Fediverse – XMPP Bridge

Chat directly between Fediverse applications (Mastodon, Pixelfed, Friendica,…) and XMPP (instant messaging, formerly known as Jabber)!

TL;DR Start now!

From your #Fediverse application: send a message to @xmpp_bridge@gayfr.social and mention your XMPP recipient(s) using the format xmpp:name@example.net

From your #XMPP client: send a chat to xmpp:ap_bridge@gayfr.live and mention your Fediverse recipient(s) using the format @name@example.net

You can reply directly to a message received, send to multiple recipients and manage personal blocklists, between any Fediverse and XMPP servers.

You want more details? Just sent !help to @xmpp_bridge@gayfr.social or xmpp:ap_bridge@gayfr.live !

You don’t have a XMPP account yet? Create one immediately on our instance by following @xmpp_bot@gayfr.social or by registering at gayfr.online

You don’t have a Fediverse account yet? Create one now on our Mastodon instance at gayfr.social

Detailed description

Writing a message

All messages are received and sent from either @xmpp_bridge@gayfr.social (from/to a Fediverse application) or xmpp:ap_bridge@gayfr.live (from/to a XMPP client), twin bot accounts.

Writing a message follows the same pattern, either from your Fediverse application or from your XMPP client. You can set your preferred language, execute a command or send a message to one or several recipients.

To write a message, simply address the recipient(s) account name(s) when writing to the bot account. Replies will be received from that same bot account. If you are replying to a received message, you can do so directly without needing to mention the original sender.

If you are on XMPP, you can block accounts from Fediverse; conversely, if you are on a Fediverse application, you can block XMPP accounts. In both cases, you will no longer be able to send or receive any message from blocked accounts (those will be silently rejected on the sender side).

Account naming conventions, both for writing to, or for blocking, are as follow:

• From XMPP, you can address Fediverse accounts using the format @name@example.net
• From Fediverse applications, you can address XMPP accounts using the format xmpp:name@example.net

Replying to a message

Messages received via the bot are with “direct” visibility (Fediverse) and are prepended with a text telling you from whom it was sent.

You can reply directly to the last message received from a sender, without needing to mention his/her name.

In XMPP, you can also send several messages in a row to the same recipient after a first initial message naming him/her. However, doing that or replying directly to a message received in XMPP should be done within a limited timeframe (currently 90 minutes), otherwise the recipient account name must be mentioned again. This is to avoid confusion as most XMPP clients do not thread conversations with the same counterpart separately, so all messages received via the bot will be in the same thread, regardless of the original sender.

There is no such limitation in Fediverse applications as messages follow a separate thread. Besides, this conforms to the different philosophy and timelines expected from Fediverse (posting statuses) and XMPP (instant messaging).

List of commands

To execute a command, write in your message !command with one of the following:

• !block to add one or several accounts to your blocklist (those will no longer be able to send you messages).
• !unblock to remove one or several accounts from your blocklist.
• !listblock to list your currently blocked accounts.
• !report to report a user or ask other requests to the administrator, please include in your message the detailed reason (spam, abuse, bug report...).
• !register to register your account (optional, see below for more details).
• !unregister to unregister your account.
• !help to receive a brief help description.

To set a preferred language, write in your message !lang=xx where xx is the two-letter code for a supported language (currently: fr, en, es, de). Your messages will then set this defined language, as well as the bot.

Registration

You can optionally register your account to the bridge, in the three following ways:

• Automatic: you will be registered the first time you use the bridge to send a message to a recipient.
• One-click: simply follow @xmpp_bridge@gayfr.social (Fediverse) or add xmpp:ap_bridge@gayfr.live to your contacts (XMPP).
• Use the command !register described above.

When registering, the bridge will send back a follow (Fediverse) or contact (XMPP) request, you should accept it to avoid potential limitations in receiving messages (depending on your account or your server settings).

On Fediverse applications, you will not be able to receive any message until you are registered; this is by design to avoid unwanted spam. On XMPP, if your account accepts it, you may receive messages from the bridge even unregistered, as this adheres to the philosophy of instant messaging.

Additional controls are checked upon registration for further safety: server blacklists, account type and activity, presence of #NoBot or #NoBridge hashtags in profile… If you feel you have been unfairly filtered by the bot, please contact this instance’s administrator to resolve the issue (e.g. by using the command !report mentioned above).

You can unregister at any time using the command !unregister described above (unfollowing the bot account will also unregister your account but only on XMPP); an alternate way is to block the bot account. You can register again later by using the command !register or by unblocking the bot account.

Limitations

The following limitations are set, either due to technical constraints, or by design:

• Only one-to-one chat conversations are possible: no audio nor video calls, no rooms / multi-user chats (MUC).
• Media sharing is possible using links and depending on your XMPP server policies (see below).
• Messages must be sent in clear text: end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is not supported, and would not make sense as Fediverse applications do not support it.
• The number of recipients you can address in each message is limited (currently to 4), to avoid spam.

The bot will reply to you when there is anything to say (command executed, hints, error,…), and will remain silent when a message is successfully sent: this is to allow for normal-like conversations without intermediate spammy statuses.

However, please note your recipient might not receive your message for different possible reasons without feedback (your account is blocked, recipient account does not exist,...): this is by design to respect privacy, and also to account for technical configurations imposed by some servers; also, some Fediverse applications might only allow one recipient and discard your message if it contains several recipients (e.g. Pixelfed).

Media sharing

Media sharing is done using links, media files will not be sent from one server to the others: this is done to avoid unnecessary complexity, save bandwidth and storage, and account for the different server technical configurations.

From Fediverse applications, simply attach your media files in your message, the links to the original files will be sent to XMPP.

From XMPP, you will need to initiate the conversation with a first text message to your recipient, and then send as many uploaded files as you want; the corresponding links will be sent to your Fediverse recipient. This scheme is necessary as in most XMPP clients, media files are uploaded and sent one by one as separate messages, so the bridge needs to be made aware of the intended recipient first before you share the links. Obviously, these links also need to be publicly visible (this could depend on your XMPP server configuration).

Messages management

Any message sent cannot be modified after: even if you can modify or correct your original sent message from your client (both Fediverse or XMPP), these changes will not be reflected on the receiving end and no new message will be sent.

Retention period of any message sent or received by the bots (both Fediverse and XMPP) is limited to 30 days, after which it will be deleted.

Usage rules

This bot is part of GayFR services and its usage follows the same rules, available at gayfr.online