Startup Layer: an old tale in a new way
Layer company does not leave attempts to “make friends” among themselves online instant messaging services. Recently, the first public release of Atlas, a library for creating the user interface of messengers, was released. But does this remind you of the XMPP story ? Maybe now the same people are at the helm?
In the early 2000s, Jeremy Miller created the open XMPP instant messaging protocol. Miller's idea was that any developer could open his instant messaging server, register users in it, and exchange messages with other XMPP servers.
The idea was supported by the developers of AOL, QIP, Whatsapp, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk and many others. And by the mid-2000s, users could exchange messages using any instant messenger that supports XMPP. Thus began a new period in the history of the messengers. True, it did not last long.
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One of the major drawbacks of XMPP was the ability to authorize on only one device. In addition, the protocol suffered from data redundancy. In an attempt to solve these problems, or perhaps pursuing their own selfish goals, since 2009, many developers began to abandon support for XMPP. First, what did the creators of Whatsapp, then Skype, iMessage and many others. More recently, Google closed the Google Talk project, which still supported XMPP. Most of the most popular instant messengers were isolated from each other.
Miller was disappointed. “I cannot call it a communication system if its elements are isolated,” he said.
Today, instant messaging applications are more in demand than ever. Suffice it to recall that Facebook recently bought Whatsapp for $ 16 billion. New messengers are being created: Snapchat, Wire, Telegram. However, such diversity, oddly enough, poses certain communication barriers. For example, if everyone in the family uses different messengers, they will not be able to communicate with each other. After all, now their protocols are closed.
A year and a half ago, a startup called Layer appeared. This is a new protocol that allows the implementation of messaging between any applications. Such a “fairy tale in a new way” in the realities of the modern world is perceived with even more distrust than in the 2000s. However, only one beta version collected 1,500 orders, leaving 8,500 on the waiting list.
Currently, Layer is actively used by developers of mobile applications. Moreover, on February 24, 2015, Atlas , an open source library for creating the user interface of instant messengers, was released.
The chief scientist for Layer has become, of course, Jeremy Miller.
The most important advantage of Layer is extreme simplicity: to implement the exchange of messages in your application, you need to add only 10 lines of code.
Atlas is also very easy to use. All this allows you to create a full-featured messenger in just a few days or weeks.
Developers are provided with ready-made user interface components that are easily integrated with the Layer SDK.
And for startups that are still under development, Layer offers its libraries for free. This company policy is designed to be full-fledged customers when they get on their feet.
It is no secret that such large companies as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft recently are buying up the most successful mobile services with amazing speed. As a result, these large companies become centers of some separate clusters. This circumstance is beneficial Layer - part of the work of association is done for them. Now the company remains to establish communication between these clusters.
In the early 2000s, Jeremy Miller created the open XMPP instant messaging protocol. Miller's idea was that any developer could open his instant messaging server, register users in it, and exchange messages with other XMPP servers.
The idea was supported by the developers of AOL, QIP, Whatsapp, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk and many others. And by the mid-2000s, users could exchange messages using any instant messenger that supports XMPP. Thus began a new period in the history of the messengers. True, it did not last long.
')
One of the major drawbacks of XMPP was the ability to authorize on only one device. In addition, the protocol suffered from data redundancy. In an attempt to solve these problems, or perhaps pursuing their own selfish goals, since 2009, many developers began to abandon support for XMPP. First, what did the creators of Whatsapp, then Skype, iMessage and many others. More recently, Google closed the Google Talk project, which still supported XMPP. Most of the most popular instant messengers were isolated from each other.
Miller was disappointed. “I cannot call it a communication system if its elements are isolated,” he said.
Today, instant messaging applications are more in demand than ever. Suffice it to recall that Facebook recently bought Whatsapp for $ 16 billion. New messengers are being created: Snapchat, Wire, Telegram. However, such diversity, oddly enough, poses certain communication barriers. For example, if everyone in the family uses different messengers, they will not be able to communicate with each other. After all, now their protocols are closed.
Miller is back in the game.
A year and a half ago, a startup called Layer appeared. This is a new protocol that allows the implementation of messaging between any applications. Such a “fairy tale in a new way” in the realities of the modern world is perceived with even more distrust than in the 2000s. However, only one beta version collected 1,500 orders, leaving 8,500 on the waiting list.
Currently, Layer is actively used by developers of mobile applications. Moreover, on February 24, 2015, Atlas , an open source library for creating the user interface of instant messengers, was released.
The chief scientist for Layer has become, of course, Jeremy Miller.
Benefits and free buns
The most important advantage of Layer is extreme simplicity: to implement the exchange of messages in your application, you need to add only 10 lines of code.
Atlas is also very easy to use. All this allows you to create a full-featured messenger in just a few days or weeks.
Developers are provided with ready-made user interface components that are easily integrated with the Layer SDK.
And for startups that are still under development, Layer offers its libraries for free. This company policy is designed to be full-fledged customers when they get on their feet.
Perspectives
It is no secret that such large companies as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft recently are buying up the most successful mobile services with amazing speed. As a result, these large companies become centers of some separate clusters. This circumstance is beneficial Layer - part of the work of association is done for them. Now the company remains to establish communication between these clusters.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/286252/
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