How to build Instant Messenger in iphone

Question

I'm looking into building an IM-type application for iphone using Objective-C . I'd be interested to see any information/advice on how applications like Skype/AIM/MSN work, as well as any technologies/APIs that might be relevant,can any one provides relevant material or links ....thanku in advance

Answer 1

The main protocol used to connect to those services (or even your own) is XMPP (also known as Jabber.

It connects to a Jabber/XMPP server that manages the sessions. XMPP works with Skype, Google Talk, Facebook chat and many more.

I've successfully implemeted a google chat app using this open source XMPP library that fits in very well into iPhone:

http://code.google.com/p/xmppframework/wiki/iPhone

Update

Library now moved to GitHub: github.com/robbiehanson/XMPPFramework as Raspu pointed out

You should be able to rather easily get that up and running. It even comes with a Google talk example.

Answer 2

You can use Kik API to build your mobile app on top of Kik's instant messaging transport and infrastructure. The API is available for Android & iPhone and lets your app to transfer rich content and files in between mobile app users. It is also very easy to use - only 5 lines of code are needed to integrate, in simpler scenarios. There's more info on Kik API website: http://www.kik.com/dev or http://apiblog.kik.com

Disclaimer: I'm one of the developers behind Kik API :)

Answer 3

Are you set on building your own instant messenger or are you looking for the code to put into your app?

I came across an interesting article from someone who seems to have been looking for the same thing as you, he looks at the problems different open source instant messenger codes have and how to try to pull them together:

my-quest-make-messaging-app-ios

There are also chat components available to buy ready made which have the advantage of not requiring the time to develop and bug test. For example:

chat-messaging-sdk-for-ios

Hope this helps