How many people here have actually used XMPP?

With all the current discussion about the threat that Instagram Threads has on the Fediverse and that article about how Google Embrace Extend Extinguished XMPP, I was left very confused, since that was the first time I’ve heard that Gchat supported XMPP or what XMPP actually is, and I’ve had my personal Gmail since beta (no, don’t ask for it), and before then, everybody was using AOL/MSN Messenger to talk with each other online. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a single person who started using Gchat as an XMPP client.

Instead of a plot where Google took over XMPP userbase via EEE, it just seem to me more like XMPP was a niche protocol that very few hardcore enthusiasts used, and then Google tried to add support for it in their product, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth the development effort to support a feature that very few of their users actually used and abandoned it in typical Google fashion.

So, to prove my point, how many people have used XMPP here, and how many people here haven’t?

ninekeysdown,
@ninekeysdown@lemmy.world avatar

I LOVE XMPP!

I’m still upset that it didn’t take off like email did. It is/was the best federated instant messaging platform ever.

However with things like discord and to a lesser extent matrix, I don’t see it ever making a comeback and being widely used. I think google dropping it and going full hangouts was the final nail in its coffin 😞

raunz,
@raunz@mander.xyz avatar

F

mvirts,

Not with that attitude! Get a server set up ! :P

ninekeysdown,
@ninekeysdown@lemmy.world avatar

Lol yeah, but why do that when conversations.im is doing an amazing job of making great software and running an amazing service? Plus with super easy and simple E2E it’s pretty damn secure and private!

mvirts,

Lol I did a double take when I saw a us bank account and routing number provided for donations :P

Looks legit to me!!

ninekeysdown,
@ninekeysdown@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, They offer XMPP hosting and other services. Having a bank account setup to collect donations and what would make it easier for B2B transactions.

Given all the scams and stuff these days I can see where that would raise some concerns though.

I’ve been using them for nearly a decade. I think they’re one of the only places around that host XMPP like that too.

amanneedsamaid,

XMPP is far superior to matrix for one on one and group messaging, imo. Matrix is useful for communities, as you said, like discord is.

drmoose,

When I managed to connect my Pidgin to all networks some-years-ago it was amazing. Everyone thought I was a wizard.

christophski,

Pidgin was so sick, I miss those simpler times

Gellis12,

I still run my own xmpp server!

But I’m the only one who has an account on it :/

JTskulk,

I used it back in the day before I could figure out how to use a mail server. I had shell scripts send me messages that way. I thought it was the coolest thing that I could receive instant messages while offline.

realcaseyrollins,

I have! ✋🏾

rbos,
@rbos@lemmy.ca avatar

I used it so my IRC client would bridge to Google Talk via Bitlbee. It was super nice.

marsokod,
@marsokod@lemmy.world avatar

I used it. Had a few accounts on different servers, used XMPP between Facebook and Gmail, and ended with my own server but all of that is gone.

samtheeagle,
@samtheeagle@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve got my own XMPP server running on a raspberry pi so that I can have a safe chat app with my kids. I didn’t want to expose them to the wider world at their age, but it’s great to have a chat / video calling app that’s all routed through my private kit. So now when they’re ignoring my messages I know that they 100% safe online 🤣

Ricaz,
@Ricaz@lemmy.world avatar

I used it a lot for Eve Online. Lots of big alliances/corps in the game defaulted to XMPP. Some used IRC or Slack when it came out. Nowadays everyone uses Discord though.

pumpkin,

I used it a lot, not through Google’s gchat stuff, I ran my own XMPP server. It worked really well, I used the OTR encryption plugin in pidgeon. My work also used to use xmpp for internal chat within the company, however they switched to matrix like 5-6 years ago. Something I’ve since done personally too.

I like XMPP a lot, it worked well, including it being federated.

damnYouSun,

I wonder if that’s what someone at work was using the other day.

It looks like AOL Messenger, complete with all sound effects, but it runs on Windows 11.

Doomrabbit,
@Doomrabbit@lemmy.world avatar

I used it during Google’s embrace via Talk. I work as a web dev and it was awesome to have a chat protocol on my desktops and phones which just worked on any platform, just download the XMPP app and sign in. SMS bridging also allowed me to keep my phone in my pocket for simple messages. I saw outside the walled garden concept, and it was wonderful. It felt like the future, but Google killed it. I have never forgiven them.

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

I don’t even know what XMPP is. It sounds like a media player from the early 2000’s. I keep seeing it talked about here on Lemmy tho.

Someology,
@Someology@lemmy.world avatar

That was a great little mp3 app. It worked better on a low-resource, low-memory system than all the competition at the time (late 1990s). This is instead referring to the chat protocol that Google Talk ran on. It was formerly called Jabber.

SFaulken,
@SFaulken@kbin.social avatar

That's XMMP different thing =P

Someology,
@Someology@lemmy.world avatar

LOL! Thanks for the clarification! Great blast from the past, though.

masterspace,

Thank you for posting some sanity.

People keep posting that dumb blog post about Google Talk being an extend, embrace, extinguish play when it’s pretty obvious that Google Talk simply dwarved XMPP in terms of users. The lesson everyone here took from that is to not let any corporation near your niche protocol, when the real lesson they should’ve taken is that user’s don’t care about protocols and how open or virtuistic they are, they just want an app that’s convenient to have a conversation with.

XMPP only lasted as long as it did because Google Talk kept it alive by supporting it, once they dropped it (and literally no one noticed) then XMPP died the death it would’ve died years earlier had Google not helped limp it along.

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t know about sanity, I just thought all the panic here certainly looks overblown but I didn’t know enough about XMPP to make a judgement.

So, just wanted to get more understanding here.

picnic, (edited )

You're not getting an objective answer to the "did most of the Gtalk/Facebook messenger users even know they were using xmpp, or care?" from lemmy/kbin/fediverse users in 2023, as most here likely do care a wee bit more of the technical and privacy matters than the average joe.

However, I used XMPP personally via integrating it to my irc (weechat+bitlbee) so I could get all the IM services under one interface. I'm doing the same now with Matrix: I have irc, whatsapp, my smart home messages etc all forwarded to matrix.

We also built XMPP chat at our company which I was working for back in the day. I think it was called Jabber back then. Biggest drawback in my opinion was the lack of encryption out of the box - encryption should've been more integrated to XMPP from the get go, instead of being an extension.

XMPP/Jabber is once again a thing that could've been great for everyone. We could have one singular decentralized technology to IM which would've been open to all and interoperable. If approx 20% of the world's population has a google account and 35% facebook account, at least every third person in the world would've been reachable via XMPP. And if it would've reached critical mass, it would've likely been even bigger.

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

I know I’m not getting the perspective of the average consumer (which is also why this is the perfect audience for the “Barbie” promotion), part of me is just curious about the perspective of enthusiasts on XMPP, since I know very little about it.

Silviecat44,

And also, most of the people who will want to reply to this post will have used xmpp and want to tel their story

japps13,

How do you forward Whatsapp to matrix? Is it two-way?

picnic,

https://github.com/mautrix/whatsapp

Yeah, I've not touched whatsapp in years

ProtonBadger,

I used Jabber with the Pidgin client, my impression was also it was mostly developers and open source enthusiasts. Most people I knew who were not of those circles used commercial things like ICQ, MSN Messenger, AIM, etc. Frequently Jabber/XMPP enthusiasts had to use clients that supported it as well as some form of gateway to the other clients. Trillian was a popular multi-protocol client.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • uselessserver093
  • Food
  • aaaaaaacccccccce
  • [email protected]
  • test
  • CafeMeta
  • testmag
  • MUD
  • RhythmGameZone
  • RSS
  • dabs
  • Socialism
  • KbinCafe
  • TheResearchGuardian
  • oklahoma
  • feritale
  • SuperSentai
  • KamenRider
  • All magazines
    •