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by morsch 4468 days ago
They also removed the last bit of Jabber interoperability in the new Google Mail chat/hangouts frontend.

I used to be able to talk to my Jabber frieds on both Android and Gmail/Web. They dropped federation on Android with the move to Hangouts, and -- unsurprisingly -- they're now doing the same for Gmail/Web as it's moving to Hangouts.

I'm eyeing TextSecure as a replacement IM tool. Sort of hoping the TextSecure desktop app comes around before the Gmail Hangout integration becomes mandatory; but as cool as TextSecure may be from a security perspective, they haven't exactly blown me away with the timeliness of their releases. ;)
2 comments
saraid216 4468 days ago
> they're now doing the same for Gmail/Web as it's moving to Hangouts.

Moving? Hasn't this been the case for the last two years?

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morsch 4468 days ago
I'm referring to this: http://gmailblog.blogspot.de/2013/05/try-out-new-hangouts-ex...

It's still opt-in, at least for me.

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saraid216 4468 days ago
Huh. Yeah, it just showed up for me one day and I continued ignoring it.
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darklajid 4468 days ago
Aaand no federation with TextSecure either.. :/
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morsch 4468 days ago
No? I think it's something they want to do, there's a reference to it in the recent blog post[0]: "The new TextSecure push transport is a federated protocol, and inter-operates transparently with the CyanogenMod deployment of the TextSecure protocol to their 10MM+ users a few months ago."

I gotta say, while I can't really fault them for not releasing the software as quickly as I'd wish they did, I do think their communication could be a bit better. I still have no idea how, for instance, the CM integration works on either the user interface or the technical level. The inter-operability may be transparent; it certainly is oblique. ;)

Don't get me wrong, though, I like what they're doing and I'm looking forward to seeing more.

[0] https://whispersystems.org/blog/the-new-textsecure/

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darklajid 4468 days ago
Yes, but in related threads my hope was crushed: It seems that 'federated' means: "We have a list of servers that we trust". CM is one of those.

You and I won't be able to host a TextSecure server for our friends and family and still be connected to the general public.

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fluidcruft 4468 days ago
The federation challenge for TextSecure comes up a lot and IIRC it has to do with the fact that it's a SMS replacement so accounts are phone number and phone numbers aren't routable to the user's domain. If I understand correctly it would be like trying to deliver messages after truncating the "@blah.tld" part from a jabber/email address--lots of opportunity for shenanigans.
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