Anyone use XMPP?

Yo.

So why aren't you all using XMPP? Since people only seem to use skype for group messaging, why not use XMPP and break free from skype?

It's Free,
Open Source,
Extremely Secure AND allows third party plugins which can implement any missing encryption/security features,
Isn't controlled by one company, meaning even you can set up your own XMPP relay server and control the logs,
Has no cloud dependency issues,
has persisten chat rooms and 1:1 chats,
can even video call with the right plugin,
has file sharing,
is self hosted behind your firewall ON your computer,
has emoticons,
has web interfaces available,
works on Win, Mac, iOS, Android, Win Phone,
AND even has support for an API!

So why aren't you using it?

Think of the system similarly to how email accounts work, there's no one company that controls emails, they're just a protocol, there's many different email account providers, and many different email clients like Mozilla Thunderbird, etc. And even you can set up your own email server and decide all the SSL, Logs, and bandwidth settings on your own!

Here's a link to a good client:https://pidgin.im/download/
And here's a good link to a great provider that doesn't log:https://adastra.re/register/
(Be careful! There's no reset password function!)
If you're also looking for extreme security, there's functionality in Pidgin to integrate TOR relay's as a proxy, I would also recommend the very popular plugin OTR for encryption:
https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/

Also, if you're having trouble with the settings, here's how it should look if you're using Ad Astra: