XMPP in Sailfish, how to start?

[spark]

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?

[atlochowski]

https://openrepos.net/content/schorsch/shmoose

[spark]

Thanks. What is the point of the Sailfish xmpp-account then? I have to log into xmpp again when installing shmoose.

[phklrz]

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

[Objectifnul]

You may also try Shmoose (Shmoose | OpenRepos.net — Community Repository System)

[poetaster]

@nephros has suggested a number of mechanisms for getting jabber/xmpp data associated with contacts: here XMPP no longer works - #6 by nephros and reading the thread may be instructive. Also see: No 'presence' in 'settings' app on pinephone

I’ve actually been able to use the native messenger to XMPP but find it really ‘odd’. I don’t actually use Shmoose, but it does work. It’s just not integrated into the os.

And, as @phklrz mentions, no omemo in the native implementation. errr. that’s no good.

[ApB]

The more i think about it the more i lean to stuff like that (xmpp, twitter etc) should be removed from the core os since we have apps.

[poetaster]

Yeah. The os can’t 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

[attah]

I agree… but perhaps providing the account infrastructure could still be useful:

[harbour-validator] Allow Sailfish Accounts. Fixes JB#58664

[ApB]

For sure we need notification infra for the OS. There have been discussions -and from the community- about push notifications but still nothing materialized.

[poetaster]

True. Since accounts and secrets are opening up, maybe we can make some progress…

[Inte]

I loved the account Integration on my N900 where everything just workes through the message app… Was just great! I’d 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 don’t like Android and it’s Google integration, nor do I like iOS/Apple.

[spark]

I like this general approach of Sailfish too, as in: The protocol doesn’t 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 Sailfish…

[devaldi]

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 it’s high time Jolla finally went the last few steps to really make it useful for everyone!

[devaldi]

You can only send a message to someone if you have received once a message from him/her

That’s 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 “standalone”. Once you’ve 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!

[phklrz]

Pingyou has not been updated for more than 5 years. It is not compatible with SailJail.
It doesn’t work on my XA2 with 4.4.0.68.

[davidrasch]

What about telepathy gabble plus fromopenrepos? Does this still work?

[poetaster]

Added to https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/apps-that-havent-been-ported-to-aarch64

I’ll take a crack at it, this week.

[nephros]

Yes it does! (4.4.0.64/aarch64)

[poetaster]

I didn’t see an aarch64 build? Did you build it?