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Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

pidgin.im

121–130 of 461 posts

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#121
post #38

Considering this is open source (which I'm assuming includes the plugins), wouldn't this be a much better alternative to the native apps on mobile? Curious as to why this hasn't been ported to Android/iOS. I'd much prefer this over apps that need permission to my blood type to function. Pidgin was great back in the day for convenience, but there is a legitimate argument to be made for privacy here too. EDIT: It just…

iOS applications aren't allowed to stay awake constantly talking to a bunch of different network services. For iOS IM to work, a centralized server (and corresponding developer ID) has to send a notification to you, sent first to Apple to be proxied via Apple's push notification service (APNS) to which each iOS device maintains a persistent connection. This means that some third party service has to know when you get…

> This (and Signal now replacing the cryptographically shattered iMessage) is probably the main reason I'm switching to Android

Android seems to be headed the opposite direction from Apple when it comes to background service execution and network connectivity. I wouldn't be surprised if background network connections are the next thing to go.

> which means that federated stuff is basically out without providing your login details to the developer

It's definitely possible to support federated push, although it's admittedly more work for app/protocol developers: The app developer would have to set up a "push proxy" server that accepts push notifications addressed to a specific iOS device.

It would be nice if Apple was to allow optional sourcing of "anonymous" pushes for such use cases, but that doesn't seem to be in line with their desired level of control.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#122
post #118
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS applications aren't allowed to stay awake constantly talking to a bunch of different network services. For iOS IM to work, a centralized server (and corresponding developer ID) has to send a notification to you, sent first to Apple to be proxied via Apple's push notification service (APNS) to which each iOS device maintains a persistent connection. This means that some third party service has to know when you get…

You can create local notifications any time your app is active, which includes the background. AFAIK signal does empty APNS push to wake and then pulls data with it's own connection and then displays text content with a local notification. The main reason for the restriction to apple-only for notification services is battery life, and they've been proven right by bad behavior demonstrated on android. Interestingly, i…

> Interestingly, if your a VOIP app you can actually circumvent a lot of the background networking restrictions

These APIs were removed a while ago. As an example, pure SIP clients (without a SIPAPNs proxy operated by the app developer) are no longer possible for iOS.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#123
post #49

Does nobody remember Pidgin? It was one of the first things a lot of people installed on their machines 15 years ago along with Firefox. We used it as an alternative client to AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. It used to be called GAIM.

I've used on Windows and it was quite buggy and crashy at the time... over a decade ago.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#124
post #121
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS applications aren't allowed to stay awake constantly talking to a bunch of different network services. For iOS IM to work, a centralized server (and corresponding developer ID) has to send a notification to you, sent first to Apple to be proxied via Apple's push notification service (APNS) to which each iOS device maintains a persistent connection. This means that some third party service has to know when you get…

> This (and Signal now replacing the cryptographically shattered iMessage) is probably the main reason I'm switching to Android Android seems to be headed the opposite direction from Apple when it comes to background service execution and network connectivity. I wouldn't be surprised if background network connections are the next thing to go. > which means that federated stuff is basically out without providing your…

Android is heading in the same direction with GCM.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#125
post #49

Does nobody remember Pidgin? It was one of the first things a lot of people installed on their machines 15 years ago along with Firefox. We used it as an alternative client to AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. It used to be called GAIM.

Does not everyone still use it? I and most of my friends do. They are also responsible for my favorite bug report ever: https://bugs.gentoo.org/35890

I would if there was a mobile app.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#126

Ah! the glorious days of integrated chat clients. I had friends of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, GTalk and for a very limited time ICQ (Actually it was the same guys on all networks :) ). There weren't any network effort, people were willing to try out different IMs for their uniqueness. Lots of companies were trying to produce integrated chat clients - Pidgin, Meebo, Trillian, Digsby and a whole lot of guys on Mob…

Miranda IM, anyone?

I have used Miranda IM every day <3

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does not everyone still use it? I and most of my friends do. They are also responsible for my favorite bug report ever: https://bugs.gentoo.org/35890

I finally stopped using it when Google Chat[0] went away. [0] Not that Google Chat, the other one.

The good old time, when Google used XMPP..

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#128

Ah! the glorious days of integrated chat clients. I had friends of MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, GTalk and for a very limited time ICQ (Actually it was the same guys on all networks :) ). There weren't any network effort, people were willing to try out different IMs for their uniqueness. Lots of companies were trying to produce integrated chat clients - Pidgin, Meebo, Trillian, Digsby and a whole lot of guys on Mob…

Miranda IM, anyone?

Yep!

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#129
post #43

It would be cool if they had compiled mac binaries available on their downloads page. They instead recommend Adium, which hasn't had a commit on master in five years.

It's on homebrew, so you might try that. As a linux dude stuck on mac at work it's my go to for installing things. brew install pidgin https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/pidgin On pidgin, I used to use it and have been considering using it again, but right now I lean more towards WeeChat because I like having the ability to CLI it off a vps but I guess I could proxy my pidgin stuff too which is half of the reason I lik…

I don't use Homebrew because it embeds spyware. I think we should all probably stop recommending it as a result.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#130
post #19
post #10

I can remember how I was able to chat with my Facebook friends with Pidgin, those were the days. I don't think Facebook will allow any client to support chat like they used to do back in the days, unless you do some wired bridging hacks like you have to do in Matrix Edit - fixed typo

I still use Messenger via Pidgin. My biggest gripe is lack of support for latest Unicode emoji.

How does it work now? usually back in the day I had to download a plugin enter email/username or password. and that's it.

Does it require some bridge hack or something like that?

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