Tag Archives: Google Talk

Google killing XMPP federation with their Google Hangouts?

According to the Ars Technica article on Hangouts, we can expect Google to drop support for XMPP federation.

We should apparently be happy that Google is not dropping XMPP client-to-server connections.

The instant messaging space is apparently turning into a duopoly of Microsoft’s Skype and Google’s Hangouts with everyone else shoved to the sidelines. I’m not counting Facebook Chat as a serious alternative, and iMessage is not intended as an instant messaging service.

I hopefully don’t have to point out how much this frustrates and annoys me. Google is turning out to be worse than Microsoft ever was: they’re actively backpedaling on their past promises. They’re backstabbing the “open”. Scratch that — they’re throwing a stake through open’s heart, ripping it in pieces, then gorging on its still beating remains. Instead of reading RSS through Reader, we’re supposed to read custom posts via the closed and locked down Google+. They are killing iGoogle. They’re basically killing the open web and open Internet, while at the same time paying lip service to open.

Android, which is just-enough-Linux-but-not-really. Rich authorship markup, which requires two-way linking to Google+ instead of using the semantic web techniques.

I’ll keep on looking for ways to back out of Google ecosystem as much as possible. What’s next — Gmail that can’t send emails out?

Making iPhone calls to Google Talk/XMPP Jingle/XEP-0166 users

If you are looking for an iPhone application to make calls to Google Talk users (and all others who use Jingle extension for XMPP, or XEP-0166), check out Talkonaut. App is currently free on the app store, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that changed; in fact, I’d love it if the developers made extra money by doing so. I’d give back the free version and give a few bucks for the paid version. It’s worth it.

It even contains Jingle-to-SIP conversion; that is, you can use the XMPP connection to establish a SIP connection. SIP is a “more traditional” VOIP protocol, while Jingle is what Google Talk uses.

They also have partnered with many SIP-to-PSTN providers (where PSTN is regular telephony, such as landlines and cellphone), enabling you to make GTalk-to-phone calls for apparently very low prices. At the moment I have no need for such a service, but it might be a good way to pay back for the free app. I’m not getting paid to say all this — as a developer, I can appreciate the numerous hours that went into this project.