The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of instant messaging protocols. Please see the individual protocols' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date.
General information
Basic general information about the protocols: creator, version, etc.
| Creator | First public release date | License | Identity (not inc. alias) | Asynchronous message relaying | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bonjour | Apple Computer | August 2002 | Proprietary | Username@hostname | No |
| Gadu-Gadu | sms-express.com | 17 July 2000 | Proprietary | Unique number e.g. 12345678 |
Yes |
| IRC | Jarkko Oikarinen | August 1988 | Open standard | Nickname!Username@hostname (or "hostmask") e.g. user!~usr@a.b.com 1 |
Yes |
| Jabber | Jeremie Miller | May 2000 | Open standard | JID e.g. usr@a.b.c/home 2 |
Yes |
| Mobile Status Notification Protocol (MSNP) | Microsoft | July 1999 | Proprietary | E-mail address (.NET Passport) | No |
| OSCAR protocol | AOL | ? | Proprietary | Username or UIN e.g. 12345678 |
Yes |
| YMSG | Yahoo | ? | Proprietary | Username | No |
| Creator | First public release date | License | Identity (not inc. alias) | Asynchronous message relaying |
Note 1: In ~usr@a.b.com, the a.b.com part is known as the "hostmask" and can either be the server being connected from or a "cloak" granted by the server administrator; a more realistic example is ~myname@myisp.example.com. The tilde generally indicates that the username provided by the IRC client on signon was not verified with the ident service.
Note 2: In usr@a.b.c/home, the home part is a "resource", which distinguishes the same user when logged in from multiple locations, possibly simultaneously; a more realistic example is user@jabberserver.example.com/home