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Cerulean Studios Releases Trillian IM Protocol Specifications

Posted by Unknown on from the hey-we're-still-alive dept.

Runefox writes "Cerulean Studios, the company behind the long-lived Trillian instant messaging client, has released preliminary specifications to their proprietary "Astra" protocol, now named IMPP (Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol), which provides continuous client functionality as well as mandatory TLS encryption for clients. According to their blog, Cerulean Studios' motivation for the release is to promote interoperability among the throngs of IM services and clients available by allowing others to also use the protocol. Future concepts include federation with XMPP. While the documentation is in an early state and the protocol is claimed to still be in development, it is hoped that it will help decentralize the very heavily fragmented messaging ecosystem. It's implied that, in turn, greater options for privacy may become available in the wake of the PRISM scandal via privately-run federated servers, unaffiliated with major networks, yet still able to communicate with them."

3 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Too little too late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ironic really, their "business choices" included enabling access to IM networks whose protocols weren't open...now they're making a big deal out of their own proprietary protocol's "specifications" (i.e. useless advertising material) available.

    And the captcha word of the day is "surreal," no less.

  2. Re:Too little too late by dkuntz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I actually still use Trillian, expressly for the continuous client functionality. As there is also the iPhone app, OS X, Windows, etc, not every IM service allows you to log in in multiple locations simultaneously, and allow you to start a conversation on a mobile device, continue on a Windows box, then finish it on a Mac, and have the IM logs and history available on each one. And since a lot of my friends, coworkers, etc, don't rely only on Facebook chat, and I occasionally will send something important to someone, or they to me via IM, being able to look at 1 unified history for that person, and not needing to look on system A, B and C to find the logs, is quite beneficial.

    I've seen some other clients that will do similar things, though mainly on the mobile side only (IM+). Pidgin also does not have a released binary for OS X. You can use one of the ports (Fink/MacPorts), or compile from source (people here may not have issues with that, average desktop types will), or use Adium, which uses the core of pidgin, but, so far, the only decent, and frequently updated, all in one IM program with persistence over multiple clients is Trillian.

    --
    OMG... I have a sig?
  3. IMPP name already taken. by Eravnrekaree · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The IMPP name has already been used by the IETF for its own standard IM protocol. Its really something that they would have accidentally chosen the same name of an already existing protocol.