Comparison of instant messaging protocols
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Basic general information about the protocols: creator, version, amongst others.
| Creator | First public release date | License | Identity (not inc. alias) | Asynchronous message relaying | Unlimited number of contacts | Bulletins to all contacts | One-to-many routing 4 | SPAM protection | Supports groups or channels for members / nonmembers / nobody | |
17 July 2006 | Unique RSA-Key | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | |||
17 July 2000 | Unique number | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes (simple) | Yes | |||
August 1988 | Nickname!Username@hostname | 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) | |||
Nov 2002 | Yes | No | ? | ||||||||
MSNP (Windows Live Messenger, etc) | July 1999 | Yes | No | Only for certified robots | No | Centralistic | None | ? | |||
OSCAR protocol (AIM, ICQ) | 1997 | Yes | Yes (Aim Pro, Aim Lite) | No | No | Centralistic | client-based | Yes (Multiple, simultaneous) | |||
PSYC (Protocol for SYnchronous Conferencing) | PSYC Project | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Custom multicast | Yes | Yes (multiple simultaneous, any size, programmable) | |||
21 March 2007 | Unique RSA-Key | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | |||
TOC protocol (deprecated) | ? | Yes | No | Centralistic | paying members only | ||||||
Sep 2005 | Yes | No | No | No | Centralistic | No | paying members only | ||||
Jeremie Miller, standardized via IETF | January 1999 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Optional | ||||||
Dec 2002 | user@hostname | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Medium | ? | |||
? | Yes | No | No | Yes | Centralistic | Yes | No (groups discontinued due to liability) | ||||
Gregor Richards | January 2006 | Username | ? | ||||||||
? | |||||||||||
Dan Egnor | Unique RSA key, aliased to user@domain | Yes (public/private key) | Yes (multiple simultaneous, any size, programmable, encrypted) | ||||||||
No | Proprietary | No | Unknown | Yes |