Empathy is an instant messaging (IM) and voice over IP (VoIP) client which supports text, voice, video, file transfers, and inter-application communication over various IM protocols.
Empathy consists of a rich set of reusable instant messaging widgets, and a GNOME client using those widgets. It uses Telepathy and Nokia’s Mission Control, and reuses Gossip’s UI. It’s compatible with any client which implements Jingle and supports ICE and the corresponding XEPs properly.
The main goal is to permit desktop integration by providing libempathy and libempathy-gtk libraries. libempathy-gtk is a set of powerful widgets that can be embeded into any GNOME application.
Empathy has been included in the GNOME desktop since version 2.24.
The project needs a new maintainer.
Features include:
- Multi-protocol support: Google Talk (Jabber/XMPP), IRC, Salut, AIM, Facebook, Yahoo!, Gadu Gadu, Groupwise, ICQ and QQ. Additional protocols are supported with libpurple plug-in: OSCAR (AIM/ICQ/MobileMe), Bonjour (Apple’s implementation of Zeroconf), MySpaceIM, QQ, MXit, Novell GroupWise, YMSG, Gadu-Gadu, Lotus Sametime, SIMPLE, SILC, Zephyr.(Supported protocols depend on installed Telepathy Connection Manager components.) The software works with all protocols supported by Pidgin.
- File transfer for XMPP, and local networks.
- Voice and video call using SIP, XMPP and Google Talk.
- IRC support.
- Conversation theming.
- Sharing and viewing location information.
- Account editor (specialized UI for most protocols).
- Auto away and extended away using gnome-screensaver.
- Auto re-connect using Network Manager.
- Private and group chat (with smileys and spellcheck).
- Powerful theme engine for chats.
- Log conversations, view/search in logs and prepend logs in new chats.
- Adding new contacts and viewing/editing contact information.
- Voice and Video call using SIP and Jingle.
- Python bindings for libempathy and libempathy-gtk.
- Collaborative work using Tubes.
- Desktop sharing.
- Wayland support.
- Internationalization support.
Website: wiki.gnome.org/action/show/Apps/Empathy
Support: FAQ, Repository
Developer: Mikael Hallendal, Richard Hult, Martyn Russell, Xavier Claessens, and Guillaume Desmottes
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
Empathy is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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