December 26, 2001 Duncan Mac-Vicar Prett starts coding a KDEICQ clone after the ICQ protocol changed, causing LICQ to be unable to login on the network.
After a few weeks learning the KDE API, Licq was updated. Duncan designs a basic plugin API based on Noatun and refocuses Kopete as a plugin based multiprotocol client.
Nick Betcher joins Duncan. Nick codes an AIM plugin based on the KitAIM engine, while the ICQ plugin was based on the KxICQ engine, called KxEngine. Duncan continues working on the core library and a basic MSN plugin, based on KMerlin protocol code.
April 5, 2002 - Kopete 0.3 released. New features include an event notifier, an IRC plugin from Nick Betcher, Emoticons and history support.
Various hackers join the team, including Martijn Klingens, who will be responsible for leading a deep Kopete restructure to make maintenance easier.
June 1, 2002 - Kopete 0.4 is released. New Jabber plugin by Daniel Stone. Big refactorings were introduced thanks to Martijn Klingens and Ryan Cumming.
September 30, 2002 - Kopete 0.5 is released. At this time, Olivier Goffart joins the team, and becomes responsible, along with Martijn Klingens for making the MSN plugin full featured. The new Metacontact concept is introduced. The ICQ plugin backend is now based on the SIMICQ client.
February 9, 2003 - Kopete 0.6 is released. A big bunch of misc. plugins are introduced.
August 8, 2003 - After a big release cycle. Kopete 0.7 is released. Many new features like multi-account support for plugins. ICQ Plugin changes the backend again to a custom engine coded by Tom Linksy with help from Stefan Gehn, which is now shared with the AIM plugin. Jason Keirstead rewrote the IRC plugin to act as a normal Instant Messaging protocol, while preserving IRC features. Matt Rogers makes the original Yahoo plugin written by Duncan Mac-Vicar Prett ready for release.