Facebook Messenger XMPP is going away

I just wanted to comment on how evil facebook is, but I've decided not to. I think there are enough people here who think the same. What facebook is doing is probably just an example of "Embrace, Extend and Extinguish" [0], though, I understand that their decision is not the same what microsoft did back then.

So to my point: Do you really think facebook is doing this only out of pure 'evilness'. They were probably facing various of problems with XMPP, and already switched with their infrastructure from XMPP to their own 'inventions'. If their own development is already proven to be working, they don't have a reason to stay at the expensive XMPP protocol.

[1] & [2]: I understand why XMPP can be nice to build into your applications (there's even a social network based on XMPP), especially in the early stage, but when you go big - or mobile, I guess the 'flaws' in the protocol are just becoming annoying (Disclaimer I've no clue what I'm writing about) I wonder why there is no better open protocol or standard for text chat, and if - how can we encourage facebook & other giants to use it. I'm curious how tox [3] is going to do in near future. At the moment, it feels like XMPP is the only open chat solution, which no-one can touch since Pidgin, Adium & Gajim are all broken (I'm still thankful for this tools!).

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2069810

[2]: http://about.psyc.eu/Jabber#Technical_Issues_in_Jabber

[3]: https://wiki.tox.im/Main_Page

I would love this for Windows. I've missed a Windows client since Trillian/Pidgin couldn't keep up with proprietary features, and Facebook discontinued its own messenger application.

So, I don't do web or software development, let me tell you^W^Wrant about how chat in 2015 feels to use. I'm 27, I grew up on IRC, I know my ICQ UIN by heart. Chat has always replaced SMS for me, and most groupware as well. I was happy when Facebook came along, and suddenly even the non-nerdy friends were compatible with my preferred way of having an endless conversation about random things. Chatting feels natural to me, allowing to keep in touch with good friends but not capturing my attention the way a phone call does. It also interleaves very nicely with menial work.

I don't care much about cloud or private cloud or local app. I've used irssi on a server that everybody connected to via ssh. But I switched over to cloud services as soon as I had more than one device that could send and receive messages. Everything else was way too tedious, as I never knew which device was connected, where messages went, where unread notifications went or whatever. Nothing to do with closed vs open, json vs xml or whatever social pattern. XMPP was lacking features, simple as that! From a user perspective! XMPP didn't work!

Give me persistent group chat, shared chat history with a search function, synchronized unread/read statusses, and I'll be leaving the cloud with flying colors. My current best bet for a text messenger is Skype, but the app is way too clumsy on Android and Windows. Close second is WhatsApp with a few groups, running on a large phone with a well-trained SwiftKey2. Both feel about as great as ICQ6 with its banner ad, and none feel as great as Adium or Trillian did comparatively back in the day.

Yeah, I don't think the issue with with the implementation, it's with the fact that it can't be controlled that companies didn't like. We either build systems to use ourselves or let private companies control our communications.

It doesn't matter if it is stupid simple, it shouldn't be necessary in the first place.