.

I'd try Tox out also, seems good. And it's good to use those apps to normalize and boost p2p, by using them we are helping them in the long run. Also Signal is kinda good option, but it is centralized which is it's biggest flaw. I think Signal did most of the work by popularizing e2e protocol which now everyone use and that they will stagnate in a centralized stage, becoming nearly commercial product.