Miranda NG 0.95 has added support for full-fledged meta contacts in the kernel. What's next?

Almost 2 years have passed since the main developers of Miranda IM switched to fork Miranda NG . Since then, Miranda IM practically does not develop, but Miranda NG is slowly but surely moving forward. At the beginning of 2014, version 0.94 was released with support for encryption in the kernel, and more recently , release 0.95 was released, where full support for meta contacts was implemented instead of a crutch that was used for years before. Now each contact has its own history, and the meta-contact has a common history without duplicating records in the database.

Recently, Skype, Hangouts and Viber systems have become popular, which, unfortunately, work on closed protocols. Microsoft turned off SkypeKit support, so the plugin for full Skype support for Miranda NG has been frozen. For Hangouts and Viber, similar libraries were not released at all. For this reason, the emergence of decent support for these IM-systems count, unfortunately, is not particularly necessary. And due to the lack of support for these systems, many users have abandoned the use of Miranda and similar customers, along with the rejection of the popular ICQ in the old days.

Unfortunately, free Jabber did not win the love of the masses. Google ended up supporting Google Talk by transferring its users to a private Hangouts. However, Google didn’t try to promote Google Talk, the project didn’t develop for many years - it’s not surprising that it didn’t become popular. VKontakte has closed its Jabber server a long time ago, although they once promised that their Jabber server will in time allow to communicate not only with vk.com users, but also with the outside world. Without looking at the abundance of extensions for the Jabber protocol, few clients support audio and video calls, and those who support are often incompatible with each other . Jingle did not become an extension of Jabber, which customers would strive to implement without fail. For example, support for audio calls Jabber in Miranda is planned only in version 0.97 and it is not yet known how well it will be compatible with other implementations.

In this regard, the new free project Tox (decentralized IM) is very interesting. The developers thoroughly took up the study of the protocol. They want it to support all major Skype chips by default, including audio and video calls (without the need for additional extensions). To avoid incompatibility problems between clients, as it happened with Jabber, Tox developers propose to use a single core, which performs all the internal workings of P2P and supports all protocol features, and client developers can only realize the core capabilities in the interface. So far, work is in full swing, and so far there is no option ready for full use. But time passes, with time everything will be. Such an ambitious project must be brought to release!
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So back to the Miranda NG. The project has big plans for the future , in version 0.97 the most significant changes are planned:

Multimedia revolution:
- phonebook support on the base of virtual contacts;
- media sessions' manager;
- support for SIP phone calls;
- support for the peer-to-peer phone & video calls;
- Jingle support.

In my opinion, the implementation of “peer-to-peer phone & video calls” based on Tox is the best option for Miranda. If this comes along with support for SIP calls and Jingle support for Jabber, then a free IM combine for Windows would be better.

The developers of Miranda NG recently launched a page on uservoice.com to see which of the ideas are most interesting to users. Interesting offers:

• Tox support - the developers wrote that the work on support for Tox has already begun, but the priority in this area so far is very small. However, as the release of Tox approaches, priorities may change, I think.
• Support Telegram , Bitmessage , WhatsApp - give more great protocols! :)
• Support for audio / video calls in Jabber - even though it is planned, you can support the initiative of developers with your voice.
• A single-window interface plugin (as in Skype) is a good idea, and if such a plugin is implemented, then just like everything else in Miranda, those who wish can enable it themselves, without imposing on those who do not like this approach.

You can chat with developers or offer your help at the project forum . If you use Miranda NG - do not ignore the forum, write to the developers a couple of lines. Let them know that people use their product, that it is relevant and necessary to someone.