Comparison of instant messaging protocols
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Basic general information about the protocols: creator, version, amongst others.
| Creator | First public release date | License | Identity (not inc. alias) | Asynchronous message relaying | Transport Layer Security | Unlimited number of contacts | Bulletins to all contacts | One-to-many routing 4 | SPAM protection | Supports groups or channels for members / nonmembers / nobody | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cspace | Cspace | 17 July 2006 | Open | Unique RSA-Key | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Gadu-Gadu | Gadu-Gadu | 17 July 2000 | Proprietary | Unique number e.g. 12345678 |
Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes (simple) | Yes |
| IRC | Jarkko Oikarinen | August 1988 | Open standard | Nickname!Username@hostname (or "hostmask") e.g. user!~usr@a.b.com 1 |
Yes, but via a memo system that
differs from the main system |
Yes, depending on individual server support | No 3 | No | Simplistic multicast | Medium | Yes (everyone, multiple simultaneous, any size) |
| Meca Network | Meca Communications | Nov 2002 | Proprietary | Username | Yes | No | ? | ||||
| MSNP (Windows Live Messenger, etc) | Microsoft | July 1999 | Proprietary | E-mail address (Windows Live ID) | Yes | No | Only for certified robots | No | Centralistic | None | ? |
| OSCAR protocol (AIM, ICQ) | AOL | 1997 | Proprietary | Username or UIN e.g. 12345678 |
Yes | Yes (Aim Pro, Aim Lite) | No | No | Centralistic | client-based | Yes (Multiple, simultaneous) |
| PSYC (Protocol for SYnchronous Conferencing) | PSYC Project | 1995 | Open | PSYC URI as in psyc://server.example.net/~nickname | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Custom multicast | Yes | Yes (multiple simultaneous, any size, programmable) |
| Retroshare | Retroshare | 21 March 2007 | Open | Unique RSA-Key | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| TOC protocol (deprecated) | AOL | ? | Proprietary | Username or UIN e.g. 12345678 |
Yes | No | Centralistic | paying members only | |||
| TOC2 protocol | AOL | Sep 2005 | Proprietary | Username or UIN e.g. 12345678 |
Yes | No | No | No | Centralistic | No | paying members only |
| XMPP (Jabber) | Jeremie Miller, standardized via IETF | January 1999 | Open standard | Jabber ID (JID) e.g. usr@a.b.c/home 2 |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unicast lists | Several Standardized Types | Optional |
| SIP/SIMPLE | IETF | Dec 2002 | Open standard | user@hostname | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Medium | ? |
| YMSG (Yahoo! Messenger) | Yahoo! | ? | Proprietary | Username | Yes | No | No | Yes | Centralistic | Yes | No (groups discontinued due to liability) |
| DirectNet | Gregor Richards | January 2006 | Open standard | Username | ? | ||||||
| Zephyr Notification Service | Open standard | ? | |||||||||
| Gale | Dan Egnor | Open standard | Unique RSA key, aliased to user@domain | Yes (public/private key) | Yes (multiple simultaneous, any size, programmable, encrypted) | ||||||
| Skype Protocol | Skype | Proprietary | Username | No | Proprietary | No | Unknown | Yes |
Note 1: In ~usr@a.b.com, the a.b.com part is known as the "hostmask" and can either be the server being connected from or a "cloak" granted by the server administrator; a more realistic example is ~myname@myisp.example.com. The tilde generally indicates that the username provided by the IRC client on signon was not verified with the ident service.
Note 2: In usr@a.b.c/home, the home part is a "resource", which distinguishes the same user when logged in from multiple locations, possibly simultaneously; a more realistic example is user@jabberserver.example.com/home
Note 3: Scalability issue: The protocol gets increasingly inefficient with the amount of contacts.[1][2]
Note 4: One-to-many/many-to-many communications primarily comprise presence and groupchat distribution. Some technologies have the ability to distribute data by multicast, avoiding bottlenecks on the sending side caused by the amount of recipients. Efficient distribution of presence is currently however a technological scalability issue for both XMPP (Jabber) and SIP/SIMPLE.
[edit] References
- ^ RFC 1324, D. Reed, 1992. 2.5.1, Size
- ^ Functionality provided by systems for synchronous conferencing, C.v. Loesch, 1992. 1.2.1 Growth
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