Basic general information about the protocols: creator, version, amongst others.
| Protocol | 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 | Audio/VoIP | Webcam/Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gadu-Gadu | GG Network | 2000 Jul 17 | Proprietary | Unique number e.g. 12345678 |
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Centralistic | Yes 5 (simple) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gale | Dan Egnor | ? | Open standard | Unique RSA key, aliased to user@domain | ? | Yes (public/private key) | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes (multiple simultaneous, any size, programmable, encrypted) | No | No |
| IRC | Jarkko Oikarinen | 1988 Aug | Open standard | Nickname!Username@hostname (or "hostmask") e.g. user!~usr@a.b.com1 |
Yes, but via a memo system that
differs from the main system |
Yes, depending on individual server support | No3 | No | Simplistic multicast | Medium | Yes (everyone, multiple simultaneous, any size) | No | No |
| Microsoft Messenger service Messenger|SMD|NetBEUI - Net Send | Microsoft | 1990 | Proprietary | NetBIOS | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| MSNP (Windows Live Messenger, etc.) | Microsoft | 1999 Jul | Proprietary | E-mail address (Windows Live ID) | Yes | No | Only for certified robots | No | Centralistic | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| unknown protocol (Mumble) | Thorvald Natvig | 1999 Jul | Open standard | Yes | Yes | Only for certified robots | No | Centralistic | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| OSCAR protocol (AIM, ICQ) | AOL | 1997 | Proprietary | Username, Email Address or UIN e.g. 12345678 |
Yes | Yes (Aim Pro, Aim Lite) | No | No | Centralistic | client-based | Yes (Multiple, simultaneous) | Yes | Yes |
| PSYC (Protocol for SYnchronous Conferencing) | PSYC Project | 1995[1] | Open standard[2] | PSYC URI as in psyc://example.net/~nickname[3] | Yes[4] | Yes[5] | Yes[4] | Yes[6] | Custom multicast[7] | Yes[8] | Yes (multiple simultaneous, any size, programmable)[9] | Yes[10] | Yes[10] |
| RVP (Windows Messenger, etc.) | Microsoft | 1997 Mar | Proprietary | Windows Active Directory Login | No | No | ? | No | Centralistic | None | No | ? | ? |
| SIP/SIMPLE | IETF | 2002 Dec | Open standard | user@hostname | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Medium | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Skype protocol | Skype | ? | Proprietary | Username | No | Proprietary | ? | No | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| TOC protocol (deprecated) | AOL | 1998 | Proprietary | Username or UIN e.g. 12345678 |
Yes | No | ? | ? | Centralistic | ? | paying members only | ? | ? |
| TOC2 protocol | AOL | 2005 Sep | Proprietary | Username or UIN e.g. 12345678 |
Yes | No | No | No | Centralistic | No | paying members only | ? | ? |
| XMPP (Jabber; Google Talk) | Jeremie Miller, standardized via IETF | 1999 Jan | Open standard | Jabber ID (JID) e.g. usr@a.b.c/home2 |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unicast lists | Several Standardized Types | Optional | Yes | Yes |
| YMSG (Yahoo! Messenger) | Yahoo! | ? | Proprietary | Username | Yes | No | No | Yes | Centralistic | Yes | No (groups discontinued due to liability) | PMs, Conferences, and Chat Rooms | Yes |
| Zephyr Notification Service | MIT | 1987 | Open standard | Kerberos principal e.g. user@ATHENA.MIT.EDU |
Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Unicast lists | No | Yes | No | No |
| Protocol | 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 routing4 | spam protection | Supports groups or channels for members / nonmembers / nobody | Audio/VoIP | Webcam/Video |
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@xmppserver.example.com/home
Note 3: Scalability issue: The protocol gets increasingly inefficient with the number of contacts.[11][12]
Note 4: One-to-many/many-to-many communications primarily comprise presence information, publish/subscribe and groupchat distribution. Some technologies have the ability to distribute data by multicast, avoiding bottlenecks on the sending side caused by the number of recipients. Efficient distribution of presence is currently however a technological scalability issue for both XMPP and SIP/SIMPLE.
Note 5: There have been reports from users that the antispam filter is used to censor links to other IM programs and some websites.
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