Google Talk is a
freewareFreeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
voice over Internet protocolVoice over Internet Protocol is a family of technologies, methodologies, communication protocols, and transmission techniques for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol networks, such as the Internet...
(VoIP) client application offered by Google Inc. The first beta version of the program was released on August 24, 2005. It is available for the Android operating system,
GNU/LinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
,
Intel Mac OS X 10.5Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
or later,
Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
(
XPWindows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
,
Server 2003Windows Server 2003 is a server operating system produced by Microsoft, introduced on 24 April 2003. An updated version, Windows Server 2003 R2, was released to manufacturing on 6 December 2005...
,
VistaWindows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
, and Windows 7), and
Google Chrome OSGoogle Chrome OS is a Linux-based operating system designed by Google to work exclusively with web applications. Google announced the operating system on July 7, 2009 and made it an open source project, called Chromium OS, that November....
.
Instant messaging between the Google Talk servers and its clients uses an open protocol,
XMPPExtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence...
, allowing users of other XMPP/Jabber clients to communicate with Google Talk users. VoIP in Google Talk uses an older version of what would later become the
JingleJingle is an extension to the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol . It implements peer-to-peer session control for multimedia interactions such as in Voice over IP or videoconferencing communications. It was designed by Google and the XMPP Standards Foundation. The multimedia streams are...
protocol. The technology used within the Google server network, however, is not publicly known.
Google Talk mobile clients are also available for the
Palm PreThe Palm Pre is a multimedia smartphone designed and marketed by Palm with a multi-touch screen and a sliding keyboard. The smartphone was the first to use Palm's Linux based mobile operating system, webOS...
,
BlackBerryBlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
, Android-based devices and is preloaded on the
Nokia N900The Nokia N900 is a smartphone made by Nokia. It supersedes the Nokia N810. Its default operating system, Maemo 5, is a Linux-based OS originally developed for the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. It is the first Nokia device based upon the Texas Instruments OMAP3 microprocessor with the ARM Cortex-A8...
smartphone.
Interoperability
Google has announced that a major goal of the Google Talk service is
interoperabilityInteroperability is a property referring to the ability of diverse systems and organizations to work together . The term is often used in a technical systems engineering sense, or alternatively in a broad sense, taking into account social, political, and organizational factors that impact system to...
. Google Talk uses
XMPPExtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence...
to provide real-time extensible messaging and
presence eventsIn computer and telecommunications networks, presence information is a status indicator that conveys ability and willingness of a potential communication partner—for example a user--to communicate...
, including offline messaging and voice mailing. On January 17, 2006, Google enabled server-to-server communications,
federatingA federated identity in information technology is the means of linking a person's electronic identity and attributes, stored across multiple distinct identity management systems....
itself with any XMPP server that supports the dialback protocol.
Other XMPP clients such as
PidginPidgin is an open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple. Libpurple has support for many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log into various services from one application.The number of Pidgin users was estimated to be over 3...
and
Psi are
compatible with Google Talk's text chat (IM), allowing text chat with XMPP users on a variety of platforms.
Product integration
On February 7, 2006,
GmailGmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...
received chat functionality, using
AjaxAjax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...
for server–browser communication, and was integrated with Google Talk. Users can send instant messages to other Gmail users. As it works within a browser, Google Talk does not need to be downloaded to send instant messages to Gmail users.
Conversation logs are automatically saved to a
Chats area in the user's Gmail account. This allows users to search their chat logs and have them centrally stored in their Gmail accounts. For a long time it wasn't possible to directly download chat logs that are not attached to an e-mail conversation, although some workarounds had been found.
However, on September 15, 2011, Google announced a new feature of its Google Takeout program that allows users to download chat logs via IMAP .
Since November 8, 2006, Google has also integrated Google Talk with
OrkutOrkut is a social networking website that is owned and operated by Google Inc. The service is designed to help users meet new and old friends and maintain existing relationships...
. This enables Google Talk users to interact with registered Orkut users, by sending and receiving 'scraps' within Orkut.
It is also possible to display the song currently playing on one's computer.
As of November 11, 2008, Google also provides a
Voice and Video ChatSearch by voice is a branded name for a technology to "search by voice on your [digital device]", such as a mobile phone or PC, i.e. have the device search for data upon entering information on what to search into the device by speaking....
browser plugin (not to be confused with the standalone Google Talk client) that supports voice and video chat between
GmailGmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...
users. The plugin is available for Windows (XP, Vista, and 7),
Mac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
(only on Intel-based Macs), and
LinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
(
DebianDebian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
, Ubuntu, Fedora, and
OpenSUSEopenSUSE is a general purpose operating system built on top of the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported openSUSE Project and sponsored by SUSE...
packages available, but the binaries work on other systems) The plugin must be downloaded and installed, but otherwise seamlessly integrates into the
GmailGmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...
interface.
Google Talk Gadget is an
Adobe Flash PlayerThe Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing multimedia, Rich Internet Applications and streaming video and audio, on a computer web browser or on supported mobile devices. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other...
application that may be embedded in iGoogle and other web pages, allowing text chat with users of Google Talk.
Google+Google+ is a social networking and identity service, operated by Google Inc.The service was launched on June 28, 2011, in an invite-only "field testing" phase. The following day, existing users were allowed to invite friends who were over 18 years of age to the service to create their own accounts....
both integrates and is integrated into Google Talk. In the standalone client and the Google Talk widget embedded into Gmail and Google+, Google+ contacts appear in the contacts list; their respective circles are shown in Google+'s iteration of the widget.
Encryption
The connection between the Google Talk client and the Google Talk server is encrypted, except when using Gmail's chat over HTTP, a federated network that doesn't support encryption, or when using a proxy like IMLogic. End-to-end messages are unencrypted. Google plans to add support for chat and call encryption in a future release. Some XMPP clients natively support encryption with Google Talk's servers. It is possible to have end-to-end encryption over the GTalk network using OTR (off-the-record) encryption.
Voicemail
On July 28, 2006, Google added
voicemailVoicemail is a computer based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to individuals, organizations, products and services, using an ordinary telephone...
and file sending capabilities to the Google Talk client. Voicemail messages can be 10 minutes long, and they're delivered to the contact's mailbox as an attached
MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
file (11 kHz mono 24 kbit/s). Recipients who use
GmailGmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...
are offered better integration. Gmail recognizes that it is a voicemail message, and users can choose to stream the file using the integrated MP3-playing applet, or to download the MP3 file.
Offline messaging
On October 31, 2006, Google introduced offline messaging to Google Talk. This allows users to send messages to their contacts, even if they are not signed in. They will receive the messages when they next go online even if the user who has sent it is offline.
Mobile device compatibility
On June 30, 2006, Nokia released new software for their
Nokia 5230The Nokia 5230 Nuron is a low-cost smartphone from Nokia that is manufactured in South Korea and is famous and commonly used in India, Brazil, Indonesia, etc. It is a candybar style phone similar in shape to the 5800 but does not have a secondary camera, has less internal storage and is not...
Internet Tablet, that included Google Talk as one of the compatible VoIP clients, because of the XMPP-based software. Another Google Talk-compatible device is
Sony, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
's
myloMy Life Online is a device created and marketed by Sony for portable instant messaging and other Internet-based communications, browsing Internet web sites and playback and sharing of media files. The pocket-sized, tablet-shaped handheld device has a screen which slides up to reveal a QWERTY...
, released on September 15, 2006. A Google Talk client is also available for BlackBerry devices from the Blackberry site. Google Talk support is also integrated in Google Android devices, but does not support voice and video calls, except for Android 2.3.4. This was released in the April of 2011 for the Google Nexus S.
However, given that Google Talk provides XMPP protocol, most mobile phones for which a suitable XMPP client exists could also offer Google Talk service, at least theoretically (depending on the handset, the user may encounter security warnings because of unsigned Java ME midlets or limits put in place by the mobile service provider). Mobile clients specially designed for Google Talk exist as well.
Most phones support the
IMPSThe OMA Instant Messaging and Presence Service is an Open Mobile Alliance enabler for Instant Messaging and Presence. The Wireless Village consortium developed the first cut of the specifications. After Wireless Village was merged with OMA, its specs became OMA IMPS 1.0 specifications. IMPS is...
protocol, and there are hybrid XMPP/IMPS networks (through
XMPPExtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence...
transports, or specially designed hybrid servers), which can also contact GoogleTalk users. The Google Talk service itself is unusable from IMPS (that means, you cannot log with your Gmail account, but you can talk with your Gmail friends with your IMPS account from your mobile phone).
For most smartphones, including Symbian-based as well as Android, third-party applications such as Nimbuzz and Fring include support for Google Talk accounts, including VoIP calls.
Text formatting
Google Talk does not provide the user with a menu for text formatting. Nevertheless Google talk does support some text formatting features like making text bold and italic. To write message in bold, a user should type the required text between two asterisks (*), for example *this text would be bold in Google Talk*. Similarly for making text italic, one should put text between underscores(_)and for strike-through in text content one should put text in between dashes(-) .
Access restrictions
Downloading Google Talk is banned from countries on the United States
Office of Foreign Assets ControlThe Office of Foreign Assets Control is an agency of the United States Department of the Treasury under the auspices of the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. OFAC administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S...
sanction list, including Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.
History
After the
rumorA rumor or rumour is often viewed as "an unverified account or explanation of events circulating from person to person and pertaining to an object, event, or issue in public concern" However, a review of the research on rumor conducted by Pendleton in 1998 found that research across sociology,...
of a Google-branded "communications tool" service had been reported by
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and detailed by the
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
on August 22, 2005, the
subdomainIn the Domain Name System hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain.- Overview :The Domain Name System has a tree structure or hierarchy, with each node on the tree being a domain name. A subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain, the only domain that is not...
talk.google.com was found to have an active XMPP server. Two methods of logging into the server were discovered soon after and the ensuing response by eager
blogA blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
gers revealed to numerous others how to login before the official release by Google.
On the evening of August 23, many logged-in users using
portIn computer networking, a port is an application-specific or process-specific software construct serving as a communications endpoint in a computer's host operating system. A port is associated with an IP address of the host, as well as the type of protocol used for communication...
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, a
C++C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
libraryIn computer science, a library is a collection of resources used to develop software. These may include pre-written code and subroutines, classes, values or type specifications....
to implement
JingleJingle is an extension to the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol . It implements peer-to-peer session control for multimedia interactions such as in Voice over IP or videoconferencing communications. It was designed by Google and the XMPP Standards Foundation. The multimedia streams are...
, "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." Libjingle is a library of the code that Google uses for
peer-to-peerPeer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
communication, and was made available under a BSD license.
On February 7, 2006, Gmail added the ability to chat with a built-in XMPP client.
On March 14, 2007, Google released the Google Talk Gadget, an
Adobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
-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 PlayerThe Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing multimedia, Rich Internet Applications and streaming video and audio, on a computer web browser or on supported mobile devices. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other...
as long as
Adobe Flash PlayerThe Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing multimedia, Rich Internet Applications and streaming video and audio, on a computer web browser or on supported mobile devices. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other...
is installed.
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
IRCInternet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...
.
On December 6, 2007, Google upgraded its Gmail integrated chat to include
AOL Instant MessengerAOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997...
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 don't 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.
Google has a version of Google Talk called Google Talk, Labs edition, though it lacks many features of Google Talk's other releases.
In 2006 Google reported that they were working on adding new features such as supporting
SIPThe Session Initiation Protocol is an IETF-defined signaling protocol widely used for controlling communication sessions such as voice and video calls over Internet Protocol . The protocol can be used for creating, modifying and terminating two-party or multiparty sessions...
in a future release, which would broaden the userbase for the program.
In August of that year Google's and eBay's announced that they would look into making Google Talk users able to communicate with
SkypeSkype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
: "The companies will also explore interoperability between Skype and Google Talk via open standards to enable text chat and online presence." However with Microsoft's acquisition of Skype on the 10 May 2011 such interoperability might have been suspended between Google and Ebay.
A screen shot was posted on May 18, 2007 as part of the Google Apps presentation, showing some phone integration in Google Talk. A Google engineer confirmed they have been using it internally for some time on March 2, 2008.
Clues from one of the first
Google ChromeGoogle Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or...
December 2008 revisions suggests that a new Talk client is in the works.
As XMPP Jingle specifications became a Draft Standard, Google updated libjingle to version 0.5.1 and stated that "Google Talk is in the process of being updated to be in full compliance with the Jingle specifications."
External links