diff --git a/lib/jabber/XMPP/XMLStream.php b/lib/jabber/XMPP/XMLStream.php
index 73ab3fe9ec6..5c71426200f 100644
--- a/lib/jabber/XMPP/XMLStream.php
+++ b/lib/jabber/XMPP/XMLStream.php
@@ -564,7 +564,7 @@ class XMPPHP_XMLStream {
 						if ($searchxml !== null) {
 							if($handler[2] === null) $handler[2] = $this;
 							$this->log->log("Calling {$handler[1]}",  XMPPHP_Log::LEVEL_DEBUG);
-							$handler[2]->$handler[1]($this->xmlobj[2]);
+							$handler[2]->{$handler[1]}($this->xmlobj[2]);
 						}
 					}
 				}
@@ -578,13 +578,13 @@ class XMPPHP_XMLStream {
 				if($searchxml !== null and $searchxml->name == $handler[0] and ($searchxml->ns == $handler[1] or (!$handler[1] and $searchxml->ns == $this->default_ns))) {
 					if($handler[3] === null) $handler[3] = $this;
 					$this->log->log("Calling {$handler[2]}",  XMPPHP_Log::LEVEL_DEBUG);
-					$handler[3]->$handler[2]($this->xmlobj[2]);
+					$handler[3]->{$handler[2]}($this->xmlobj[2]);
 				}
 			}
 			foreach($this->idhandlers as $id => $handler) {
 				if(array_key_exists('id', $this->xmlobj[2]->attrs) and $this->xmlobj[2]->attrs['id'] == $id) {
 					if($handler[1] === null) $handler[1] = $this;
-					$handler[1]->$handler[0]($this->xmlobj[2]);
+					$handler[1]->{$handler[0]}($this->xmlobj[2]);
 					#id handlers are only used once
 					unset($this->idhandlers[$id]);
 					break;
@@ -640,7 +640,7 @@ class XMPPHP_XMLStream {
 				if($handler[2] === null) {
 					$handler[2] = $this;
 				}
-				$handler[2]->$handler[1]($payload);
+				$handler[2]->{$handler[1]}($payload);
 			}
 		}
 		foreach($this->until as $key => $until) {
diff --git a/lib/jabber/readme_moodle.txt b/lib/jabber/readme_moodle.txt
index f8328fbbb73..205c214f61c 100644
--- a/lib/jabber/readme_moodle.txt
+++ b/lib/jabber/readme_moodle.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 Description of XMPPHP (aka jabber) version 0.1rc2-r77 library import into Moodle
 
 MDL-20876 - replaced deprecated split() with explode()
+MDL-52335 - PHP7 variable syntax changes