Adium and Apple/Messages

[llirik]

Now that Apple is clearly finally working on the whole iOS to OSX integration... this is awesome news.

Unfortunately.... although the layout works on iOS... Message Beta leaves about 400 things left to be desired... things that Adium does (all except video).

As I understand it, the iMessages protocol is closed and can't be put onto other systems (i.e., adium, trillian etc)... so for now it seems integrating it into Adium (so that I can continue to use the compact skin that i love in adium... i like to keep it quite clear and not distracting) is out of the question.

It would be awesome for a plug-in like the one that Skype had (which is removed in 1.5, correct? why is that anyway? its the sole reason I'm staying on 1.4... i don't want more than one chat client open).

But... here's a random idea I had... why doesn't the adium team pitch to apple for apple to buy all the frameworks, code, whatever and develop from there? I follow apple (tho i wouldn't say i'm a nut) enough to know that they've bought firms before (i.e., Siri dev team etc)... given the extensive use and years of development on Adium, and the extremely strong user base... would it be that far of a stretch to just suggest it to them? I mean, they are rewriting iChat but they seem to not get (just like Skype with the release last year)... that chat programs that have so much spacing and are HUGE visually are just inconvenient for everyone but grandmothers using computers. I doubt it would be that hard for them to implement iMessage and FaceTime into Adium (altho FaceTime is still its own app currently). Although I know nothing about the programming side of this, I admit (maybe its not possible??)... but it just seems that this solution has been there for apple for a very long time.

[Robby]

<snip>As I understand it, the iMessages protocol is closed and can't be put onto other systems (i.e., adium, trillian etc)... so for now it seems integrating it into Adium (so that I can continue to use the compact skin that i love in adium... i like to keep it quite clear and not distracting) is out of the question.

One of our developers has started reverse-engineering the iMessages protocol: http://imfreedom.org/wiki/index.php?title=IMessage. It's hard to say whether it is going to work out.

It would be awesome for a plug-in like the one that Skype had (which is removed in 1.5, correct? why is that anyway? its the sole reason I'm staying on 1.4... i don't want more than one chat client open).<snip>

The Skype plugin is not an official one but one developed by a third-party programmer. A certain version was known to crash Adium 1.5 so that specific version was blacklisted. Since then, a new version of the plugin was released which is downloadable from adiumxtras.com.

<snip>But... here's a random idea I had... why doesn't the adium team pitch to apple for apple to buy all the frameworks, code, whatever and develop from there? I follow apple (tho i wouldn't say i'm a nut) enough to know that they've bought firms before (i.e., Siri dev team etc)... given the extensive use and years of development on Adium, and the extremely strong user base... would it be that far of a stretch to just suggest it to them? I mean, they are rewriting iChat but they seem to not get (just like Skype with the release last year)... that chat programs that have so much spacing and are HUGE visually are just inconvenient for everyone but grandmothers using computers. I doubt it would be that hard for them to implement iMessage and FaceTime into Adium (altho FaceTime is still its own app currently). Although I know nothing about the programming side of this, I admit (maybe its not possible??)... but it just seems that this solution has been there for apple for a very long time.

I have been around the project since around 2005. And as long as I can remember many in the Adium Team have been hoping for Apple to take over Adium. At the same time, many, many former Adium developers have left the project to join Apple (off-hand, I can think of about half a dozen). Adium seems to be well-respected at Apple, many of its developers are known to prefer Adium over iChat. But for some reason, it has never happened.

And at this point, I don't think it is ever going to happen anymore though.

[David Munch]

Adium has one flaw, that doesn't suit Apple. It is too complex, in the form of styling and Apple likes simplicity (Too much in many cases).

[llirik]

That's actually what I love about Adium... I've set it up and made it extremely compact and simple and straight to the point. Very small footprint, literally half of iChat/Messages

[llirik]

Hmm, is there a forum or blog for the iMessage reverse engineering... not just that really complicated wiki that i won't understand? haha

[Robby]

No, there isn't. What would a dedicated forum/blog be for?

[llirik]

not a forum, maybe just a topic somewhere that isn't all technical. a place i can bookmark to see any big announcements/progress on it.

[David Munch]

not a forum, maybe just a topic somewhere that isn't all technical. a place i can bookmark to see any big announcements/progress on it.

It is not a project per se, just people trying to figure out how it works. If you don't want technical stuff, I don't see what you want to read about it, except "We got it!", which will probably be on the Adium blog if it ever comes to fruit.