XMPP is a widely used, secure, and federated messaging standard based on XML that has undergone a large amount of scrutiny and it is a part of the IETF.

We learned that XMPP, whilst having a very small core, can be and has been extended through additional standards called XEPs. XEPs are looked after by a group called the XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF). Because of its extensions, XMPP finds itself utilized in many scenarios, from simple multi-user chat rooms through to push notifications everyone will be familiar with from their smartphones.

We installed Node.js so that we can run the code examples that will appear later in the book. We then installed our first XMPP server (Prosody), created an account, and successfully connected to it from a traditional desktop XMPP client.

We're now ready for our adventure to begin.

In the next chapter, we'll have an overview of the core concepts from XMPP where things that you'll see often mentioned and therefore will be helpful to understand. We'll map technical concepts to more general terminology and understand why XMPP is the way it is.

Welcome to the exciting world of XMPP!