Outlook.com to Google IM is Live! Adds Jabber/XMPP Support to Outlook.com; Is Skype to Google Next?

Microsoft has just released the ability for www.outlook.com users to Instant Message and see the presence of Google users. Interestingly the same week Microsoft announced and delivered outlook to Google interoperability, Google dropped a bombshell and noted that their nextgen IM/P solution called Hangouts (which will eventually replace Google Talk) would no longer support XMPP federation. Does this mean outlook.com to Google interop is doomed?

Actually not necessarily...at least not right now. Very interestingly outlook.com does not use XMPP federation, as one might expect, to talk to Google users: It appears to use the Google Talk API. What does this mean?

• It means you will need a Google user login associated with your outlook.com account.
• It also means that Google/Gmail users that receive an IM from your outlook.com account will look exactly like it is coming from a normal Google/Gmail user. (In fact, if you are logged into Gmail when an Outlook –> Google IM is occurring, you will see the conversation there)
• It also means all your Google contacts will flow over into the Outlook.com People list.
• It also means that you can IM from Outlook.com (via Google Talk login) to federated XMPP/Jabber based IM servers for as long as Google allows 3rd party clients to login to Google Talk and Google Talk does not remove XMPP federation.

IM/P between Outlook.com and a plain jane XMPP jabber.org IM/P account:

There are several implications of this:

• Outlook.com is becoming a kind of web based multi-protocol client just like Skype application itself! (see my complete blog on this)
• If you have your Google/Gmail account associated with your Outlook.com/Microsoft Account, and you are logging into Skype with Microsoft Account, why couldn't this functionality eventually be brought to the Skype client itself? So Skype to Google would be very possible in exactly the same way Skype to Facebook is currently working.

But isn’t XMPP federation going away with Google Hangouts, the new app that will eventually replace Google Talk? Yes, IM/P between Google Hangouts app and contacts federated to Google via XMPP federation will not work…BUT…conversations between Google Talk and those same contacts WILL continue to work for some time. (not end of life announced yet) Since Outlook.com is really like a 3rd party Google Talk client this continues to work. Google has noted that 3rd party Google Talk client support will not be cut off at this time.

So it appears that Microsoft is just extending it’s existing strategy of having Skype and Outlook.com be mutli-protocol “clients” that login in to various other services like Skype, Facebook, Outlook.com/Live Messenger, and now Google. Perhaps Microsoft just took a page out of the success of the many popular multi-protocol clients out there and decided to do it themselves? That’s what it looks like. <end>

Hangouts Won’t Hangout With Other Messaging Vendors: Google’s New Unified Messaging Drops Open XMPP/Jabber Interop
http://windowspbx.blogspot.com/2013/05/hangouts-wont-hangout-with-other.html

Skype becoming a multi-protocol client?
http://windowspbx.blogspot.com/2013/02/some-thots-on-skype-federation-becoming.html

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Hangouts Won’t Hangout With Other Messaging Vendors: Google’s New Unified Messaging Drops Open XMPP/Jabber Interop

 

How can a company in the same day chastise other vendors for not being open and drop the open and interoperable portion of their own unified messaging solution? On May 15, 2013 Google seems to have done just that.

Just yesterday at Google I/O Larry Page decried a sad lack of IM & presence interoperability between vendors:

"I've personally been quite sad at the industry's behavior around all these things. If you take something as simple as IM, we've had an open offer to interoperate forever. Just this week Microsoft took advantage of that by interoperating with us but not doing the reverse. Which is really sad and not the way to make progress. You can't have people milking off of just one company for their own benefit…" (see video here)

But just days after Microsoft announces that www.outlook.com will integrate to Google’s IM/P solution via Google Talk’s XMPP protocol, Google notes that its new effort at a unified messaging solution (Hangouts which will replace existing Google Talk) will effectively cut off interoperability via XMPP. Google’s manager of real-time communication products, Nikhyl Singhal notes:

“With Hangouts, Singhal says Google had to make the difficult decision to drop the very "open" XMPP standard that it helped pioneer…”

Google Developers Talk page has also clearly noted that XMPP is not supported in Hangouts:

Note: We announced a new communications product, Hangouts, in May 2013. Hangouts will replace Google Talk and does not support XMPP. [show below]

What does this mean technically for XMPP to Google Federation today?

What does this mean technically today? User colaflash notes that the experience with the new Hangsouts-App (version 1.0.0.1, released today, 15th May 2013) is as noted below:

• XMPP/Jabber contacts that you have saved in GoogleTalk will not show up in Hangouts app
• Adding new XMPP/Jabber contacts in new Hangouts app will add them as email only contacts
• XMPP/Jabber contacts can not send IM to Hangouts user (it fails to deliver with error)
• Gmail account will appear online to XMPP/Jabber contacts when Hangout app is logged in (presumably through/via Gmail.com/GoogleTalk)
• from Hangout App you cannot see others presence. Google Talk users will just see online when Hangout App is logged in.
• If the same gmail user logs into www.gmail.com they can still IM XMPP/Jabber contacts (Google notes that talk will be superceded by Hangouts eventually)

How Many XMPP Federated Enterprise Organizations Will This Affect?

Earlier this year I did some research on how many Fortune 500 and 1000 companies have apparent public facing XMPP federation enabled and the numbers came in at around 10-15%. This means that between 10-15% of the top organizations could be affected by Google’s decision to drop XMPP. Read more here.

Questions About Clients: 3rd Party Clients, Google Talk and Hangouts

Q. Will my 3rd party Google Talk client still work?
A. At this time Google has not yet announced the end of life/retirement for Google Talk. As long as Google Talk is available 3rd party client apps as well as Outlook.com’s new Google connection could be expected to continue to work.

Q. Has Hangouts really removed contact presence?
A. Yes, below is the old Google Talk Android client (left) compared Hangouts app on the right. Two things that are missing in the new Hangouts App: Ability to see other users’ presence and the ability to set your own presence. Those using Talk app or Gmail.com will see a Hangouts user as Available if they are logged into the app.

Q. Its quite inconvenient to not have presence and loose Jabber contacts, what can I do?
A. If you uninstall the Android Hangouts App you will be able to use Google Talk app again.

[Note: the above are observations and we do not have input from Google]

Conclusion

Google Hangouts unplugging support for XMPP has deep ramifications in the industry: This means that interoperability between Google and Microsoft Lync, XMPP/Jabber based solutions like Cisco Jabber, Openfire, Avaya and many others will also loose interoperability. Will this also put Microsoft Lync in the interesting position of being the the most widely interoperable enterprise UC solution? [complete article on this subject] Will Google Apps now be the “closed solution” in comparison to Microsoft’s “very open” UC solution?

In conclusion, perhaps the code name “babel”, used internally by Google to describe their unified messaging effort, was indeed an allusion to the Biblical story of the tower of Babel? In that story humans spoke a single language until suddenly multiple languages emerged, making communication between people and groups impossible…

Read more:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/15/4318830/inside-hangouts-googles-big-fix-for-its-messaging-mess
http://512pixels.net/2013/05/on-the-new-google-hangouts/

Microsoft Outlook.com Support Google Talk
http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/14/4327206/outlook-com-google-talk-support-rolling-out

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.talk

If you are interested in IM/P interoperability between vendors you may have interest in this blog

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Google Blocking XMPP Invites From Federated Partners

As a big promoter of federation, this latest move by Google’s XMPP chat service got my attention. Free Software Foundation has noted that Google is blocking invites to be added to GoogleTalk contact list from federated XMPP partners:

“Recently, some of our members started reporting that they were no longer able to add contacts at GoogleTalk, which is the Jabber service Google provides to Gmail users. Since Google has run a fully federated Jabber service for a long time and ours is new, we investigated under the assumption the problem was on our end. Turns out, Google has started blocking invites sent from non-Google Jabber servers. Subscription requests just disappear mysteriously, confusing both users and server operators

You can read the entire article by FSF by clicking here.

Who Is Affected By the Problem?

Since Microsoft Lync 2013 has native XMPP federation capability, this affects Lync community. Our Lync team has done a quick test and noted that Lync to Gmail Chat invites seem to no longer reach Gmail users. At this time we have had other verify the below solutions are affected by the blocking:

• Lync 2013
• Lync via NextPlane 
• OCS 2007 R2
• OpenFire Server

 

What is the precise problem?

Contact list invites from federated XMPP partners are not reaching Gmail users. (a secondary problem is that presence from Gmail to federated partners shows either offline or incorrect)

What Is a Work Around?

What you need to do for now is email the Gmail user you want to have add you to their contact list in Gmail chat and IM/P will work then.

Ongoing UPDATES on Google XMPP to Federated Partners Issues

Date	Action
3/19/2013	Gmail to Federated partner XMPP presence now seems to be working; Contact list invites still seem to be blocked.

NOTE: Other Lync Server 2013 admin notes challenges with Google XMPP Federation: Click Here
NOTE: Office 365 does not include the Lync Server XMPP feature. Source: Click Here

Google notes they are taking this action to fight spam invites from certain domains. There is the possibility of having Gmail administrators add your XMPP domain added to a whitelist. (still getting details on this.)

Conclusion

This underscores a point: Standards alone are certainly not a guarantee that frictionless connectivity between people will occur.

Source: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/google-backslides-on-federated-instant-messaging-on-purpose

How To Enable XMPP Federation to Google: Click Here

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