Smack, an Open Source XMPP (Jabber) client library for instant messaging and presence, released today their latest version (2.0) which included many features to improve compatibility with Google Talk. Among the many advantages of using Smack, the key ones are, it’s extremely simple to use despite being a powerful API while allowing a text message to be sent to a user in three lines of code, and does not require one to be familiar with the XMPP XML format. In fact, Smack is the easiest and best way to connect to the Google Talk instant messaging service from Java. How so?

Earlier today, Angelo Embuldeniya from the team at GSearchBlog.com, talked to Matt Tucker and Gaston Dombiak of Jive Software who are the developers behind Smack 2.0, and asked them what made Smack the best way to connect to GTalk and how would developers benefit from the new version. The reply was very encouraging and interesting where Matt revealed that because Google Talk uses the open XMPP (Jabber) protocol, it will work with any XMPP compliant library, including Smack. They’ve gone ahead and added support to Smack for TLS and SASL as well as the convenience class to make it very easy for developers to connect to the Google Talk service. Both, TLS and SASL are the newer security standard and authentication mechanism that XMPP 1.0 specifies (previously, Smack only supported the older Jabber SSL and only had support for non-SASL authentication) and that is required by Google Talk. Matt went on to say that although Google Talk appears to follow the XMPP specification quite well, they haven’t yet added support for a lot of common extensions used in the XMPP world.

Coded and re-developed within a timeline of approximately 48 hours since Google Talk got released late on Wednesday night, the developers of Smack 2.0 stress that as soon as either Google or someone else releases documentation for the support of the voice protocol, they’ll look at adding support for it to Smack. On a concluding note, Matt adds, “We’re committed to making Smack the best Java API for connecting to Google Talk”.

Smack 2.0 can be downloaded here, the FAQ is available here and the team at GSearchBlog.com welcomes all your comments and opinions regarding Smack’s latest version and improvised connectivity to GTalk.