I actually prefer XMPP. It's also less of a hassle to set up than Matrix and the protocol is much more mature. There are still issues, but it's rather functional for audio and video calls (if you're using a supported client).
Edit: For clients, I use Cheogram on Android and Profanity (which is a TUI) or DinoX (for calls) on Linux.
"Woman," "she," and "her," because we apparently still can't possibly conceive of a female individual with a male-coded gender presentation or identity despite hundreds of years of examples.
I suppose we'll never know for sure, but it's not even mentioned in the article as a possibility.