XMPP At The IETF - It's Simpler

September 13, 2008

There are two competing protocols within the IETF for instant messaging and presence. One is XMPP, and the other is SIMPLE. Which one will prevail in the end? My money is on XMPP.

SIMPLE is ironically named, as it is actually quite complex. I don’t tend to hear much about SIMPLE, but it does come up on the XMPP mailing lists from time to time. What I didn’t know until recently was that the IETF already uses XMPP for their meetings. Even within the IETF the choice has been made.

The SIMPLE specification isn’t even complete yet, and XMPP is becoming quite entrenched. I suspect we will continue to hear less and less about SIMPLE.

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