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Facebook Finally Ends XMPP Support For 3rd Party Chat

Posted by timothy on from the jabber-away dept.

New submitter AcquaCow writes: Facebook has been pushing their Messenger app to all devices, requiring it for chatting with friends and family. It was announced last year that they would be ending their chat API and that the service would end on April 30, 2015. April passed, so did May, but the service remained functional. Finally, as of July 7th, 2015 it has not been possible to connect to chat.facebook.com. This doesn't seem to be an outage at this point. Looks like we have to wait for 3rd party messenger apps to adopt support for Facebook's Platform API v2 to allow new connectivity.

15 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Facebook destined for AOL Status by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Facebook is following the same path as AOL.

    In their megalomaniac desire to be all things and control all things, they are walling themselves into an environment with half assed software, surveillance, ads, and privacy violations.

    Just a matter of time.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:Facebook destined for AOL Status by sycodon · · Score: 3, Informative

      Technically, yes.

      But philosophically they are the same. They want people to live in Facebook. Get their news from there, make appointments, exchange messages (emails) etc. I'd bet that Zukerberg dreams of being his own ISP that only provides Facebook.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    2. Re:Facebook destined for AOL Status by ArhcAngel · · Score: 2

      AOL was a dial-up ISP and died because of broadband.

      I would love to be as dead as AOL is. Just because a companies original primary business dried up doesn't mean they didn't survive or thrive. The ability to adapt has served them well despite what the 3lit3 h@x0rs think about them.

      As for Facebook they look to be dipping their toes into every new trend on the horizon just to cover their bases. Whether they can stay relevant or not remains to be seen.

      --
      "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
    3. Re:Facebook destined for AOL Status by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'd bet that Zukerberg dreams of being his own ISP that only provides Facebook.

      I thought they were already working on that in Africa:
      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tec...
      (Disclaimer: No particular attachment to this news source, just happened to be the first relevant link in ddg)

  2. Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Because i'm connected to Facebook chat via Gimp right now...

    1. Re:Really? by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's cool, because I've been signed into Google Hangouts using MS Paint now all day.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  3. Use purple-facebook by sombragris · · Score: 5, Informative

    In libpurple (read: Pidgin and other apps that might use it for messaging) you can connect via purple-facebook, which is a Facebook chat protocol plugin. There are still some glitches but it's definitely usable.

    --
    -- Look to the Rose that blows about us--"Lo, Laughing," she says, "into the World I blow..."
    1. Re:Use purple-facebook by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2

      Facebook never supported Federated XMPP, which is what makes it actually useful. Using SMTP and IMAP for mail isn't that useful if your mail server won't exchange mail with anyone else's. Google Talk supported federated XMPP, I could easily add Google Talk users to my XMPP roster on my own server and chat to them, but now Google is trying to use hangouts to replace Google Talk.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  4. But is v2 useful for Chat? by R.Mo_Robert · · Score: 2

    Facebook's API description says about v2: "In v2.0, the friends API endpoint returns the list of a person's friends who are also using your app. In v1.0, the response included all of a person's friends." This doesn't sound like it will be a useful replacement for their XMPP chat interface unless everybody is using the same third-party app, or maybe I'm missing something.

    --
    R.Mo
    1. Re:But is v2 useful for Chat? by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Informative

      Who says they intend it to be useful replacement?

      Facebook wants everybody to run their application so they can mine all your fucking data.

      The don't give a crap about 3rd part clients, they care about ads and analytics.

      Seriously, stop expecting benevolence from Facebook. They're greedy bastards, nothing more. They're not going to do a damned thing which doesn't maximize their bottom line.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  5. Facebook Messenger App is an issue by calexontheroad66 · · Score: 2

    I found out recently that it is not possible to log out of Facebook Messenger on a mobile device.
    I found this annoying cause anyone that can access a tablet can effectively check one's message and wreak havoc.
    If one has a jealous or abusive spouse/partner/girlfriend/boyfriend this is clearly a big no-no, even if your significant other is not 'unstable' even innocent conversations might misconstrued.
    Also, if third parties get access to a mobile device and can unlock it, this means that they can check your previous conversations and use them for their own ends.
    In fact every other messaging app comes with a sign out feature why doesn't this one?

  6. So how many people are still using XMPP? by oldgunpraa · · Score: 2

    Is XMPP dying right now? Cause if it is, it is sad. Google Chat may be the only XMPP chat that's supported by a big company. Companies want their own privatized protocol and bind their user in their own services: Whatsapp, Telegram, Line, Hangouts, iMessage and etc., and I can't talk to my friends if they're on a different service. Are we entering a age when good old Internet spirits are no more respected? Or is it just how this world should be in the first place?

    1. Re:So how many people are still using XMPP? by allo · · Score: 2

      Google XMPP is dead. XMPP now works only with TLS and google refuses it. So its disconnected from all other servers.

    2. Re:So how many people are still using XMPP? by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2

      Didn't they say they're planning to retire XMPP for Chat in general eventually, in favor of whatever proprietary crap they're using for Hangouts?

    3. Re:So how many people are still using XMPP? by LinuxIsGarbage · · Score: 2

      We're going back to the days of bulletin boards where you can only talk to people on the same service. We are going backwards.

      Not only that, look at how many (usually small) companies don't have, or don't update their actual website, and instead rely on Facebook and Twitter to for updates.