[kwlug-disc] Cross Platform Messaging Clients

[Jason Locklin]

On May 13, 2016 11:16:30 AM EDT, "Andrew Kohlsmith (mailing lists account)" <aklists at mixdown.ca> wrote:
>> On May 13, 2016, at 10:56 AM, Jason Locklin <locklin.jason at gmail.com>
>wrote:
>> True, but it's never been terribly good at IRC. Dedicated IRC and
>XMPP
>> clients have generally been quicker to implement new features and
>> support old ones consistently. It's a big load trying to support many
>> protocols *and* keeping the UI functioning well.
>
>When’s the last time IRC had a feature added?

When it comes to IRC, probably more the supporting of old features consistently, or supporting ui (not protocol) features we might expect from an IRC client. I certainly wouldn't switch from weechat to pidgin for IRC.


>This problem is a good example of why we need a singular strong
>protocol specification for unified communications, and I think XMPP is
>by far the best positioned for this. Text, voice, video, federation,
>encryption, multi-user chat, unicode, file transfer… it’s all there,
>although admittedly in various stages of completeness. 

On a related note. Has anyone spent any time playing with Matrix.org? It seems to be a competitor to XMPP. It's very similar,  but bridges at the server-level to other networks, like IRC, XMPP, and proprietary networks are "first class" features. Interestingly, multi-user chats are not tied to a particular server, and identities are connected across protocols (including chat history). Like XMPP, Its federated, easy to self-host, and there is an open server for others.