Comparison of instant messaging protocols

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A brief list

3GPP standards

Bitmessage

Bonjour

Briar

Discord

Echo

Gadu-Gadu

+12IRC

Jami

LINE

MSNP

MTProto

Matrix

Mattermost

Mumble

OSCAR (AIM, ICQ)

RVP (Windows messenger, etc.)

Richochet

SIP/SIMPLE

Serval projekt

Signal protocol

Skype

Steam friends

TOC2

TOX (Based on DHT)

Threema

Tuenti

Windows Messenger service

XMPP

YMSG

Zephyr

-->

The following is a comparison of instant messaging protocols. It contains basic general information about the protocols.

Table of instant messaging protocols

{| class="wikitable sortable sort-under sticky-header" style="width: auto; text-align: center; font-size: smaller"

!Protocol

!Creator

!First public release date

!License

!Identity (not inc. alias)

!Asynchronous message relaying

!Transport Layer Security

!End-to-end encryption

!Unlimited number of contacts

!Bulletins to all contacts

!One-to-many routing

!Spam protection

!Group, channel or conference support

!Audio/VoIP support

!Webcam/Video

!Batch file sharing

!Media synchronization

!Serverless

!Protocol

! class="table-rh" | 3GPP standards

| Friedhelm Hillebrand

| 1985

| Phone number (e.g. +15550123)

| About 250 contacts in SIM, unlimited from phone.

| serial messages

! 3GPP standards

! class="table-rh" |Bitmessage

| Jonathan Warren

| 2012 Nov

| Alphanumeric address

| (through proof-of-work)

!Bitmessage

! class="table-rh" | Bonjour

| Apple Inc.

| 2002 August

| Freeware; portions under the Apache license

| Username

!Bonjour

! class="table-rh" | Briar

|Briarproject.org

| 2018 May 9

|Public & Private key (via QR Codes)

!Briar

! class="table-rh" | Discord

| Discord Inc.

| 2015 May 13

| Discord ID

!Discord

! class="table-rh" | dm3

|corpus.io / dm3.network

|2022

|ENS (Ethereum Name Service)

!dm3

! class="table-rh" | Echo

| spot-on.sf.net / goldbug.sf.net

| 2013

| Key

!Echo

! class="table-rh" | Gadu-Gadu

| GG Network

| 2000 Jul 17

| UIN e.g. 12345678

| (simple)

!Gadu-Gadu

! class="table-rh" | IRC

| Jarkko Oikarinen

| 1988 Aug

| Nickname!Username@hostname (or "hostmask") e.g. user!~usr@a.b.com

| (everyone, multiple simultaneous, any size)

!IRC

! class="table-rh" | Jami (based on DHT and SIP)

| Savoir-faire Linux Inc.

| 2002 August

| 40-digit address

!Jami (based on DHT and SIP)

! class="table-rh" | Matrix

| Matrix.org

| 2014 Sep

| @Username:Hostname (<abbr title="Matrix User ID">MXID</abbr>)

| (using pluggable server-side filtering modules and contact ignoring)

| (not yet but there is ongoing work on a p2p version: https://arewep2pyet.com/

!Matrix

! class="table-rh" | Mattermost

| Mattermost Inc

| 2015 October 2

! Mattermost

! class="table-rh" | MSNP (Windows Live Messenger, etc.)

| Microsoft

| 1999 Jul

| Email address (Microsoft account)

| Only for certified robots

!MSNP (Windows Live Messenger, etc.)

! class="table-rh" | MTProto (Telegram)

| Telegram Messenger LLP

| 2013 Aug

| Phone number (e.g. +15550123), nickname (e.g. @example)

| , contact blocking

!MTProto (Telegram)

! class="table-rh" | Mumble

| Thorvald Natvig

| 1999 Jul

| Username

| Only for certified robots

!Mumble

! class="table-rh" | LINE

| LY Corporation

| 2011 June 23

| LINE ID, Phone Number

! LINE

! class="table-rh" | OSCAR (AIM, ICQ)

| AOL

| 1997

| (Discontinued 15-Dec-2017)

| Username, Email Address or UIN e.g. 12345678

| (Aim Pro, Aim Lite)

| (Multiple, simultaneous)

!OSCAR (AIM, ICQ)

! class="table-rh" | Stoat

|Stoat

|2021

|Username and discriminator (e.g. MysticPixie#7495)

!Stoat

! class="table-rh" | RVP (Windows Messenger, etc.)

| Microsoft

| 1997 Mar

| (Discontinued)

| Windows Active Directory Login

| ne

!RVP (Windows Messenger, etc.)

! class="table-rh" | Ricochet

| Invisible.im

| 2014 Mar

| Tor onion address

!Ricochet

! class="table-rh" | Serval Project

| Serval Project

| 2016

| Digit address

!Serval Project

! class="table-rh" | Signal Protocol

|Signal Foundation

| 2014 Feb

|Phone number (e.g. +15550123), username with two added random trailing numbers (e.g. @example.12)

|, client-side contact blocking; server-side protections

!Signal Protocol

! class="table-rh" | SIP/SIMPLE

| IETF

| 1996

| user@hostname

| on implementation

!SIP/SIMPLE

! class="table-rh" | Skype

| Skype

| 2003 Aug

| (Discontinued)

| Username

!Skype

! class="table-rh" | Steam Friends

| Valve

| 2003 Sep 12

| SteamID/Username or Unique Number

!Steam Friends

! class="table-rh" | TeamSpeak

|TeamSpeak Systems GmbH

|2001 Aug

|Unique ID in base64

! TeamSpeak

! class="table-rh" | TOC2

| AOL

| 2005 Sep

| (Discontinued)

| Username or UIN e.g. 12345678

| paying members only

!TOC2

! class="table-rh" | Threema

|Threema GmbH

|2012 December

! Threema

! class="table-rh" | TOX (based on DHT)

| irungentoo (GitHub user)

| 2013 June

| (GPL) version 3 or later

| Public & Private key

!TOX (based on DHT)

! class="table-rh" | Tuenti

| Tuenti

| 2006

| Username

!Tuenti

! class="table-rh" | WeChat

| Tencent

| 2011

| Username

!WeChat

! class="table-rh" | Windows Messenger service

| Microsoft

| 1990

| (Discontinued)

| NetBIOS

!Windows Messenger service

! class="table-rh" | XMPP

| Jeremie Miller, standardized via IETF

| 1999 Jan

| Jabber ID (JID) e.g. usr@a.b.c/home

!XMPP

! class="table-rh" | YMSG (Yahoo! Messenger)

| Yahoo!

| 1998, March 9

| Username

!YMSG (Yahoo! Messenger)

! class="table-rh" | Zephyr Notification Service

| MIT

| 1987

| Kerberos principal e.g. user@ATHENA.MIT.EDU

!Zephyr Notification Service

!Protocol

!Creator

!First public release date

!License

!Identity (not inc. alias)

!Asynchronous message relaying

!Transport Layer Security

!End-to-end encryption

!Unlimited number of contacts

!Bulletins to all contacts

!One-to-many routing

!Spam protection

!Group, channel or conference support

!Audio/VoIP support

!Webcam/Video

!Batch file sharing

!Media synchronization

!Serverless (decentralized)

!Protocol

Comparison of instant messaging protocols

Table of instant messaging protocols

See also

References