14 DAY TRIAL // We discussed the future of the Empathy IM client used as the default chat application in the GNOME desktop environment and many popular Linux distributions that rely on GNOME packages, such as Ubuntu, a couple of weeks ago.
On April 27, Allan Day, a GNOME developer and Red Hat employee, sent an email to the GNOME Release Team asking them to decide the future of the Empathy and Telepathy applications in the GNOME desktop environment.
"Empathy and Telepathy haven't got development time for quite a while, and the Empathy UX isn't great," says Allan Day. "At the same time, popular chat protocols are mostly closed nowadays, meaning that having a built-in chat client potentially isn't as important as it used to be."
Empathy's developers have had no reaction until now
This is not the first time when GNOME developers are discussing the removal of the Empathy application from GNOME, which means that chat support might be removed thoroughly from the acclaimed desktop environment. Until now, Empathy's developers have had no reaction.
In the email, Allan Day suggests five different methods for dealing with the Empathy/Telepathy situation in GNOME, the first one being the creation of a new Telepathy-based chat client or call for new maintainers for the Empathy app.
Other suggestions include the complete removal of the Empathy IM client from the GNOME's core components, such as Online Accounts and GNOME Shell, turning the software into a third-party package, as well as to no longer recommend Linux distros and users to install Empathy.
It would appear that chat integration in Linux distribution is no longer a priority these days, especially because there are many standalone chat services available, including Telegram, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger. Empathy is not a priority anymore, so it might be removed from GNOME forever.