Questions from a total XMPP-noob:
I see that it is possible to set up an xmpp-account in Sailfish. I did this since I can log in with my mail credentials (my mail provider offers an xmpp-server). My xmpp-account now appears in the Sailfish account section next to my Jolla- and mail-accounts.
What happens next? I have no clue how to make use of that now.
Which app does Sailfish use for chat via xmpp? Is it automatically integrated somewhere when the account has been added to Sailfish? How to handle contacts? Or plainly: How can I send a message to someone?
To chat with xmpp, Sailfish uses the same app as for SMS and MMS: messages.
However, there are two drawbacks with the native implementation of xmpp in SailfishOS:
Encryption is not implemented
You can only send a message to someone if you have received once a message from him/her
Iāve actually been able to use the native messenger to XMPP but find it really āoddā. I donāt actually use Shmoose, but it does work. Itās just not integrated into the os.
And, as @phklrz mentions, no omemo in the native implementation. errr. thatās no good.
Yeah. The os canāt keep up to developments of that kind. The only thing jolla can do is to make it painless to do stuff like notifications and sharing
For sure we need notification infra for the OS. There have been discussions -and from the community- about push notifications but still nothing materialized.
I loved the account Integration on my N900 where everything just workes through the message appā¦ Was just great! Iād prefer that much more than running virtually a billion apps in parallel.
However, I understand there are no ressources to achieve it until a major player would pick SfOS up to build a global ecosystem. I would love to see that happen because I donāt like Android and itās Google integration, nor do I like iOS/Apple.
I like this general approach of Sailfish too, as in: The protocol doesnāt matter but the use case. Thought from a user centered perspective. Imagine you could (video)call someone via xmpp by using the telephone app of Sailfishā¦
I use XMPP/Jabber a lot without using Shmoose or any other fully-fledged XMPP client apps. However PingYou has proven useful, because you cannot add XMPP contacts using out-of-the-box SailfishOS . Once you have done this, those contacts appear in your SailfishOS contacts, where you can connect them to existing contacts if needed.
When this is done, you can use XMPP/Jabber to send text messages just the way you do it via SMS (which way you use to send the message is metioned below the message field and you can also switch between the available methods there), which I find pretty cool.
The downsides of using XMPP/Jabber like this (mostly referred to here already), are mentioned and discussed here.
I really like the idea behind the XMPP integration in SailfishOS, but - like many others around here - I think itās high time Jolla finally went the last few steps to really make it useful for everyone!
You can only send a message to someone if you have received once a message from him/her
Thatās not quite true. You can use PingYou to add XMPP users to your roster and they will appear in your SailfishOS contacts, where you can connect them to existing contacts if you like or you can use them āstandaloneā. Once youāve done that, you can start sending messages using XMPP without having received a message from the contact in question first.
I agree, however, that adding XMPP contacts is something that should just works out-of-the-box!
. Once you have done this, those contacts appear in your SailfishOS contacts, where you can connect them to existing contacts if needed.