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What Makes a Good IM Client?

Posted by Cliff on from the no-skimping-on-the-features dept.

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?"

15 of 649 comments (clear)

  1. well... by daeley · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
    1. Re:well... by JazzCrazed · · Score: 5, Informative

      Or Gaim for the Linux/Windows users, the core library of which Adium uses.

  2. Go with GAIM by Anarke_Incarnate · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Go with GAIM by kryten_nl · · Score: 5, Informative

      From the GAIM news page:
      Summer of Code

      Meanwhile, Google's Summer of Code has drawn to a conclusion and we are very happy with what our students accomplished. Support for Apple's Bonjour protocol, UPnP NAT traversal, AIM and ICQ file transfer proxying, and support for the SIP/SIMPLE protocol are a few of the additions. See the news post at the top of our Summer of Code page for a detailed list.

      Working at Google

      I (Sean) have been hired by Google, moved to Seattle, and have been working on the Google Talk team for about a month and a half. The goal of Google Talk is to make real-time communication as open as possible, and in that regard, I've been working to offer all of Google Talk's features into other clients. Currently, I'm working on making it as easy as possible for other clients to use Google Talk's voice features. You can expect Gaim and other clients to be interoperable with Google Talk's voice features in the near future.

      --
      For the perfect anti-Unix, write an OS that thinks it knows what you're doing better than you do and let it be wrong.
  3. Two major ones by Bananatree3 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Two commonly used ones are (and fairly good ones I might say) are Trillian and GAIM

    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.

  4. Hmm... by TheSpoom · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    --
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  5. SIP has encryption integrated with AD by beejhuff · · Score: 3, Informative

    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
  6. lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    aside from the encryption, icq had all of these and more in 1997

  7. The Meebo Alternative. by crlove · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  8. Re:Each Protocol Has Its Good Points by slavemowgli · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.
  9. With a good plugin... by irregular_hero · · Score: 3, Informative

    Trillian Pro can do that -- including SIP messaging with Live Communications Server -- with the (very alpha) SIP plugin for Trillian located here.

  10. iChat working with MSN, ICQ, Yahoo! by Lord+Satri · · Score: 3, Informative

    in addition to AIM and Jabber. How? They explain it right there:
    http://allforces.com/2005/05/06/ichat-to-msn-throu gh-jabber

    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
  11. Miranda by eddy · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.
  12. BitlBee + rcirc by bkhl · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  13. Re:Those already exist, but I'd like by jZnat · · Score: 3, Informative

    # 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.

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