Nextcloud Talk: chat and video calls on a system you control
Nextcloud Talk adds chat, audio and video calls, screen sharing, guest meetings and webinars to Nextcloud, the open-source platform for files, calendars and contacts. It runs on the same server as your files, under the same accounts, so your conversations stay where your documents already are, on infrastructure you choose. Talk is free software under the GNU Affero General Public License, and its calls can be end-to-end encrypted. This article explains what Talk does, how a call travels, how large a meeting it handles and what it takes to run.
Conversations are records too
A business's conversations hold as much as its documents: decisions, client details, prices, plans. Where chat and calls run decides who holds that record, under which law, and for how long. Nextcloud describes Talk as a fully self-hosted communication service for an organisation's own private cloud, or for hosting with a provider you trust. With Talk, the service is run by you or by a provider you have a contract with.
What Talk does
- Chat in one-to-one and group conversations, with file sharing, mentions and polls.
- Audio and video calls, private or in a group, with screen sharing, a raised-hand signal, and moderators who manage microphones, cameras and screen sharing.
- Guests by link. Invite people outside the organisation into a public conversation with a link, with an optional password and a lobby where they wait until the meeting starts.
- Webinars and breakout rooms for larger sessions and workshops.
- Calls across organisations. Federated conversations let users on different Nextcloud servers chat and call each other, so two organisations each keep their own server.
- Bridges to other chat systems through Matterbridge, set up per conversation.
Talk is woven into the rest of Nextcloud: share a file from Files into a chat, start a call from a calendar event, and use the same sign-in and the same users throughout. It works in the browser, in a desktop app, and in mobile apps for Android and iOS.
How a call travels
Talk first tries to connect participants directly to each other, peer to peer. In that mode each participant sends an end-to-end encrypted stream to every other participant, and Nextcloud states that Talk supports end-to-end encrypted calls in the browser and in its desktop app. Calls require HTTPS.
Two extra services make calls work well beyond a small office:
- A TURN server relays a call when a participant is behind a strict firewall or a network that blocks direct connections. Without one, some people cannot join at all.
- The High-performance backend, developed with Nextcloud's partner Struktur AG, handles signalling and forwards media through a central server. It already halves each participant's upload from the third participant onwards, and some features, such as typing indicators, need it.
How large a call it handles
Talk's documentation is specific:
| Set-up | What it supports |
|---|---|
| Peer to peer, no High-performance backend | About 20 participants in a typical set-up with fast connections and video off; each video stream uses about 1 Mbit/s per other participant |
| With the High-performance backend | Typically 30 to 50 or more active participants, and hundreds of passive viewers |
For a team that meets in small groups, peer-to-peer calls with a TURN server are enough. For all-staff meetings, training sessions or webinars, plan for the High-performance backend. Talk's documentation also notes that calls add significant load to the server, so size it for the meetings you expect.
Nextcloud as one system
Talk is one part of a wider case. With Nextcloud, files, calendars, contacts, chat and calls share one set of accounts, one permission model and one place to back up. It is built on open standards: WebDAV for files, CalDAV for calendars and CardDAV for contacts, so the data can be synced out at any time. Nextcloud publishes a new major version every four months and supports each for a year, and its source code is public under the AGPL. A system like that can be inspected, moved and kept for as long as the organisation needs it.
What it takes to run
Talk is installed from the Nextcloud app store. For a production service you also need:
- HTTPS on the Nextcloud server
- a TURN server for participants on restrictive networks
- the High-performance backend for larger calls
- a database other than SQLite, and a server sized for call load
Nextcloud All-in-One, Nextcloud's own packaged installation, includes a ready-to-use High-performance backend and TURN server, which makes it the simplest route for a new deployment. Our knowledgebase covers installing Nextcloud All-in-One on Ubuntu 24.04 and keeping it up to date.
Talk with Noiz
Noiz offers Nextcloud in two ways: accounts on the Nextcloud service we run, for files, calendars and contacts, and a Nextcloud of your own, on a server of its own, which we quote. Talk is an app you add to a Nextcloud, with its TURN server and High-performance backend, so it suits a Nextcloud of your own, sized for the calls your team makes. You can also run Nextcloud All-in-One yourself on a Noiz Cloud server, following our knowledgebase guides to installing and updating it.
If you would like a Nextcloud of your own, tell us how many people will use it and what you need it to do, and we will come back to you.
Sources
Checked 19 October 2026.
Nextcloud Talk
- Talk on GitHub and releases
- Talk user manual
- Nextcloud Talk
- Administration: scalability, quick install and High-performance backend, TURN, system requirements, Matterbridge, breakout rooms and webinars
Nextcloud
Noiz
- Nextcloud run by Noiz
- Noiz Cloud
- How to Install and Configure Nextcloud AIO on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
- How to Update Nextcloud All-in-One and Its Apps
Note: while some of this content was produced with the help of AI, the final editing has been done by a real human being.
