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> Update. And I would love to see a modern federated chat protocol to take off. Something like http://matrix.org/ http://matrix.org/. XMPP?

ash 11y ago
Unfortunately XMPP didn't take off. Notice how it's nowhere near as ubiquitous as email and web standards. Also notice how nearly all modern chat services don't support XMPP. I'd argue there are technical reasons for this situation. Try searching for "XMPP" in this thread for details.
- twelvenmonkeys 11y ago
  Except WhatsApp and until recently, Google Chat / Hangouts.
  - ash 11y ago
    Yes, thank you. But none of them support XMPP federation (only Google supported it the past). And I would add Facebook to your "until recently" example.
- mkesper 11y ago
  These services don't want federation. At all. XMPP is an awful soup of incompatible servers and clients, though.
e12e 11y ago
On my last evaluation, I found the two most interesting to look at matrix and tox.chat. But in the context of a slack-alternative, matrix is definitely the one to look at. Also has an IRC bridge: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc As for XMPP, I think it is still entirely viable as an alternative to using a brand new protocol and brand new clients and servers. But if you want solid off-line messaging, server-side logging and scalable group chat -- there aren't any out-of-the box combination of free/open servers and clients that will work, as far as I've been able to figure out. I assume one would want a solid command line client, solid gui clients for Windows, OSX, Linux/BSD, Android, iOS and Windows phone, along with a good web client. I don't think you can pick-and-choose a XMPP server and clients that will provide all that, today. It is certainly possible to make that, standing on the shoulders of various open projects -- but the effort would be anything but trivial. I'd be happy to be proved wrong, though!

ash 11y ago

Unfortunately XMPP didn't take off. Notice how it's nowhere near as ubiquitous as email and web standards. Also notice how nearly all modern chat services don't support XMPP. I'd argue there are technical reasons for this situation. Try searching for "XMPP" in this thread for details.

twelvenmonkeys 11y ago
Except WhatsApp and until recently, Google Chat / Hangouts.
- ash 11y ago
  Yes, thank you. But none of them support XMPP federation (only Google supported it the past). And I would add Facebook to your "until recently" example.
mkesper 11y ago
These services don't want federation. At all. XMPP is an awful soup of incompatible servers and clients, though.

e12e 11y ago

On my last evaluation, I found the two most interesting to look at matrix and tox.chat. But in the context of a slack-alternative, matrix is definitely the one to look at. Also has an IRC bridge: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc As for XMPP, I think it is still entirely viable as an alternative to using a brand new protocol and brand new clients and servers. But if you want solid off-line messaging, server-side logging and scalable group chat -- there aren't any out-of-the box combination of free/open servers and clients that will work, as far as I've been able to figure out. I assume one would want a solid command line client, solid gui clients for Windows, OSX, Linux/BSD, Android, iOS and Windows phone, along with a good web client. I don't think you can pick-and-choose a XMPP server and clients that will provide all that, today. It is certainly possible to make that, standing on the shoulders of various open projects -- but the effort would be anything but trivial. I'd be happy to be proved wrong, though!