Instantbird

Last updated
Instantbird
Developer(s) Florian Quèze
Initial release0.1 (October 18, 2007;16 years ago (2007-10-18))
Final release 1.5 (December 17, 2013;10 years ago (2013-12-17)) [±]
Written in C/C++, JavaScript, CSS, XUL
Operating system Linux
OS X
Windows
Platform Cross-platform
Available in Multilanguage
Type IM client
License GNU GPL
Website www.instantbird.com

Instantbird is a discontinued cross-platform instant messaging client based on Mozilla's XULRunner and the open-source library libpurple used in Pidgin. Instantbird is free software available under the GNU General Public License. Over 250 add-ons allow user customization of, and addition of, features. On October 18, 2017, Florian Quèze announced that "... we are stopping development of Instantbird as a standalone product." [1]

Contents

Supported protocols

Instantbird began as a chat client based on libpurple and gradually moved toward being a chat client which used a combination of libpurple and its own protocol architecture. Specifically, Instantbird developers wrote their own JavaScript support for IRC, Odnoklassniki, Twitter, XMPP (including Google Talk) and YMSG (used by YIM). The reason writing these in JavaScript, rather than using the faster C code already included with libpurple, had to do with a plan to merge certain protocols into Mozilla Thunderbird.

The remaining protocols supported in Instantbird, provided through libpurple, were OSCAR (AIM/ICQ/MobileMe), Gadu-Gadu, Novell GroupWise, Lotus Sametime, MSNP (Microsoft Messenger service), MySpaceIM, Netsoul, SIMPLE, QQ and VKontakte. [2] [3] Some of these can no longer be used, even with up-to-date client software, due to discontinuation of the servers.

Features

Users can set their own user icon and display name. [4] Several themes are included by default, including "Bubbles", which has the "Time Bubbles" feature of displaying time between messages, rather than timestamps within or adjacent to each message. [5] Text copied from an Instantbird window is reformatted transparently to include timestamps in front of each message, in a feature called "Magic Copy". [6] Instantbird includes an Add-ons system which allows additional protocol support such as LiveJournal's LJ Talk; there are over 250 additional add-ons available. [7] Additional features available include "UI theming, language packs and dictionaries, developer tools and usability enhancements such as tab completion of nicknames, highlighting, colourising of buddies, and vertical tabs." [7] The developers list some of their "favorite" add-ons as follows: "Colorize" buddy names, "Highlight" words in chats, "Tab Complete" nicknames and commands, "Reply to Nick" - doubleclick inserts name, "Show Nick" in color in multiuser chats, and "Vertical Tabs" to arrange conversations vertically. [8] Conversation logging is enabled by default, but can be disabled. [9] Binaries are available in the following 13 languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Swedish and Estonian. [7]

In October 2015 the Tor anonymity project presented Tor Messenger as its open-source instant messenger client. It is based on Instandbird but removes the dependency on libpurple, re-implementing all supported chat protocols in the memory-safe language JavaScript. Tor Messenger encrypts one-to-one chats by default using OTR and provides anonymity by routing its traffic through the Tor network. [10] [11] [12]

Reception

Instantbird received some positive notice, with stated expectations of future improvements. Tech blogger Chris Pirillo wrote that the client "works quite well on all three main operating systems", that the interface "is unobtrusive… and very clean", and that chat can take place on multiple protocols simultaneously, including IRC. [3] BetaNews writer Joe Cassels noted that Instantbird "aims to bring together many of these disparate networks and services under one roof, and while not as polished as more established multi-network clients like Trillian and Pidgin, its close links to Mozilla makes us confident the program will evolve into a powerful alternative to these programs in time." [13] LifeHacker writer Alan Henry called the application's visual appearance "sharp", referred to the user interface as "inspired by" but "a bit more attractive" than Pidgin, called the version 1.0 of the software "a big improvement", and stated "what it lacks in native features it makes up for in add-ons and themes contributed by the user community." [14]

Related Research Articles

ICQ New is a cross-platform instant messaging (IM) and VoIP client. The name ICQ derives from the English phrase "I Seek You". Originally developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis in 1996, the client was bought by AOL in 1998, and then by Mail.Ru Group in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Instant messaging</span> Form of communication over the internet

Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and triggers a transmission to the recipient(s), who are all connected on a common network. It differs from email in that conversations over instant messaging happen in real-time. Most modern IM applications use push technology and also add other features such as emojis, file transfer, chatbots, voice over IP, or video chat capabilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ChatZilla</span> IRC client

ChatZilla is an IRC client that is part of SeaMonkey. It was previously an extension for Mozilla-based browsers such as Firefox, introduced in 2000. It is cross-platform open source software which has been noted for its consistent appearance across platforms, CSS appearance customization and scripting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pidgin (software)</span> Open-source multi-platform instant messaging client

Pidgin is a free and open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple that has support for many instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to simultaneously log in to various services from a single application, with a single interface for both popular and obsolete protocols, thus avoiding the hassle of having to deal with new software for each device and protocol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yahoo! Messenger</span> Instant messaging protocol

Yahoo! Messenger was an advertisement-supported instant messaging client and associated protocol provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger was provided free of charge and could be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo ID" which also allowed access to other Yahoo! services, such as Yahoo! Mail. The service also offered VoIP, file transfers, webcam hosting, a text messaging service, and chat rooms in various categories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mozilla Thunderbird</span> Free and open-source email client by Mozilla

Mozilla Thunderbird is free and open-source email client software which also functions as a full personal information manager with a calendar and contactbook, as well as an RSS feed reader, chat client (IRC/XMPP/Matrix), and news client. Available cross-platform, it is operated by the Mozilla Foundation's subsidiary MZLA Technologies Corporation. Thunderbird is an independent, community-driven project that is managed and overseen by the Thunderbird Council, which is elected by the Thunderbird Community. The project strategy was originally modeled after that of Mozilla's Firefox web browser and is an interface built on top of that web browser.

iChat Built-in instant messaging software application for Mac OS X

iChat is a discontinued instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. for use on its Mac OS X operating system. It supported instant text messaging over XMPP/Jingle or OSCAR (AIM) protocol, audio and video calling, and screen-sharing capabilities. It also allowed for local network discussion with users discovered through Bonjour protocols.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miranda NG</span> Free instant messenger for Microsoft Windows

Miranda NG is an open-source multiprotocol instant messaging application, designed for Microsoft Windows. Miranda NG is free software distributed under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adium</span> Instant messaging client

Adium is a free and open-source instant messaging client for macOS that supports multiple IM networks, including XMPP (Jabber), IRC and more. In the past, it has also supported AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. Adium is written using macOS's Cocoa API, and it is released under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later and many other licenses for components that are distributed with Adium.

Tencent QQ, also known as QQ, is an instant messaging software service and web portal developed by the Chinese technology company Tencent. QQ offers services that provide online social games, music, shopping, microblogging, movies, and group and voice chat software. As of March 2023, there were 597 million monthly active QQ accounts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BitlBee</span>

BitlBee is a cross-platform IRC instant messaging gateway, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

A LAN Messenger is an instant messaging program for computers designed for use within a single local area network (LAN).

Telepathy is a software framework which can be used to make software for interpersonal communications such as instant messaging, Voice over IP or videoconferencing. Telepathy enables the creation of communications applications using components via the D-Bus inter-process communication mechanism. Through this it aims to simplify development of communications applications and promote code reuse within the free software and open source communities by defining a logical boundary between the applications and underlying network protocols.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Empathy (software)</span> Open source instant messaging and VoIP client

Empathy was an instant messaging (IM) and voice over IP (VoIP) client which supported text, voice, video, file transfers, and inter-application communication over various IM communication protocols.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mibbit</span> Web based IRC client

Mibbit is a web-based client for web browsers that supports Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Yahoo! Messenger, and Twitter. It is developed by Jimmy Moore and is designed around the Ajax model with a user interface written in JavaScript. It is the IRC application setup by default on Firefox.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TorChat</span> Anonymous instant messaging application

TorChat was a peer-to-peer anonymous instant messenger that used Tor onion services as its underlying network. It provided cryptographically secure text messaging and file transfers. The characteristics of Tor's onion services ensure that all traffic between the clients is encrypted and that it is very difficult to tell who is communicating with whom and where a given client is physically located.

Finch is an open-source console-based instant messaging client, based on the libpurple library. Libpurple has support for many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log in to various services from one application. Finch uses GLib and ncurses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ricochet (software)</span> Instant messaging software

Ricochet or Ricochet IM is a free software, multi-platform, instant messaging software project originally developed by John Brooks and later adopted as the official instant messaging client project of the Invisible.im group. A goal of the Invisible.im group is to help people maintain privacy by developing a "metadata free" instant messaging client.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matrix (protocol)</span> Networking protocol for real-time communication and data synchronization

Matrix is an open standard and communication protocol for real-time communication. It aims to make real-time communication work seamlessly between different service providers, in the way that standard Simple Mail Transfer Protocol email currently does for store-and-forward email service, by allowing users with accounts at one communications service provider to communicate with users of a different service provider via online chat, voice over IP, and videotelephony. It therefore serves a similar purpose to protocols like XMPP, but is not based on any existing communication protocol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OMEMO</span> Extension to XMPP for multi-client end-to-end encryption

OMEMO is an extension to the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) for multi-client end-to-end encryption developed by Andreas Straub. According to Straub, OMEMO uses the Double Ratchet Algorithm "to provide multi-end to multi-end encryption, allowing messages to be synchronized securely across multiple clients, even if some of them are offline". The name "OMEMO" is a recursive acronym for "OMEMO Multi-End Message and Object Encryption". It is an open standard based on the Double Ratchet Algorithm and the Personal Eventing Protocol . OMEMO offers future and forward secrecy and deniability with message synchronization and offline delivery.

References

  1. ↑ Quèze, Florian (18 October 2017). "Thunderbird is the next version of Instantbird". Florian Quèze. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  2. ↑ "Instantbird FAQ: Supported Protocols". instantbird.com.
  3. 1 2 Pirillo, Chris (April 22, 2009). "What All-in-one Instant Messenger Should You Use?" Archived 2011-08-30 at the Wayback Machine . chrispirillo.com. (Also video).
  4. ↑ "What's New". instantbird.com. Retrieved September 16, 2011.
  5. ↑ Quèze, Florian (June 8, 2011). "Introducing Time Bubbles". Instantbird.com blog.
  6. ↑ Quèze, Florian (June 16, 2011)."Introducing Magic Copy". instantbird.com blog.
  7. 1 2 3 Walker-Morgan, Dj (June 29, 2011). "Cross platform IM client InstantBird goes 1.0". h-online.com. Heise Media UK Ltd.
  8. ↑ C., Patrick (June 28, 2011). "Instantbird 1.0 released in 11 locales". Instantbird.org blog.
  9. ↑ "FAQ: Logs". instantbird.com.
  10. ↑ Greenberg, Andy (2015-10-29). "Tor just launched the easiest app yet for encrypted IM". Wired. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  11. ↑ "Tor Messenger Beta: Chat Over Tor, Easily". Tor Blog. 2015-10-29. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  12. ↑ "Tor Messenger Design Document". 13 July 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  13. ↑ Cassels, Joe (July 1, 2011). "Why tweet when you can chirp? Instantbird 1.0 multi-IM client is available". Betanews.
  14. ↑ Henry, Alan (June 29, 2011). "InstantBird is a Lightweight, Cross-Platform Instant Messaging App with Sharp Looks". LifeHacker
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.