Google Chat linux

A screenshot showing the Google Talk, Labs Edition preview release

On August 22, 2005, The New York Times reported a rumor of a Google-branded "communications tool" service[37] and the Los Angeles Times provided details. Subsequently, the subdomain talk.google.com was found to have an active XMPP server.[38] Two methods of logging into the server were discovered soon after and the ensuing response by eager bloggers revealed to numerous others how to log in before the official release by Google.

On the evening of August 23, many logged-in users using port 5222 to connect were disconnected and unable to log back in. Users using port 5223 to connect were still able to log in, and at 04:12:52 UTC those users received a broadcast instant message from gmail.com, an apparently official username used by Google to communicate with their user base, that stated "The broken link has been fixed. Thanks for being our first users!" Port 5222-connectivity was found to have been re-enabled. On August 24, Google Talk was officially launched.

On December 15, 2005, Google released libjingle,[39] a C++ library to implement Jingle, "a set of extensions to the IETF's Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) for use in voice over IP (VoIP), video, and other peer-to-peer multimedia sessions."[40] Libjingle is a library of the code that Google uses for peer-to-peer communication, and was made available under a BSD license.[41]

In 2006, Google reported that they were working on adding new features such as supporting SIP in a future release, which would broaden the userbase for the program.[42]

On January 17, 2006, Google enabled server-to-server communications, federating itself with any XMPP server that supports the dialback protocol.[43]

On February 7, 2006, Gmail received chat functionality,[44] using Ajax for serverbrowser communication, and was integrated with Google Talk. It also added the ability to chat with a built-in XMPP client.

In August 2006, Google and eBay announced that they would look into making Google Talk users able to communicate with Skype: "The companies will also explore interoperability between Skype and Google Talk via open standards to enable text chat and online presence."[45] However, with Microsoft's acquisition of Skype on May 10, 2011, such interoperability might have been suspended between Google and eBay.[46]

Google integrated Google Talk with Orkut on November 8, 2006.

On March 14, 2007, Google released the Google Talk Gadget, an Adobe Flash-based Talk module that can be added to iGoogle (formally the Google Personalized Homepage) or embedded in any web page, thus, allowing one to chat from any operating system which is supported by Adobe Flash Player as long as Adobe Flash Player is installed.[47]

A screen shot was posted on May 18, 2007, as part of the Google Apps presentation, showing some phone integration in Google Talk.[48] On March 2, 2008. a Google engineer confirmed they had been using it internally for some time.[49]

On November 26, 2007, Google Talk released Group Chat capabilities. Before this, users could chat with only one person per window. Group chat allows many users to chat with each other in an environment similar to IRC.

On December 6, 2007, Google upgraded its Gmail integrated chat to include AOL Instant Messenger chat capability. This allows Gmail users to sign into the AIM chat service and communicate with any AIM user while still being signed on to the Google Talk service. The Google Talk gadget and client have not been upgraded to enable this feature yet, and no announcement has been made as to when it will be made available.

On February 25, 2008, Google added a feature called "Chatback", which allows a Google Talk account owner to chat with people who do not have one. The account owner first has to create a badge, which can be included in webpages. This badge shows the current availability of the owner. Clicking on the badge results a chat request notification to the owner who can respond by clicking on the specified URL. During the conversation, both parties have to use the Google Talk Gadget and both parties remain anonymous to each other, even the Google Account name of the owner is not revealed to the other peer.

On November 11, 2008, Google Chat (voice and video chat) was launched enabling computer to computer voice and video chat.[26] Clues from one of the first Google Chrome builds in December 2008 suggest that a new Talk client is in the works.[50]

As XMPP Jingle specifications[51] became a Draft Standard, Google updated libjingle to version 0.5.1[52] and stated that "Google Talk is in the process of being updated to be in full compliance with the Jingle specifications."[53]

Google has a version of Google Talk called Google Talk, Labs Edition, though it lacks many features of Google Talk's other releases.[54]

On April 20, 2012, Google announced that it was shutting down the mobile web app for Google Talk.[55]

In June 2012, Google announced that they were planning to revamp the chat experience by merging Google Talk with Hangouts and Google Messenger to reduce confusion and fragmentation.[56] At the Google I/O Conference 2013 Google announced that they were replacing Google Talk, Google+ Messenger and the original Google+ Hangout video chat service with Google+ Hangouts.[57]

On May 15, 2013, Google's manager of real-time communication products, Nikhyl Singhal, stated at Google I/O that the move to Google+ Hangouts will mean that XMPP (the protocol that allowed Google Talk to interoperate with other vendors and applications) will not be supported in Hangouts. Mr. Singhal stated that as long as Google Talk is available, 3rd party clients could be expected to continue to work.[58]

On October 30, 2014, Google announced on their Apps Updates blog that "The Google Talk app for Windows will continue to work for approximately two months before being turned off".

On February 3, 2015, Google sent a system message to users stating, "Google Talk app for Windows will stop working on Feb 16, 2015. It is replaced by the new Hangouts Chrome app."

On February 13, 2015, Google developer Mayur Kamat posted a clarification that XMPP service relied-on by third-party chat apps would continue after the deprecation of the Windows-specific Google Talk client.[59]

After Google officially stopped supporting Google Talk for Windows on February 23, 2015, the application continued to function normally during an apparent grace period lasting until February 28. As of that date, connection attempts returned an error message stating "Username and password do not match." Those users received a notification e-mail stating, in part: "We noticed you recently tried using the Google Talk app for Windows. We wanted to let you know that this was discontinued on February 23rd, 2015. We recommend giving Hangouts a try so you can chat with all your Google contacts."

The Google Talk for Windows application will purportedly still work by connecting through applications using the Jabber protocol including Pidgin and Gajim but cannot connect directly through Google or Gmail.[60]

The Google Talk App for Android and the Google Chat tool in Gmail were discontinued on June 26, 2017 and no longer function.[61][62][63] Users may still continue to use third-party XMPP clients to connect to the legacy Google talk server, but only for 1-on-1 chat with Hangouts users.[62][64]