
A Brief History of Chat Services [pdf] - Tehnix
https://cdn.sameroom.io/chat-timeline.pdf
======
Syrup-tan
What about Discord[0]? I believe it uses it's own protocol, however there are
already many unofficial API clients.

IRC-esque text chat, with Mumble-esque voice chat, with the best UX I've seen
yet in a chat program[1]

[0] [https://discord.gg/](https://discord.gg/)

[1]
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/115226319603630086/11...](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/115226319603630086/116232716655001608/Screen_Shot_2015-11-17_at_9.46.07_AM.png)

Edit: s/seen ever/seen yet/, discord link

~~~
jlarky2012
I'm afraid it has nothing to do with Mumble, since it uses webrtc for voice
calls

~~~
Syrup-tan
I meant from a purely feature perspective.

------
frik
Nice graph.

I found a small error, the entry about Microsoft Lync is wrong. It started as

Microsoft NetMeeting [1] & Windows Messenger [2] => Microsoft Office
Communicator [3] => Microsoft Lync [3] => Microsoft Skype (Business) [3]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netmeeting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netmeeting)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Messenger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Messenger)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Lync](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Lync)

~~~
rekoros
Thanks for this! We will update the graph.

The graph is open source, btw, if you understand .ai (I don't):
[https://github.com/sameroom/history-of-
chat](https://github.com/sameroom/history-of-chat)

------
Tehnix
With the recent discussion of FastMail shutting down their XMPP chat
server[0], I thought it'd be interesting to share the history of chat services
that sameroom.io just sent out in an email.

Doing a ctrl-f/cmd-f for "XMPP" on the site only shows 6 matches, which says
something about the lack of adoption of the standard. Not to imply causation
through correlation, but it would indicate that the XMPP standard is lacking,
seeing as everyone creates their own/uses another standard instead.

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10572597](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10572597)

~~~
sdegutis
A few years ago, I tried and tried and tried to create my own native GUI chat
client for Google Chat that used XMPP. It was dang near impossible. I don't
know if it was because I was a terrible programmer or because the protocol was
way too complex or because good documentation was just not there, or maybe a
little of all of them. Either way, I never finished that app.

~~~
nickpsecurity
It's not just you: XMPP sucks. Just another example of Worse is Better meme
where market is all over what they should've avoided instead of simpler,
efficient, and effective alternatives.

[http://about.psyc.eu/XMPP](http://about.psyc.eu/XMPP)

Note: Some info is probably dated by now but the issues will be clear. I'm
_guessing_ , but unsure, that fixing some probably added complexity to XMPP.
That would reinforce other points that focus on that problem.

------
davidw
Have been using IRC happily for more than 20 years. Still works fine!

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Gigablah
Besides IRC, I recall using chat interfaces that were created as features on
top of an app with an entirely different purpose, but ended up being widely
used for social chat anyway.

WestWood Chat - originally intended for organizing C&C: Red Alert multiplayer
games

DC++ - filesharing

------
stcredzero
What about Excalibur/XYZ? That was a home-grown chat running on Dartmouth
mainframe computers in the 80's/early 90's. We users of XYZ were considered
degenerates by the campus community at large, until a MacOS GUI chat app
gained widespread popularity. Does anyone remember what that was called? I
think it came with Blitzmail, which was the home grown email GUI on MacOS.

------
hammerandtongs
Did not see
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SILC_(protocol)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SILC_\(protocol\))

or chatsecure.org

or
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tox_(protocol)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tox_\(protocol\))

or matrix.org

Very nice work though and valuable for many reasons, thank you.

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pwenzel
Can't appease everyone. What about Hotline?
[http://www.macworld.com/article/2031816/hotline-
revisited.ht...](http://www.macworld.com/article/2031816/hotline-
revisited.html)

~~~
rekoros
Nice. Will add.

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mwcremer
What about BITNET Relay?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BITNET_Relay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BITNET_Relay)

~~~
rekoros
Didn't know about it - thanks! Will add.

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ahailes
Not sure what the qualifications for "dead" are, but I know of several
companies that still use Zulip, and it was recently open-sourced by Dropbox.

~~~
rekoros
My understanding is Zulip can now be only self-hosted, correct? If that's the
case, it's disqualified from our criteria (cloud-based services).

(Please correct me if I'm wrong and we'll fix the graph)

We decided to count big IRC networks as "cloud-based services", because
basically that's what they are.

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tonymarks
Don't see FireChat on here, any reason why?

~~~
rekoros
FireChat seems to be an app, not a service. We only listed services, so things
like Trillian, Pigin, etc were excluded.

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dethos
We can see a trend since 2006, with the vast majority of the services
implementing their own protocol.

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pbreit
Probably should add SMS from mid-80s to present. It's the biggest, after all.

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joezydeco
CompuServe CB Simulator (1980)?

Minitel (1981)?

I'm on the fence if you should include the Telegraph (1844).

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dorfsmay
This is nice, but isn't SIP/Simple missing from there?

Isn't Lync based on SIP?

