Filed under: iPod Family, Rumors, iPhone
Rumors: Jabber support spotted by iPhone insider
Our anonymous iControl tipster has returned and tells us that a new XMPP framework has been spotten in the latest iPhone firmware. XMPP refers to the open source standard developed by the Jabber community for instant messaging. Remember back in March when Apple announced it would support native instant messaging? In a nutshell, it looks like Apple's new iPhone-based chat will be built on Jabber/XMPP.
Unfortunately, we're told that this XMPP support remains in a private framework and will not be available to 3rd party SDK developers. Apple has made a strong commitment to sand-boxed development, allowing developers little access to the underlying OS and frameworks. Single-purpose apps like games should thrive in this development environment while less bounded utilities like social networking apps may struggle--or at least have to depend strongly on web-based servers.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
starkruzr said 5:17PM on 4-27-2008
Or we can just jailbreak and have access to all the APIs we need.
Reply
Joshua Ochs said 5:28PM on 4-27-2008
Or... they can just include Jabber support themselves, like all chat apps on OS X do...
@starkruzr: Feel free to Jailbreak, but after all, the major reason to use Apple stuff is it Just Works. Running a jailbroken iPhone is like running OS X on a Dell. Sure you can make it work with a lot of hassle (and update issues and such) but it will never appeal to more than a niche.
Reply
Tony said 6:11PM on 4-27-2008
Jailbreaking hassle? It takes about 2 minutes, and you can buy pre-jailbroken iphones on the high street (my favourite around here is a CPW store advertising the iphone on one side, and nearby a shop selling jailbroken sim-free ones with an equally large advert :p).
The problem is it doesn't 'just work' - there are some things that need 3rd party software to fix - the ability to delete SMS messages for example (no idea what was going through steve's head when he decided to miss that one out).
starkruzr said 11:40PM on 4-27-2008
What are you talking about? There are no upgrade issues. And the major reason I use Apple stuff is because it's technically superior. A jailbroken iPhone is better than anything else you can get right now. The jailbroken iPhone experience is nothing like the Hackintosh experience.
Bender Bending Rodriguez said 5:28PM on 4-27-2008
The March SDK event also showed AIM. A recent patent finding shows an IM client that uses all common protocols: AIM, Jabber, Yahoo and MSN.
Apple will have to include MSN Messenger/Live support if it wants to make the iPhone a viable consumer smartphone outside the US where MSN Messenger is king.
Reply
mattyohe said 6:21PM on 4-27-2008
"Apple will have to include MSN Messenger/Live support if it wants to make the iPhone a viable consumer smartphone outside the US where MSN Messenger is king."
You sure about that? Apple will 'have' to include it?
Why can't they just let Microsoft handle that?
Bender Bending Rodriguez said 6:30PM on 4-27-2008
@ Tony,
Yeah, it's a hassle for most people to search for jailbreaking, doing it and then have to wait for jailbroken updates before updating their device. Not everyone is technical or wants to deal with it. Every now and then you need to look at the world through other people's point of view.
@ mattyohe,
They could, but the SDK rules for a 3rd-party app means that it can't run in the background. That means as soon as you exit the MSN Messneger app to take a call, start a new music playlist, check a website, etc, you are no longer connected to the MSN network.
An Apple app would all for one app to run all the popular IM types. I suspect that Apple may even put this into SMS, as the interface is the same. The only difference would be whether it's sent ot a phone number or username, and the iPhone SMS/IM client can easily handle that without any trouble.
mattyohe said 8:10PM on 4-27-2008
@ Bender
"They could, but the SDK rules for a 3rd-party app means that it can't run in the background."
Sure, unless you are a company that has strong ties to Apple. Don't be surprised if some apps from specific companies are allowed some background processing abilities.
Especially with the recent background hooks that have been found in the latest beta.
Ryan said 8:27PM on 4-27-2008
I hope that they DON'T include the other networks and just include jabber. People need to wake up and realize that walled garden IM is as silly as walled garden email was in it's early days. Maybe only including jabber on such a popular consumer device could help facilitate that push to open networks.
Hong said 6:17PM on 4-27-2008
XMPP is an AWESOME addition!!!
There are more to it than just IM
Reply
alxndr said 7:49PM on 4-27-2008
Google Chat?
Reply
Ryan said 8:23PM on 4-27-2008
That would be XMPP, aka Jabber.
So yes.
maybesew said 9:27PM on 4-27-2008
With jabber, and more importantly offline message support, you don't need your app to be running all the time, nor running in the background. Just wake the phone up and see who sent you a message, then reply. If you have an active conversation, leave it as the active app, if not, save battery and check back later.
Reply
Dimplemonkey said 9:43PM on 4-27-2008
IM is so last decade, Twinkle's da app!
Reply
Sam Johnston said 11:39PM on 7-17-2008
So it turns out the code is actually being used for the notification service itself (eg MobileMe push mail)! I've written about it over here: http://samj.net/2008/07/apple-iphone-20-real-story-behind-push.html
Reply