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Comparison of instant messaging protocols

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

Table of instant messaging protocols

ProtocolCreatorFirst public release dateLicenseIdentity (not inc. alias)Asynchronous message relayingTransport Layer SecurityEnd-to-end encryptionUnlimited number of contactsBulletins to all contactsOne-to-many routing1Spam protectionGroup, channel or conference supportAudio/VoIP supportWebcam/VideoBatch file sharingMedia synchronizationServerless2Binary formatProtocol
3GPP standardsFriedhelm Hillebrand1985ProprietaryPhone number (e.g. +15550123)YesNoNoAbout 250 contacts in SIM, unlimited from phone.Noserial messagesMediumNoYes3G-324M/ViLTERCSNo??3GPP standards
BitmessageJonathan Warren2012 NovOpen standardAlphanumeric addressYesYesYesYesNoYesYes (through proof-of-work)YesNoNoYesNoYes?Bitmessage
BonjourApple Inc.2002 AugustProprietary Freeware; portions under the Apache licenseUsernameNoNoNoYesNomulticastMediumNoNoNoYesNoYes?Bonjour
BriarBriarproject.org2018 May 9Open standardPublic & Private key (via QR Codes)YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesNoNoNoNoYes?Briar
DiscordDiscord Inc.2015 May 13ProprietaryDiscord ID3YesNoNoNo4No?Medium?YesYesYes?No?Discord
dm3corpus.io / dm3.network2022Open Source (BSD)ENS (Ethereum Name Service)YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesNoNoNoYesYes?dm3
Echospot-on.sf.net / goldbug.sf.net2013Open standardKeyYesOptionalYesYesYesYesYesYesNoNoYesYesYes?Echo
Gadu-GaduGG Network2000 Jul 17ProprietaryUINe.g. 12345678YesYesNoYesNoCentralisticYes5 (simple)YesYesYesYesNoNo?Gadu-Gadu
IRCJarkko Oikarinen1988 AugOpen standardNickname!Username@hostname(or "hostmask")e.g. [email protected]6Yes, via IRCv37 or MemoServ that differs from the main systemOptionalMany implementations which are mostly non-interoperable with other IRC clients8910No11NoSimplistic multicastMediumYes (everyone, multiple simultaneous, any size)many implementations which are incompatible with other IRC clients1213NoYesvia BNCyes, via DCC CHAT?IRC
Jami (based on DHT and SIP)Savoir-faire Linux Inc.2002 AugustOpen Standard40-digit addressYesYesYesYesNoYesMediumYesYesYesYesNoYes?Jami (based on DHT and SIP)
MatrixMatrix.org2014 Sep14Open standard@Username:Hostname (MXID)YesYes, mandatoryYes, default for private conversations15YesYesYesYes (using pluggable server-side filtering modules and contact ignoring)YesYesYesYesYesNo?Matrix
MattermostMattermost Inc2015 October 2Open standard?
MSNP (Windows Live Messenger, etc.)Microsoft1999 JulProprietaryEmail address (Microsoft account)YesNoNoOnly for certified robotsNoCentralisticYesYesYesYesYesYesNo?MSNP (Windows Live Messenger, etc.)
MTProto (Telegram)Telegram Messenger LLP2013 AugOpen standardPhone number (e.g. +15550123), nickname (e.g. @example)YesYesNo end-to-end encryption for group chatsYesNoYesYes, contact blockingYesYes16YesYesYesNo?MTProto (Telegram)
MumbleThorvald Natvig1999 JulOpen standardUsernameYesYesNoOnly for certified robotsNoCentralisticYesYesYesNoYesNoNo?Mumble
LINELY Corporation2011 June 23ProprietaryLINE ID, Phone Number?
OSCAR (AIM, ICQ)AOL1997Proprietary (Discontinued 15-Dec-2017)17Username, Email Address or UINe.g. 12345678YesYes (Aim Pro, Aim Lite)NoNoNoCentralisticclient-basedYes (Multiple, simultaneous)YesYesYesNoNo?OSCAR (AIM, ICQ)
RevoltRevolt2021AGPLv3Username and discriminator (e.g. MysticPixie#7495)18YesYesNoYesYesNoYesNo?Revolt
RVP (Windows Messenger, etc.)Microsoft1997 MarProprietary (Discontinued)Windows Active Directory LoginNoNo?NoCentralisticNoneNo??NoNoNo?RVP (Windows Messenger, etc.)
RicochetInvisible.im2014 MarOpen standardTor onion addressYesYesYesYesNoYesYesYesNoNoYesNoYes?Ricochet
Serval ProjectServal Project2016Open StandardDigit addressYesNoYesYesYesYesNoNoYesYesYesYesYes?Serval Project
Signal ProtocolSignal Foundation2014 Feb19Open standardPhone number (e.g. +15550123)YesYesYesYes?YesYes, contact blockingYesYesYesYesYesNo?Signal Protocol
SimpleX Messaging ProtocolEvgeny Poberezkin2020AGPLv3No user identifiersYesYesYesYesYesYes, through WebRTC20Yes, through WebRTC21YesNo?SimpleX Messaging Protocol
SIP/SIMPLEIETF1996Open standarduser@hostnameYesYesOptionalYesYesNoMedium?YesYesYesNoDepends on implementation?SIP/SIMPLE
SkypeSkype2003 AugProprietaryUsernameYesProprietaryNoNoNoCentralisticclient-basedYesYesYesYesNoNo?Skype
Steam FriendsValve2003 Sep 12ProprietarySteamID/Username or Unique NumberYesProprietary?No, although risingYes?NoYesYesNoNoNoNo?Steam Friends
TeamSpeakTeamSpeak Systems GmbH2001 AugProprietaryUnique ID in base64NoNoNo????YesYesNo?
TOC2AOL2005 SepProprietary (Discontinued)Username or UINe.g. 12345678YesNoNoNoNoCentralisticNopaying members only??Partial?No?TOC2
ThreemaThreema GmbH2012 DecemberOpen standard?
TOX (based on DHT)irungentoo (GitHub user)2013 JuneGNU General Public License (GPL) version 3 or laterPublic & Private keyYesYesYesYesYesYes2223YesYesYesYesYesYes24Yes?TOX (based on DHT)
TuentiTuenti2006ProprietaryUsernameYesYesNoYes?YesYesYesYesYesYes?No?Tuenti
WeChatTencent2011ProprietaryUsernameYesYesNoYesYesYesNoYesYesYesNoNoNo?WeChat
Windows Messenger serviceMicrosoft1990Proprietary (Discontinued)NetBIOSYesNoNoYesYesYesNoNoNoNoNoNoNo?Windows Messenger service
XMPPJeremie Miller, standardized via IETF1999 JanOpen standardJabber ID (JID)e.g. [email protected]/home25Yes2627Yes28Optional29303132YesYes33Yes3435Yes363738Yes39Yes, via JingleYes, via JingleYes40Yes41Optional42Yes43XMPP
YMSG (Yahoo! Messenger)Yahoo!1998, March 9ProprietaryUsernameYesNo[needs update?]NoNoYesCentralisticYesYesYesYesYesNoNo?YMSG (Yahoo! Messenger)
Zephyr Notification ServiceMIT1987Open standardKerberos principale.g. [email protected]YesNoNoYesYesYesNoYesNoNoNoNoNo?Zephyr Notification Service
ProtocolCreatorFirst public release dateLicenseIdentity (not inc. alias)Asynchronous message relayingTransport Layer SecurityEnd-to-end encryptionUnlimited number of contactsBulletins to all contactsOne-to-many routing44Spam protectionGroup, channel or conference supportAudio/VoIP supportWebcam/VideoBatch file sharingMedia synchronizationServerless45 (decentralized)Binary formatProtocol

See also

References

  1. 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. /wiki/One-to-one_(communication) ↩

  2. Serverless protocols don't have any central entities (usually companies) controlling the network. Serverless network consists only of clients. Such systems are usually extremely resistant to surveillance and censorship. ↩

  3. "Where can I find my User/Server/Message ID?". discord.com. https://support.discord.com/hc/pl/articles/206346498-Where-can-I-find-my-User-Server-Message-ID- ↩

  4. "Increase the Discord FRIENDS List Limits from 1000 to 2000 or more!". https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/4407590964247-Increase-the-Discord-FRIENDS-List-Limits-from-1000-to-2000-or-more- ↩

  5. There have been reports from users that the antispam filter is used to censor links to other IM programs and some websites. ↩

  6. In [email protected], 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 [email protected]. The tilde generally indicates that the username provided by the IRC client on signon was not verified with the ident service. /wiki/Ident_protocol ↩

  7. "chathistory Extension". ircv3.net. Retrieved 25 February 2023. https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/chathistory ↩

  8. Gioia, Antonio. "IRC with SSL and OTR encryption". Retrieved 28 December 2023. https://www.antoniogioia.com/irc-with-ssl-and-otr/ ↩

  9. "Secure encryption layer for the IRC protocol based on OpenPGP". https://weechat.org/scripts/source/ircrypt.py.html/ ↩

  10. "encrypted DCC - SDCC - SCHAT". https://forums.mirc.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/234584/encrypted-dcc-sdcc-schat ↩

  11. Scalability issue: The protocol gets increasingly inefficient with the number of contacts.[7][8] ↩

  12. "dcc.voice". kvirc.net. Retrieved 25 February 2023. http://www.kvirc.net/doc/cmd_dcc.voice.html ↩

  13. "VoIRC". GitHub. https://github.com/asiekierka/voirc ↩

  14. Ermoshina, Ksenia; Musiani, Francesca; Halpin, Harry (September 2016). "End-to-End Encrypted Messaging Protocols: An Overview". In Bagnoli, Franco; et al. (eds.). Internet Science. INSCI 2016. Florence, Italy: Springer. pp. 244–254. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-45982-0_22. ISBN 978-3-319-45982-0. 978-3-319-45982-0 ↩

  15. "Cross-signing and End-to-end Encryption by Default is HERE!!!". Matrix.org. Retrieved 2020-05-08. https://matrix.org/blog/2020/05/06/cross-signing-and-end-to-end-encryption-by-default-is-here ↩

  16. "Voice Calls: Secure, Crystal-Clear, AI-Powered". 30 March 2017. https://telegram.org/blog/calls ↩

  17. "AOL INSTANT MESSENGER (AIM) — One Last Away Message". https://aimemories.tumblr.com/post/166091776077/aimemories ↩

  18. "Usernames are Evolving - Revolt". revolt.chat. Retrieved 2025-01-22. https://revolt.chat/posts/evolving-usernames ↩

  19. Marlinspike, Moxie (24 February 2014). "The New TextSecure: Privacy Beyond SMS". Open Whisper Systems. Retrieved 12 December 2015. https://whispersystems.org/blog/the-new-textsecure/ ↩

  20. "SimpleX Chat v4.6 – with hidden profiles, community moderation, improved audio/video calls and reduced battery usage". simplex.chat. Mar 28, 2023. Retrieved 2023-05-09. https://simplex.chat/blog/20230328-simplex-chat-v4-6-hidden-profiles.html ↩

  21. "SimpleX Chat v4.6 – with hidden profiles, community moderation, improved audio/video calls and reduced battery usage". simplex.chat. Mar 28, 2023. Retrieved 2023-05-09. https://simplex.chat/blog/20230328-simplex-chat-v4-6-hidden-profiles.html ↩

  22. "Groups : Chat, call, and share video and files with the whole gang in Tox's group chats". tox.chat. Retrieved 2021-06-18. https://tox.chat/ ↩

  23. Presence information is indicated to other users by a small coloured dot."Tox clients". tox.chat. Retrieved 2021-06-18. /wiki/Presence_information ↩

  24. "File sharing : Trade files, with no artificial limits or caps". tox.chat. Retrieved 2021-06-18. https://tox.chat/ ↩

  25. In [email protected]/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 [email protected]/home. ↩

  26. "XEP-0313: Message Archive Management". https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0313.html ↩

  27. "XEP-0184: Message Delivery Receipts". https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0184.html ↩

  28. "XEP-0368: SRV records for XMPP over TLS". 20 August 2019. https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0368.html ↩

  29. "XEP-0420: Stanza Content Encryption". https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0420.html ↩

  30. "XEP-0027: Current Jabber OpenPGP Usage". xmpp.org. 2014-03-14. Retrieved 2020-03-09. https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0027.html ↩

  31. "XEP-0373: OpenPGP for XMPP". xmpp.org. 2018-07-30. Retrieved 2020-03-09. https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0373.html ↩

  32. "XEP-0384: OMEMO Encryption". xmpp.org. 2018-07-31. Retrieved 2020-03-09. https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0384.html ↩

  33. .eg route.all-resource in OpenFire ↩

  34. "XEP-0045: Multi-User Chat". xmpp.org. 2019-05-15. Retrieved 2020-03-09. https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0045.html ↩

  35. "XEP-0060: Publish-Subscribe". xmpp.org. 2019-10-06. Retrieved 2020-03-09. https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0060.html ↩

  36. "Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Instant Messaging and Presence". xmpp.org. March 2011. Retrieved 2020-03-09. https://xmpp.org/rfcs/rfc6121.html#blocking ↩

  37. "XEP-0159: Spim-Blocking Control". xmpp.org. 2006-07-11. Retrieved 2020-03-09. https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0159.html ↩

  38. "XEP-0161: Abuse Reporting". xmpp.org. 2007-05-06. Retrieved 2020-03-09. https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0161.html ↩

  39. "XEP-0045: Multi-User Chat". xmpp.org. 2019-05-15. Retrieved 2020-03-09. https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0045.html ↩

  40. "XEP-0363: HTTP File Upload". https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0363.html ↩

  41. "XEP-0280: Message Carbons". xmpp.org. 2017-02-16. Retrieved 13 December 2018. https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0280.html ↩

  42. "XEP-0174: Serverless Messaging". xmpp.org. 26 November 2008. Retrieved 1 November 2017. https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0174.html ↩

  43. "XEP-0231: Bits of Binary". https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0231.html ↩

  44. 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. /wiki/One-to-one_(communication) ↩

  45. Serverless protocols don't have any central entities (usually companies) controlling the network. Serverless network consists only of clients. Such systems are usually extremely resistant to surveillance and censorship. ↩