Client Presence Probes - Standards

15 Aug 2025

Good day.

Question
========

Is it possible for XMPP clients to actively probe for presence?

JabberCard
==========

I have created JabberCard, an HTML invitation page for XMPP.

https://git.xmpp-it.net/sch/JabberCard

https://git.0ut0f.space/doesnm/JabberCard

JabberCard is based on the module Slixmpp and is an XMPPP client.

Idea
====

Months ago, I was advised to add support for status, mood, and activity.

I think that it is a good idea.

Presence
========

However, it appears that actively probing for presence by XMPPP clients
is not specified in the standard.

According to the standard, only servers handle that task.

4.3. Presence Probes

...
  Presence probes SHOULD NOT be sent by a client,
because in general a
 client will not need to send them since the task of gathering
 presence from a user's contacts is managed by the user's server.
 However, if a user's client generates an outbound presence probe then
 the user's server SHOULD route the probe (if the contact is at
 another server) or process the probe (if the contact is at the same
 server) and MUST NOT use its receipt of the presence probe from a
 connected client as the sole cause for returning a stanza or stream
 error to the client. 
https://xmpp.org/rfcs/rfc6121.html#presence-probe

Is it possible for XMPP clients to actively probe for presence?

Please advise.

Kind regards,
Schimon