List of instant messaging protocols

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This list contains information about network protocols that describe the communication flow and connection establishment between software clients for instant messaging . Some protocols are directly linked to the software, in this case the name of the software is mentioned.

protocol Open source developer use Open
standard 		End-to-end encryption possible user account Offline messages Own server possible
E-mail ("push mail") Yes 1982 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
IRC Yes Jarkko Oikarinen 1988 Yes No not mandatory not without further ado Yes
Windows Live Messenger No Microsoft 1999-2013 No Yes Yes Yes No
PSYC Yes PSYC project 1995 Yes No Yes Yes Yes
OSCAR ( AIM , ICQ ) No AOL 1996 No No Yes Yes No
Tencent QQ No QQ Tencent 1998 No No Yes Yes No
Yahoo Messenger No Yahoo 1998 No No Yes Yes No
SILC Yes Pekka Riikonen 2000 Yes Yes public key No No
Gadu-Gadu No Gadu-Gadu 2000 No No Yes Yes No
XMPP (formerly Jabber) Yes Jeremie Miller 2000 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Pichat No 2002 ? No ? ? serverless
Skype No Skype Technologies (Microsoft) 2003 No No Yes Yes No
RetroShare Yes Team retroshare 2006 Yes Yes public key Yes serverless
Echo protocol Yes Spot-on.sf.net / goldbug.sf.net 2013 Yes Yes optional Yes Yes
SIMPLE No SIMPLE Working Group 2007 Yes No Yes No No
Blackberry Messenger No 2005 No No ? Yes No
Hike No BSB Innovation India Private Limited 2012 No No ? Yes No
Hoccer No Hoccer Betriebs GmbH 2014 No No ? Yes No
KakaoTalk No 2010 No No ? Yes No
Line No Line Corporation 2011 No No ? Yes No
myEnigma No 2013-2016 No Yes Phone number Yes No
Signal (formerly Axolotl) Yes Open Whisper Systems 2010 Yes Yes Phone number Yes No
Ginlo before SIMSme No Brabbler AG previously Deutsche Post AG 2014 No Yes Phone number Yes No
Surespot Yes 2fours 2012 No Yes ? Yes No
Telegram Messenger (MTProto) Yes Telegram Messenger LLP 2013 No Yes Phone number Yes No
Threema No Threema GmbH 2012 No Yes Yes Yes No
Viber No Viber Media 2010 No No Yes Yes No
Whatsapp No WhatsApp Inc. (Facebook) 2009 No Yes Phone number Yes No
whistle.im No Daniel Wirtz, Michael Bank 2013 No Yes public key Yes No
Tox Yes 2013 Yes Yes public key No serverless
Google Talk / Google Hangouts No Google Inc. 2005 No No yes (google account) Yes No
Facebook No Facebook 2004 No No Yes Yes No
Mumble Yes 2005 Yes No not mandatory No Yes
TeamSpeak No TeamSpeak Systems GmbH 2001 No No not mandatory No Yes
WebRTC Yes World Wide Web Consortium 2011 Yes No not mandatory No Yes
matrix Yes Matrix.org 2014 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

A protocol is openly standardized if there is an (open) standardization committee or an (open) standardization process that has published a protocol specification.

See also