The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is an open protocol for real-time communication, which powers a wide range of applications including instant messaging, presence, multi-party chat, voice and video calls, collaboration, lightweight middleware, content syndication, and generalized routing of data.

The XMPP Standards Foundation is responsible for most of the specifications for this protocol, and in GSoC mentors students working on a wide range of XMPP-related software including chat applications, Internet of Things, social networks, servers, clients and others.