Status of planned changes and additions to the Telepathy API.
0.17 (current unstable series)
Completed additions
- new channel API ("requestotron") (bundles of related channels; property-based channel requests and announcements)
- org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Connection.Interface.Requests
- new API for dispatching channels to clients, implemented as part of Mission Control and hopefully also Decibel
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.ChannelDispatcher, org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client
- file transfers (one channel per file)
- new channel-based tube API (one channel per tube)
- org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Connection.Interface.Contacts ("the inspectotron")
- extensible handle inspection - query for alias, avatar token, etc. for many handles in one round-trip
- Channel.Interface.Messages: to represent sending and receiving richer messages than can Channel.Type.Text, including delivery reports.
Additions in progress
Converting existing APIs to make better use of properties and GetAll rather than getter methods.
This is being done as and when people have time. Patches (e.g. for ConnectionManager, various Connection interfaces like Aliasing) welcome!
o.fd.T.Connection.Interface.ContactInfo: for exposing further information about contacts (birthday, address, etc.)
- a draft of this interface has been merged to the specification, but there are no implementations yet.
o.fd.T.Channel.Type.ContactSearch: for looking up contacts in directory servers.
- a draft of this interface is being written, and is being implemented in terms of XEP 0055 in Gabble.
Other planned additions
- None?
Possible additions
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.ChannelBundle
- intended to be used to group related channels, possibly with some additional methods to act on the group as a whole.
- multi-file transfers will probably be described by one FT channel per file, grouped with a Bundle providing methods to accept/decline all files at once.
Planned deprecations
- All Get* methods that have an equivalent D-Bus property.
- org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Channel.Type.Tubes
0.18
Stable release series.
0.19
Additions
- org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Connection.Interface.Nicknames
repurpose Aliasing so it's mainly (or entirely) for names that we have given to others ("pet names" in http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/petnames/IntroPetNames.html terminology), and use Nicknames for names that others have given to themselves
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Channel.Interface.MediaSignalling
- replace it with something that can do multi-party and is not bong
A new Roster interface on Connection, to replace ContactList channels
The general opinion is that ContactList channels are confusing and don't really behave much like channels.
Deprecations
- org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Properties
PropertiesChanged replaced with per-property or per-interface change signals
RequestChannel, assuming Requests API doesn't need changes
0.20
Stable release series.
0.21
- Remove deprecated interfaces.
1.0
Long-term stable release.

