Now all of my close friends, with whom I chat regularly, are on #xmpp!  I'll be trying to get some more people.  I had to distribute the Conversations app directly to them as they were unlikely to install "one more app" (viz. f-droid) to install Conversations.

I try not to mention the word "xmpp", instead I say "Just install Conversations".  As hearing the word "xmpp" will probably scare them as well.