When I explain to others what I do for a living, I often ask why it is that we are not surprised that one can use a Gmail account to send an email to someone who uses an Outlook account, yet many people fully accept that you can’t send a message to someone using WhatsApp from a Telegram account. We’re not surprised that we can use our phone to set up a call with someone who uses a different brand of phone (or is subscribed to a different provider), yet, for instant messaging, we find ourselves in a world of walled gardens.
Walled gardens refer to ecosystems where companies control access to their platforms and restrict users’ ability to freely interact with other services, creating barriers that prevent open communication and fair competition.
Recognizing this, legislation is slowly being put in place to improve things. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is a regulatory framework established aimed at ensuring fair competition and improving the functioning of the digital economy. One of its primary objectives is to dismantle these walled gardens and promote messaging interoperability. The DMA seeks to break down barriers and ensure that users have more freedom to engage with different platforms and services, while also enabling interoperability between messaging services.
Meta (of WhatsApp and Facebook fame) is designated as a “gatekeeper” under the DMA. This means that Meta holds a dominant position in the market, controlling key access points that can potentially limit competition or consumer choice. The act outlines various obligations that Meta must comply with to ensure a fairer and more open digital environment.
The XMPP Standards Foundation is now publishing an Open Letter to Meta, to advocate for the adoption of XMPP for messaging interoperability. It argues that Meta’s proposal falls short: Meta’s current approach to interoperability, which relies on restrictive NDAs, proprietary APIs, and centralized control, is not true interoperability.
The XSF argues that Meta should adopt XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), a proven, open standard that allows for true federation, decentralization, enhanced privacy, and scalability. XMPP enables seamless communication between different services, akin to email or phone networks. Meta has previously utilized XMPP for WhatsApp and Messenger and has embraced federation for other services, showing that adoption and implementation are not only achievable, but has already been proven to work.
The XSF urges Meta to adopt XMPP for messaging interoperability to comply with the DMA and build a competitive, open messaging ecosystem. The XSF is ready to collaborate and evolve the protocol as needed.
The Ignite Realtime community is based on the strength and flexibility offered by XMPP. Projects like Openfire, Smack, Pade and Spark are direct implementations of the XMPP protocol. We have firsthand witnessed the flexibility, reliability and maturity of the protocol, and have been successfully applying it for years, if not decades. We should therefore fully endorse the XSF’s call to action!
It is time for real interoperability. Let’s make it happen!
You can find the Open Letter of the XSF here: XMPP | Open Letter to Meta: Support True Messaging Interoperability with XMPP
A accompanying technical briefing is also published: XMPP | Detailed technical briefing: The Case for XMPP – Why Meta Must Embrace True Messaging Interoperability
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