# Smack: Overview - Jive Software

Smack Overview

Smack is a library for communicating with XMPP servers to perform instant messaging and chat.

Smack Key Advantages

- Extremely simple to use, yet powerful API. Sending a text message to a user can be accomplished in three lines of code:

      XMPPConnection connection = new XMPPConnection("jabber.org");
      connection.login("mtucker", "password");
      connection.createChat("jsmith@jivesoftware.com").sendMessage("Howdy!");

- Doesn't force you to code at the packet level, as other libraries do. Smack provides intelligent higher level constructs such as the `Chat` and `GroupChat` classes, which let you program more efficiently.
- Does not require that you're familiar with the XMPP XML format, or even that you're familiar with XML.
- Provides easy machine to machine communication. Smack lets you set any number of properties on each message, including properties that are Java objects.
- Open Source under the Apache License, which means you can incorporate Smack into your commercial or non-commercial applications.

About XMPP

XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) is an open, XML based protocol making it's way through the IETF approval process under the guidance of the Jabber Software Foundation (http://www.jabber.org). For a good overview of the protocol, read the first chapter of Instant Messaging in Java, available free at http://www.jivesoftware.com/products/messenger/book/

How To Use This Documentation

This documentation assumes that you're already familiar with the main features of XMPP instant messaging. It's also highly recommended that you open the Javadoc API guide and use that as a reference while reading through this documentation.