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What Makes a Good IM Client?
thesaint05 asks: "So I was sitting here at my job where and IM is a pretty integral part of communicating intra-office. However, I have 3 different clients installed, and each has a different user base. Within the office we have an SIP server and use Windows Messenger. The Google Talk client is for colleagues and friends on the cutting edge, and AIM is used by pretty much everybody else (including a bunch of clients). So, after holding 3 different conversations simultaneously on all 3 clients (Windows Messenger with a colleague, AIM with my girlfriend, and Google Talk with a friend at a different tech company) I got to wondering, what are the strengths and weaknesses of all of these clients? Which do you use and why? If you could combine features from all of the IM clients out there, what would they be?"
If you could combine features from all of the IM clients out there, what would they be?
;)
Adium?
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
and be done with it all. Googletalk is just Jabber which works with GAIM. Windows/MSN messenger and AIM work, as do Yahoo and ICQ.
GAIM is an Open Source program, and therefore is completely free. Trillian has a free and Pro versions, but the free version is still quite capable.
Sounds like you're looking for Trillian with the Jabber plugin (and some instructions) to be able to connect to all three.
Anyway, I abandoned having more than one IM client installed a while ago. ICQ, for example, has always taken up gobs of RAM, and was one of the main reasons I wanted to consolidate a few years ago. I used to use Gaim, which is a good open source client that can connect to most networks (including Jabber, so it'll work with Google Talk). For whatever reason though, it kept crashing on me whenever I'd send a file, so now I'm using Trillian (Pro), which has worked very well for me. (Much better than the 1.x version I tried several years ago, if anyone hasn't tried it in a while.)
As for the networks themselves, I have contacts on the major four (ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo) and really, the features of each aren't that different when they're all in the same client; it's all mostly small things. ICQ doesn't have the thing that shows when you're typing, for example. But for me, if they can do text chat well and can send files, they're fine for my usage.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
That's pretty beneficial, and as far as I know that's the reason we use it at Dell, at least for internal IM needs.
Bryan "BJ" Hoffpauir
aside from the encryption, icq had all of these and more in 1997
1. Timestamps, because I may start a chat with someone and then leave the window open. If they add something as an afterthought an hour later I'll be able to distinguish that from the older conversation.
2. Logging to a text or HTML file, because I use chatting/conference rooms during meeting to capture ideas. It's wonderful get this all into a file and then post an URL to it for the meetings attendees.
3. Plugins to support various other IM protocols. This allows the client to be extensible to anything new that comes along.
All these can be found in GAIM.
http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
like trillian, except with a pretty UI :)
and growl makes it easy to read IM's without actually switching apps.
Gotta love OSX.
I think this one is a pretty nice client: www.miranda-im.org ...
Cool thing: all major protocolls are supported via plugins AND you can set it up to use gnupg! Not a common feature in the big programs
It's lightweight, sleek and easy to use. No bloat, no nag and no fee.
Miranda supports ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Jabber, Gadu-gadu and IRC.
Oh, and it's published under the GPL.
http://www.miranda-im.org/
If you want to juggle several accounts and not worry about firewalls, go to Meebo, which does Gmail, Jabber, AIM, ICQ and MSN in a browser window.
(Celui que tient la peur de devinir nuage)
Send messages to receive when the come back and the ability to go invisible are both possible on AIM as well. Use GAIM to be able to do these things.
And for those who want to use these IM clients but can't from work, there's always Meebo. Pick on AJAX all you want, but I can IM on MSN, Yahoo, Google, and AIM through port 80.
If you want strong encryption with nice properties, do look into off-the-record messaging - there's both a GAIM plugin (works with all protocols) and an AIM proxy. I think AdiumX also has support for this built in.
It's got some nice properties like perfect forward secrecy and plausible deniability, and it's GPL/LGPL-licensed. (GPL for the AIM proxy, toolkit and GAIM plugin; LGPL for the library)
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
to be Kopete, for KDE.
http://kopete.kde.org/
It's fast, easy to use, very elegant. It suffer from the same problem most KDE apps have, far too many options, but once you get it setup the way you like it, its fantastic.
Video for Yahoo chat, as well. Jabber, MSN, ICQ, AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo, others that I haven't even heard of.
It's really nice; but only for Linux right now.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
Just to clarify, the AIM protocol does allow you to go invisible. There's a little eye-ball looking thing at the top of your buddy list in the AIM client. Click it, and the eye closes. Voila! You are invisible. In GAIM, the same can be done under GAIM. Tools->Away->Invisible.
The New Msn Messenger doesn't allow you to go invisible for particular users. Yahoo allows you to do this selectively. I may want to talk to some users but not all of them.
I agree with your list of "let's keep" or what to look for, as an MSNM user I think the worst things in the world are the ads and the freaking Nudges!
What I would really like in an IM client.
A simple IM interface, text only no silly animations no cutesy icons no flashing ads or brightly colored atrocious text or font no nudges, must have the ability to file transfer send/recieve live audio/video that is my dream IM.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Trillian Pro can do that -- including SIP messaging with Live Communications Server -- with the (very alpha) SIP plugin for Trillian located here.
in addition to AIM and Jabber. How? They explain it right there:u gh-jabber
:-)
http://allforces.com/2005/05/06/ichat-to-msn-thro
A lot of friends told me about Adium. But hey, I love software integration and iChat integrates with Mail and AddressBook in a way Adium won't be able to. Both (Adium and iChat) have pros and cons, but it's nice to know you can use iChat for -all- IM protocols
Animoog.org
Miranda is one app that keeps me on Windows... and it keeps reminding my why all other clients suck. Every now or then I'll try GAIM, but I actually prefer CenterICQ....
Miranda is small, modular, has simple & coherent interface (looks like a native application, not some sort of freakish eXXXTreeeme-Teeenage-Mega-Skinzz-application), protocols galore, etc.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Sure, you can use Gaim or Trillian to connect to multiple networks but why not use the proper protocol - Jabber - and let the server do the work for you? Just pick a jabber server with MSN, ICQ, AIM and Yahoo transports. Then it doesn't matter which client you use, as long as it supports jabber you're fine.
I would choose Psi http://psi-im.org/psi.affinix.com/ if you work in Windows or KDE and Gajim http://www.gajim.org/index.php?lang=en for Gnome.
Plus, you can install all sorts of nifty tools on the Jabber server: email checking, receive RSS feeds, control your jukebox...
For the same reason that emacs minimizes when you hit ctrl-z. In the unix world ctrl-z is suspend, they are just following the convention. Gaim wasn't ported to windows until much after it's initial release.
The goal of computer science is to build something that will last at least until we've finished building it.
GoogleTalk in Gaim :
- for the messages, use jabber :
explained here, or in short :
Screen name : your gmail name (djsmiley2k)
Server : gmail.com
Password : (your gmail password)
Under Jabber option, Connect server : talk.google.com
- for the voice :
SIP isn't supported by Gaim, yet.
There was a fork experimenting with voice, Gaim-VV.
They did manage to get something interesting to work, and now they're working to port back their results into the main Gaim.
According to gaim's news, it'll be included in version 2.0.
Best part, one of the developper has been hired by google to make sure that gaim works with google talk's feature.
For your "IM window taking over the PC", it's a window manager problem.
Under Linux, it's just some settings to tweak
- KDE's control pannel "Desktop" - "Windows behaviour" - then play with "advanced" option (how much is it easy/hard to ask for focus) or "focus" (like "focus follows mouse", never get your focus stollen. Old school unix style)
Under Windows, well... the window manager just sucks. You must find another way.
- You may try Gaim - Tools - "Preferences" - "Plugins"
"notification icon" (message can stay minimized (and not focused) until you clic on icon, like on old icq98 client)
"message notification" (set different ways to alert about new message, like changing the title instead of asking for focus)
and optionnally you can install the "guifications" plugin (use "toaster" non-focused windows, like MSN. Effects on 3D games may vary. Doesn't show up when playing games on my old 3DFx Voodoo 5)
- There may be free tools (the "check against spyware before installing" kind) that can control the focusing behaviour of windows.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I use BitlBee in rcirc. All the protocols you mention, plus IRC, ICQ, Jabber and Yahoo, all from a unified interface within the comfort of Emacs. BitlBee also works with your IRC client of choice, of course.
Personally, I find the MSN support for video better than AIM. I have not tried the Yahoo client for video.
The AIM support for video is the worst. Yahoo is nice in that it works well with multiple people watching. MSN and Yahoo are just fine for one-on-one video conversations.
Learn to love Alaska
...then bitlbee is a great way to use your existing IRC client (mirc, irssi, xchat or whatever) to access jabber, google chat, msn, yahoo and oscar (aim/icq). It's not perfect, it will not allow you to send or receive files (yet), but if you're fed up with bloated GUI clients, and are allready using an IRC client, it may be the best choice. At least you'll have all your chatting in one client.
Sounds dumb, and it also sounds like a self-fullfilling prophecy, but I think that's it. I didn't originally choose ICQ for its feature set, I chose it because that's what my friends had. Same goes for every other client I've installed, including the godawful Lotus IM client and MSN's messenger. The last two I installed because that's what work mandated we use.
As anecdotal evidence, I ask you if you've ever tried getting someone to switch over to whatever client you use? No matter what arguments you use for your client being better, it always boils down to, "yeah, but everyone else I know is on ICQ|MSN|Whatever." So, eventually, we all end up installing every known client just to be able to intercommunicate.
Of course, this begs the question, what made the original adopters choose Yahoo! over ICQ over whatever else? I don't have an answer for that one, but I think it was whichever one they happened to find first. I don't think its the kind of thing many people research.
For the record, I now use Trillian. Works with everything, I don't have 5 clients running at once, and it more or less makes everything seem like one big network rather than 5 discrete ones.
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In fact, if you go here: http://geddeth.dk/downloads/gaim/ you can get precompiled CVS versions, for windows people like me who can't compile things to save their life. It's pretty interesting.
All your base are belong to Wii.
I have said this before when the subject of IM software comes up:
There is no such thing as good IM software. Everyone has a perfectly good, universal "instant message" protocol. It's called SMTP.
What's wrong with IM?
Well, to talk to everyone you might want to talk to, you need multiple sign-ons for each of the incompatible networks. And you have to configure either a universal client that's going to be borked periodically by official protocol updates, or you have to load five or six "official" clients on your computer.
Plus you have to be willing to trust each company whose IM software you want to use. Is their software secure? Are their servers? How much information is leaked out your PC when you use their protocol? Will they give you a date with an advertising bot?
No thanks.
E-mail is universal, not controlled by any single company and can easily be secured. What's not to love about that?
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
# Grouping of nicks under a single nick, so you'd only have to click on the nick and the first available (or even preferred) protocol client would be connected. This would also hold for "pounces" - Those messages saved and autosent when one of the nicks becomes available/meets criteria.
That's already a feature...
# Transparent encryption - always encrypt for a protocol, and make those protocols/clients with encryption the preferred protocol for a particular nick with multiple clients.
They've already gone over that and why it wouldn't be a built-in feature until an actual protocol supports real encryption as a feature.
'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
What I really miss from the old-school days is the *nix talk command. Yes I know people still use it, but I really find it striking how much contextual information can be carried in visually watching someone type characters out one by one and correcting their errors in real time. It really is different from the "compose and hit return" method most protocols use these days, and I find it really makes the interaction more like a conversation. Especially since you can both be typing and be reading things at the same time which is much like talking over each other.
Just FYI, if you're not a GAIM user but like the videoconferencing etc features of your various IM's, keep a watch. The 2.x version of GAIM is supposed to re-merge the GAIM-VV (Voice+Video) forks so that it not only supposed multicliented goodness, but many of the media features as well.
I've been using Trillian since the 0.5x days and have continued till this day. I've used GAIM before, but Trillian works best. I don't see a need to upgrade to the Pro version for what I use it for, but I suggest looking at GAIM, Trillian Basic (free!), and Trillian Pro to see what fits you best.
Pluses (Some have already been listed above)
- Free version has a lot of great features
- Great for consolidating your IMs
- Pretty much all of the features that you would find in any of the standard standalone IM clients
- It allows you to use more than one screen name per network (i.e. two AIM accounts)
- Can do accounts/profiles for different users (i.e. family members with their individual IM account sets)
- Conversation logging with date and time stamps (good for ass saving or ass kicking)
- Available conversation encryption between another Trillian client/user
- Some keyboard shortcuts can be customized
- Quick configuration option finding
- IM network plugins (i.e. modular design)
- Hot update on plugins
- Easy connect, disconnect, away, here, etc. between one or all IM accounts
- XML Skinnable with complete UI customization
- Has an IRC client as well (what it started out as)
Minuses
- Difficulty with transferring files (I haven't gotten it to work, but I could be doing something wrong)
I am currently using the Basic version to connect a MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, and two AIM accounts. The logging feature is great and quite handy. I highly recommend you try it.
It doesn't? That's curious, mine's been pulling data from my Address Book for some time now. What sort of features are you looking with this integration, though?
Try Miranda IM for Windows, it's a great little free resource light and open source client with a simple dll drop in folder for protocols and other plugins, of which there are plenty.
:(
There are plugins for MSN, Jabber, ICQ, IRC (which is actually reasonably well done IMO), Yahoo, AIM, Gadu-Gadu and Skype (it's just an API wrapper, so you need the official client installed still). It comes with some of these by default, but you can simply unload and delete the dll's of the protocols you don't use.
It makes GAIM look like bloatware. I'm still looking for a *nix equivalent