Six Multi-Service IM Clients Reviewed

mikemuch writes "It's been a while since AOL stopped trying to jam third-party IM clients, and their use is now a fairly common desktop experience. ExtremeTech has posted a roundup of free alternatives to the standard IM software from the big boys — AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN (now Windows Live) Messenger. The products are a mixed bag, some of them Web 2.0-based, like the excellent meebo and the ad-heavy eBuddy. Most give you combined message windows with tabs. GAIM is now Pidgin, Meetro tries to get you chatting with locals, and Trillian, now at version 3.1, remains the client to beat."

And on Mac OS X...

...as noted in the article [extremetech.com] but not in the summary, the "client to beat" is the excellent free, open source, GPL-licensed, and highly customizable Adium [adiumx.com] (more info [adiumx.com]).

(The summary does mention the other five of the six clients reviewed in the article.)

Re:And on Mac OS X...

I don't think you should put it that negatively.

Gaim/Pidgin is broken into two components. It has a library part and a UI part. Most Linux users think of these as one product, but Adium uses the gaimlib backend but then has a very polished Mac frontend that uses it.

It also incorporates OTR messaging, pretty robust logging features, good account-management ... all in all, its frontend and UI are far better, IMO anyway, than Gaim's is on Linux or Windows. (And it's better than the vendor-supplied clients, obviously ... but sending scraps of your own flesh by carrier pigeon are also better than those bloated nightmares.)

As far as a user is concerned, Adium is an entirely different product from Gaim/Pidgin, because even though it uses the same communication libraries, all the UI is different.

One word

Kopete?

Several More Words

Kopete, Miranda, Proteus, Fire.

Their list of 6 is pretty sparse..

bsflite

If you want a very lightweight text-based IM client for *nix, try bsflite [sourceforge.net]. I've been very happy with it.

Miranda?

What about Miranda [miranda-im.org]? It starts out minimal, supports all the regular IM service, and lets you extend it as far as you want with addons (there are many to choose from).

Re:Miranda?

Beats the bloated trillian hands down. Not only that, source is free =) I can't believe it wasn't part of the article

Re:Miranda?

Agreed. My favorite thing about Miranda is that it runs very well from a USB thumb drive. Put it with PortableFirefox, PortableThunderbird and a few other flash-friendly apps and you can take your entire internet desktop with you.

Trillian...

I've been using Trillian for years and still like it the best. Gaim is nice in it's simplicity and cross platform use however. I keep trying Kopete but never use it frequently enough to adjust to its little quirks.

There's no great client.

I am quite disappointed by the choice of clients. MSN's client is bloated and I've asked them to add an option to STOP THOSE STUPID WINDOWS FROM BLINKING when you get a message when it was back in version 4. It's something like 11 now, and I have yet to see that little option.

Miranda IM is small and fast, but lacks in features and it has this annoying thing where the send control is disabled for a while after you send a message.

Trillian is the best of all but still has many bugs (slow, can't disable video/audio plugins which I never use, it doesn't update MSN names, it doesn't use upnp or let you forward ports yourself, etc etc).

Pidgin is rather nice but it lacks many features as well (ctrl+tabbing through windows never worked for me, pressing escape doesn't close the window, it constantly gets moved to the second screen, is rather slowish, etc).

It's too bad that with this many clients there isn't a great one. Trillian comes close, but it does need a bit of improvement still.

Re:There's no great client.

I would like to retract some of what I said. I just downloaded the latest Miranda version to see how far it had gone and I must say that I am impressed. There are many plugins and it loads in under half a second on my 5 year old machine. I am confident that once I wade through the hundreds (literally) of options, I will have it working just the way I like it. I urge you all to try it. There is even a tabbed windows plugin, it looked good in the default install, I changed an option and now it looks like crap (literally, it's light brown).

what?

"and Trillian, now at version 3.1, remains the client to beat"

*pffffft* Oh, that's hillarious. ... ... ...
Wait, you were serious?
I've never liked Trillian, mostly because of it's ridiculous bloat, general non-conformance to any UI standard, costs more to be useful (Jabber), etc...

adless, one page

ad free, single page version [extremetech.com]

pidgon/gaim is the only open source one, right?

why would I use some adware instead of open source?

Trillian?

In this day an age where Linux on the desktop is more and more common, I don't consider an IM that only works on Windows a serious contender.

bitlbee

I personally enjoy bitlbee quite a bit more than any other IM client. Just connect with whatever IRC client you like and there you go! Perfect integration with emacs, no blinky lights, no nothing.

Trillian

I found Trillian to be a horribly bloated, very unstylish, and difficult to configure application.

It seems that the only pluses it has is that it does modern internet communications media (voice and video) on these networks. I'm hoping that they've fixed the configuration system too since I last tried it.

Adium on the Mac is pretty damn good, and deserves the 8/10. 9/10 and 10/10 would be Adium with voice and video support respectively. The interface styles are all very sophisticated and configurable, and it's simply very usable.

And that's what matters, usability. I'd far rather have fewer features that I can use simply, quickly, and easily rather than more features that are exposed poorly via the interface. Of course I'd rather have usability and all the features, but I think that Adium (and the libpurple it's based around) will get voice, video and other proprietary features support at some point.

WinCE?

How about a port of Pidgin or some other open source (ad free) messenger for WinCE 5 (on an HTC Wizard)? The software that comes with the TMobile MDA blows (and uses SMS).

Yahoo features

The Yahoo client has some features all of
which aren't available on the other clients.

- At login time, itself you can invisible. In
some other clients, I have tried, you have first
login as visible & then change to invisiblw

- You can be invisible overall, but just visible
to one person or a group of people.

If I find a client in both of these features
are available, I'll switch.

What about Kopete

Oddly missing were a host of good Linux offerings like Kopete (the built in kde client).

Just as a middle finger to the lawyers

They should have called it PING: Pidgin Is Not Gaim.

Re:Just as a middle finger to the lawyers

How about: Pidgin Is Definitely Gaim In Nature
?

SIM

Seems like a biased review. Another missing good instant messenger is SIM [sim-im.org]

Trillian is one of the worst IM clients anywhere

How on earth can anyone sanction Trillian? Sure Windows UI is not the greatest thing in the world, but damn, it's as if the authors of Trillian tried their best to make it conform to no UI standard on the planet. The behavior of alt-tab with respect to chat windows and the buddy list is asinine, options are impossible to find, it's just.. downright TERRIBLE.

I use Adium on the Mac and really couldn't be happier. I wish there was something similar to use on my Windows laptop.

QQ

QQ and ICQ are very popular in China. I'm not sure why, but I thought I'd mention it.

Agree with the article

I agree completely. I use Trillian Pro and love it. I can chat with different users and do not need 73 different icons to do so. It comes with keyboard short cut, supports most features too.

Interesting...

Any one else notice that the only product that got their little "ExtremeTech Approved" logo was Trillian Pro, which costs 25 dollars? An interesting choice for a list of Free clients.

No shock on trillian.

I've been using trillian. Not for months, but YEARS! I've destroyed computers in shorter periods of time, and all I can say is Trillian is amazing. They don't ask for money, they don't try to cheat or guilt you, but their pro offerings are worth the cash if you need it. I've rarely had crashes (mostly when doing odd things) and in the last year their internet transfers are blazing fast (90K+ to AIM users).

Basically I want NOTHING more from trillian. It does everything it should in Basic and does it all well. It had tabs before the rest, it had logging before the rest. These are two of the most important niceties I've seen.

Trust me here, grab the basic, if you aren't happy think about the Pro but it's bar none the best out there, and I really have tried them all.

No plugins in Adium?

Plugins:

Adium - No

Oh right, they call them Xtras [adiumxtras.com], so I guess they do not count...

Re:No plugins in Adium?

That's OK, according to the table at the end of the article, Pidgin can't be installed on Windows, even though they tested using the Windows version.

Which I think tells a lot about this report's accuracy.

Trillian Astra (Trillian 4.0)

Just 'cause no one else seems to have mentioned it:

Trillian Astra, a.k.a. Trillian 4.0, is in alpha-testing at the moment.

You can check out a feature preview here [trillianastra.com]. The memory footprint and speed are two of the things they've really worked on with this version, and it's got some pretty funky Web 2.0 functionality happening, too. (q.v. Trillian Mini [trillianmini.com], this video [youtube.com], etc.)

Pigdin and the windows version

Anyone else notice that they stated that there wasn't a windows version of Pidgin?

Re:Pigdin and the windows version

Anyone else notice that they stated that there wasn't a windows version of Pidgin?

I noticed it. But they did remember to mention that the Mac installation was "complicated".
I also saw them mention that the Yahoo mail checking didn't work. Hmmm, works fine for me.

Email notification?

Do any of these have email notification? My main reason for running Yahoo! messenger is for that. I have only one contact on it who I actually talk to.

gaim is still my fav

i think i just like it cuz its simple, the ui hasnt changed much over time and tabbed chat window plus integration of multiple types of accounts works smoothly and seamlessly. Pigin now looks nicer i think. Plus finally for windows version you can minimize to sys tray, in linux that was ofcourse already happening but i use both OS's and i hate when going back into a windows environment and little things just bug me after being easy and not annoying in linux.

Oh really...

Trillian, now at version 3.1, remains the client to beat.

What, did they release a Linux version? No? Then it's already been 'beaten', as far as I'm concerned...

Psi

I'm a big fan of Psi ( http://psi-im.org/ [psi-im.org] ). It's not a multi-service client in the strict sense, but if you find yourself a good jabber server with the right transports installed, it's just as good, if not better, than a multi-service client.

telnet

we all know that true geeks use telnet for IM with other geeks

I vote trillian....barely

Trillian has been 3.1 for well over a year and hasn't changed unfortunately.

I still use it, but with trepidation after discovering the hack-job workaround it uses to process aim:// links that no one ever uses.

See I had this problem with my old computer that, something...some nefarious process was causing my RAID array to access once every second. And since it was four heads seeking every second it was pretty loud despite my efforts to build a quiet box. So I used Sysinternals freeware FileMonNT to find out WTF was accessing my HD and lo and behold it was fucking trillian. Trying to read some goddamn file that didn't exist every two seconds, followed by NTFS filesystem logging a second later. Hence disk access every second.

I actually contacted cerulean studios about it and asked if they had any plans to fix it. One of their developers responded: "No."

Thanks guys!

Glad I didn't buy the "Pro" version...

meebo.com for me

I have been using meebo.com for months now. It is great to have my full IM chat logs available any where. At work, home, pizza hut (they have free wifi), my parents house, anywhere. It just works great.

Adium?

Adium... "Group chat support Only join existing" I must be schizo then when I make those chat rooms....

Trillian is slow

Try having 200+ or 400+ people on Trillian and its slow as hell to load. Pidgin, loads them all up within a few seconds. Trillian is awesome, but I got tired of it having to load.

Gaim or gaim...

In the spirit of the old irc channel... It's Gaim or gaim, NOT GAIM. :)

My imaginary perfect IM

No advertising.
Support for ICQ, AIM, MSN, and YAHOO.
Support for encrypted messaging with others using the same client (this should work out of the box with automatic key generation).
Support for voice and video features of the above networks.
Support for voice conferences ala ventrillo.
The ability to backup and import settings directly from the menus.
The ability to categorize contacts but all contacts should be dropped into a single default list unless you move them manually.
Creating multiple accounts on each network.
The ability to configure status, default status changes after a period of time (including disabling), auto-reponses, etc.
On windows the program should minimize to the system tray rather than the task bar.

That's it, fancy text, avatars, graphical smilies, and all other make my text pretty features shouldn't be implemented until the actual functionality is already in place.

Be cautious of Trillian

Trillian is great, and was so at the beginning, but I feel the company has grown too big and they cannot excell as much as they once did.

X-forwarding GAIM (now Pidgin)

I use a single copy of GAIM on all my computers. The actual program runs on an old PIII 900 I keep in the basement at home, and I use SSH on my Linux machines at home and at the office, and Cygwin SSH on my Windows machines, then I X-Forward GAIM to whatever computer I'm working on. This way I keep all of my chat logs in one place and I have a unified experience across all platforms. Works well, except on a slow Internet connection; but those are getting increasingly rare...

MS Messenger Messes up defrag even after uninstall

Having uninstalled Messenger I had to use the command-line utility FSUTIL USN to remove the USN journal in order to get efficient disk fragmentation back on my NTFS pre-formatted disk. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311724 [microsoft.com] - use method 2.

Trillian has poor jabber, and OTR is not a plugin

For Windows, Trillian is lacking in two key areas when compared to Pidgin:

First, the Jabber module is shit. I mean seriously, absolute and complete garbage. It crashes constantly, takes up huge amounts of CPU, and that's when it works at all. This makes Trillian a non-starter for my work, since Jabber is a required service. It also makes Trillian worthless for Google Chat or any other jabber-based service.

Second, Pidgin has OTR as a plugin. OTR messaging (http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/) works with any client if you run it as a proxy, but with Pidgin it's really transparent. OTR is chat's killer app, especially if you're using an employer-owned chat server that might happen to log all traffic.

I'll gladly sacrifice video chat and all the rest of that crap nobody ever asked for in exchange for a deniable, secure encrypted communications.

Let's be honest:

They all suck. Now, I'm a big Pidgin fan, but only because it stands an inch higher out of the sewage that currently is instant messaging:

Encryption? Good luck. Maybe with a bunch of hacking and fucked up text files.

File Transfer? Maybe! Pray? Forget anything over 20 kbps, no matter HOW fat your pipe is.

Voice chat? NO! The major ones offer it, MSN, Y!, AIM, but none use speex, and ALL suck.

Video chat? YEAH RIGHT! The grainiest, crappiest, darkest, glitchiest.... Plus crap Audio! Hurray!

Ctrl+Scroll wheel to enlarge fonts? NEGATIVE!

MySpace IM integration? Supposedly in the NEXT version of Trillian. Despite 1.8 BILLION users or whatever.

Interoperability? pffft. Don't get me started.

Play Video games with friends? Maybe you'll get checkers with the SHITTY rules on MSN.

No ZSNES, No Mupen, No Hearts, Spades, Cribbage, Chess, Checkers, Texas Hold'em....

Granted, on Pidgin I can talk to AIM, MSN, Y!, ICQ, Google Talk (not actual talk of course!), ICQ, and some others, but I still can't voice chat, video chat, play ZSNES, or Mupen with my online friends. It's sad when the best client still lacks 20 of the most obvious and fun options that should have been in ALL of them from the get go.

The state of IM right now is horse shit. Pure, unadulterated, CRAP. MAYBE the SOC MySpace plugin will help Pidgin even farther, but still no Zsnes, Speex, or x264, I'm sure.

Running MSN in a VM

I still prefer the official MSN client. I actually keep a Windows VM going just for that, and for opening office docs and DRM'ed/proprietary videos. The client has some features that Gaim (it's not called Pidgin on my Ubuntu system yet) lacks, like webcam, and it *doesn't pop up windows in the foreground when I'm doing something else*. I can't believe that people put up with that.

What about a new app written around libpurple?

I like Pidgin because it's available on the platforms I use (these would be Linux and Windows), it has support for the protocols I use (and a shitload of other protocols which I don't use, but I could if I wanted to). Most people say that it lacks video/audio support and they're right, but I'm not really interested in these two features, so this doesn't make a difference.

The thing which I doesn't like about Pidgin is that it forces simplicity at a point where I almost could say that it's a proof of concept application. Everything is minimalist about Pidgin, the last thing that made it a little bit nicer was that the buddy images now have rounded corners and your image is shown up next to the status switcher dropdown.

Pidgin could've been so much more appealing if the developers wanted to, but no, there is almost no control about how the buddy-list looks-like, not even color themes or something.

It may seam that I'm bashing Pidgin, but take a look at Adium, for example. It has lots of ways to customize the interface and how it works AND it looks nice, it is visually appealing. I know that Pidgin can be themed using GTK themes, but you can't theme ONLY Pidgin to be different from the rest of your apps on the desktop.

So, I'm basically proposing for somebody who has the capability and time to think about, and come up with a new "front-end" for libpurple, like Adium did, and create a new IM client which IS NICE and CAN BE CUSTOMIZED. It would be a different team for the user interface (the front end) and the pidgin team for the back-end (libpurple) which could work in collaboration.

Maybe I am too utopist but now, when the desktop eye-candy is becoming more popular, we should have a nicer IM client too.

Please note that eye-candy does not need to be obtrusive, and CAN help usability too.

Interoperability...

...among IMs is the #1 reason most Windows-using folk I know won't touch Ubuntu - even though they really like what they see in Ubuntu and don't enjoy the idea of ever moving over to Vista. While they fully appreciate that there are a whole host of interoperable IM clients for GNU/Linux-based distributions, the interoperable features they most want are: voice and video conferencing, and Windows-alike Remote Assistance direct from the IM client. The #2 reason most Windows-using folk I know won't touch Ubuntu - even though they really like what they see in Ubuntu and don't enjoy the idea of ever moving over to Vista - are commercial computer games ports. There's just not enough of them for GNU/Linux. Suffice it to say, 99.99% of all computer owners I know and teach are not geeks - just cutting and pasting is an enlightening and enabling experience for these people - and if GNU/Linux is ever going to enter these peoples lives in the mainstream, it has to offer #1 and #2. But they will, generally, be satisfied with #1 in the short-term.

What? NO command line?

but what about (http://tmsnc.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]) and finch(http://pidgin.im/pidgin/home/ [pidgin.im]) for those who despise the bloated whale that is the X windowing system.

Web based: OneTeam ?

What about OneTeam ?
OneTeam is working on all platforms with a Firefox 2 browser. It offers a native user friendly interface. Only our MSN gateways have been plugged for now, as it is in public beta and we will open gateways one at a time.

I am participating to OneTeam development but I am suggesting it here because it is still little know and we are working on improving it every day, so if you have feature requests, suggestions, criticism or praise, it is very welcome :) The forum to comment is here: http://www.process-one.net/en/forum/viewforum/9/ [process-one.net]

OneTeam web client is in beta on http://oneteam.im/ [oneteam.im]

AimPro?

Not multiprotocol, but it definitely doesn't include everything that is wrong with the regular aim client. It also has xm radio, voice chat, and video chat built right in. Last time I checked pidgeon forgot to add video support. Plus no ads.

Google Talk is my multi-service client

By following the method described here [bigblueball.com] and my own private Jabber server, I have all of my contacts (MSN, AIM, Yahoo, and GTalk) available in one place - GTalk. No matter what machine or OS I'm on, I always have my IM contacts available. It's not fancy, shiny stuff is minimal, but it works.

Re:have you heard the latest?

That was 2000 years ago! It's improved since then. Have him try it again.

Re:Trillian? Client to beat?

+1

bitlbee ftw!

if you're on irc 24/7 and using irssi within screen, bitlbee is just unbeatable