Yesterday I finally did what I had been planning for some time – moved from Google (Talk) back to Jabber. I started using Gtalk many years ago because at that time it was the most reliable XMPP service around and it had online history.
But Google has moved to closed Hangouts and recently announced that they would discontinue the XMPP compatibility. It hasn’t taken place yet, but the compatibility is getting worse and worse. I can’t add contacts from other Jabber servers, don’t receive their requests. If they send me a message, it’s not delivered to the mobile app etc. I have had enough.
Because I’m running Google services on my own domain, the move was pretty simple. I just changed DNS records and moved my contact list. I sometimes really regret that Jabber has not been widely adopted. I really love the idea of just moving your account to a different provider if you’re not satisfied with the current one. Almost zero vendor lockin. If I disappeared from your contact list, you may need to add me again. My account is jiri [] eischmann [] cz. It’s hosted by my friend who runs aerohosting.cz and offers Jabber as an additional service as well as e.g. OwnCloud.
Although I use Jabber, I really like Telegram and I now consider it as my primary instant messaging. It’s the only service from the new wave of IM networks which has a fully open protocol and it’s pretty secure. And I do think it’s also in other aspects better than other IMs such as Messenger, Hangouts, or Whatsapp.
I have also been planning to move my email from Gmail. It won’t be so simple there because I’ve got two more accounts there. I will have to move tens of thousands of emails, and I also will have to disable the accounts somehow internally because otherwise Gmail would keep delivering emails to my old account, I suppose.
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