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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?"
I was asked this question a few days ago, my response was that there is a little something from every network that I would like to combine for use into one standard.
MSN - Ability to change your nick. Ability to accept or decline others from adding you to their buddy lists.
AIM - Ability to set auto-reply messages. Direct connect for quicker file transfers.
Yahoo! - Ability to send messages to people that are offline that they will receive next time they sign on. Ability to go invisible.
There's stuff I'm missing, no doubt, and I didn't cover every protocol out there, but those are the major things for me.
I'm not sure of all of the Jabber specifications, but I know there's things in there that specify encryption stuff, among a number of other nice things.
Right now, I think strong encryption (like with the gaim-encryption plugin) between client to client (not client to server) is one big thing that all of the major players need to address.
A community-oriented lyrics site
This was just an excuse to use the words "my girlfriend" in a Slashdot story.
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.
Trillian for Windows, gaim on Linux. Next question?
I can explanate how to administrate your network. You must configurate and segmentate it, so it can computate.
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
I actually haven't seen this in an IM client, but it would be cool. Tie in to a networking system like LinkedIn or build in the capacity so that if you choose, you can browse and create connections through your friends list.
Helping with organizational effectiveness is our job.
aside from the encryption, icq had all of these and more in 1997
The advantages of ICQ (over AIM) with the default clients are:
1. Offline messages. Extremely handy for a lot of things.
2. Stored History. Unbelievably useful when trying to find something someone mentioned to you 6 months ago. Grepping through the licq history has been a livesaver for me. AIM clients can of course implement it too, but a lot of them don't for some bizarre reason, or they require you to manually tell it where to store files.
I read the internet for the articles.
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
just get http://bitlbee.org/ (with irssi on a screen, yeah!).
or miranda..
The one thing i'd like to add from all clients is a userbase. ;) The multi-im clients come close to this functionality and as far as I'm concerned it is the only important feature they need to share. Text messaging everyone I know without inconveniencing them by asking them to switch to a network of their choice is ultimately the point of im. Open interfaces for enhanced features like games, picture and file sharing would also be nice but there is little reward for each of the hosts of these services if they can't guarantee commercial advertising.
I've got Gaim (gaim.sourceforge.net/).
t _messengers
Includes basic (text only, if you use things like voice, video and sending files often, it is not for you) support for AIM, MSN and a whole bunch of others. There is a way to make it work for Google Talk via their Jabber client, but I can't tell you first hand how well that works.
As for features, I like the tabs the most. You would be having your three conversations as three tabs in one window, with color coded notification if they are typing or have posted something new. All chats can be logged, so you can easily go back and see what was said. There is also a built in spell checker that I haven't yet bothered to get working. Finally (that I can think of now), if you've got folks with multiple accounts you can have them on your buddy list as only one name, cutting down on clutter.
As a big plus, a new version (if I did my math right from their announcement) should be coming out pretty soon, for which they promise many great things on the website...
If you don't like Gaim, might be something on here? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_instan
A good client will handle multiple protocols.
A good client has a beautiful, well thought out interface (including the prefs)
A good client does not have games.
A good client does not have a stock ticker.
A good client does not have a giant SUBMIT button (Everybody knows enter/return sends).
A good client will let you organize/arrange your contact list to suit your needs (Sorry iChat -- yes, even in Tiger)
A good client is extendable.
A good client has a no-brains-needed logging feature.
A good client plays well with others (Growl, baby)
A good client has tabs (Nobody wants a dozen chat windows).
A good client will not try to reinvent the wheel (Why does control+Z minimize the chat window in Gaim?)
A good client will let me effortlessly send files (uhhhh....)
I'm thoroughly sold on Adium, but since I'm stuck on Windows at work, I use Gaim there, because it is the simplest. Trillian is extremely overrated. AIM is absolute adware garbage.
On the Mac side, only iChat lets me transfer files without issue (official AIM might, but I won't install it to find out).
Proteus and Fire are nice, but Adium is *nicer.* I won't fault anybody for trying the others, but I think it's worth anybody's time to give Adium a day or two to win them over.
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I think the poster is asking what makes a good IM client, not which IM client we happen to prefer. Related questions to be sure, but not the same.
Contrary to folk wisdom, IM clients can be specialized, they're not all trying to outdo each other at the same tasks. So it's important to ask yourself what you're looking for. Fun & features? Try Yahoo's 'IMvironments' (or whatever silly thing it's called), sharing pictures? 'Hello' has some picture oriented, well-designed UI affordances in their chat client.
Personally, I look for the following things in a client:
- Simplicity (I want to think about IMs as little as possible)
- Universal compatibility (I don't want to run more than 1 client, I don't want to ask my friends to get xyz client in order to talk to me)
- Configurability
- No ads
I haven't tried every available client, but Gaim fits the bill for me. It's small, simple, highly configurable and speaks pretty much every lingo out there. It's not strong in its file-transfer capabilities and its ability to send pictures, but those features are not as important to me.
Plus, it's open source.
Hubbah
1. Any IM client that isn't secure could one day prove to be a huge problem for a company or a userbase. Fortunately, there hasn't been widespread IM viruses, but who knows?
2. The ability to VoIP, change nicknames, block certain types of users, send images, create smilies and a variety of other features are always fun to have. But they can't be intrusive. I hate MSN's interface, way too many useless gadgets that try to be cool. On the other hand, Google Talk is very clean but Jabber isn't the most feature-full system.
3. I don't want to see ads when IMing. I don't want to get popups from using software, and I don't need daily news. Google Talk is awesome for this, as is Trillian and Adium.
I've always loathed real-time chat, including IRC and instant messaging. I'd rather people just e-mailed me in general, since then I can respond whenever I feel like or just ignore it. The moment I was hired at my current programming job though, I was required to set up a work specific AIM account from day one. The owners were overseas in Spain, and it turned out that AIM was their primary means of communication between Spain and the U.S. I've slacked a bit in the three years after that as far as my general loathing of it, but I still have yet to ever use instant messaging at home. The thing that's always scary to me is the sheer number of confidentail business conversations that have taken place over unencrypted AIM over the years. We've tried getting people to use GAIM with the encryption plug-in, but that's generally only used by the technical people and not the business people.
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.
i've heard there is a windows program that does the same,. i'm sure someone here will telly you, but i like gaim when i ever do use IM as it handles msn/im together. i should imagine google talk might be included in the next version of it or at some version in the future as they seem to be quite friendly towards OSS.
oh and the worst aspect of any instant messenger is if it pops up and steals your windows focus and you end up typing half a url into a message window or whatever. best feature is integrated email delivery notification for me. would be nice to have that for gmail as well as aol/hotmail.
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
yes, it isn't a consumer grade service, it is a service you have inside the corporate firewall. It was 5 years ahead of the competition 6 years ago and they haven't done much to it since, but on the plus side you can integrate it with Notes applications so every time a name appears anywhere on a form in a Notes database (expenses form, discussion database, document library etc.) it grows a little green icon you can click on to chat with the relevant person. Buddy list does not belong in a little window all by itself, IM awareness should be spread over all applications, anywhere there is a name I want to click to chat or mail, or VOIP or screenshare or webcam etc.
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.
A good protocol is useless if the people you are trying to keep in touch with aren't using it. I use AIM solely because that's what all of my friends use. Chat_Client_X might be better but if the people I need to keep in contact with aren't using it, what's the point?
-everphilski-
Trillian Pro can do that -- including SIP messaging with Live Communications Server -- with the (very alpha) SIP plugin for Trillian located here.
That's probably going to be the "best" integration of the technologies.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
I use Gaim to connect to the AOL IM servers, and I've found it surpasses the traditional AOL AIM client by far, as well as alternatives such as Trillian (bloated and graphically immense.)
The Gaim interface can be customized down to being nothing but a window with a list of user names (customizable names can be introduced for your list), and has optional buttons on the bottom of the user list for quick action. Bottom buttons can be graphics, textual, or removed entirely. This is a user list interface at its best.
The user list spawns a traditional 1-on-1 chat window with a remote client, and supports tabs allowing switching between conversations easy, as well as noting other conversation changes without needing to reference another window.
Gaim is portable, and runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows.
Gaim is modular. I have quite a few nice little plugins that do interesting tricks. For example, if I'm too busy to respond to someones IM (this is rare), there is a plugin to set your idle time. Sure it may be a little cheap, but it allows me to avoid talking to someone if I'm deep in writing code without making them feel like I'm just ignoring them if they see I've been idle for say, 20 minutes or so.
I also find Gaim's logging system efficient. The AOL IM client tends to save all logs in HTML format, including all the color tags and formatting. This seems to me to be a waste in hdd space (granted it's small, it's still annoying.) Gaim saves only the textual information, and provides a nice interface to viewing and searching logs based on the user you're searching for and the date of the conversation.
Being a developer myself I think it would be beneficial if there were some sort of drawing utility on the client, similar to a traditional chat window but with graphical point-and-draw type interface. A feature such as this would help in discussing new ideas for programs between developers, or perhaps go as far as drawing driving directions for friends.
Of course if we're talking "chat rooms" where the communication line is more than 1-to-1, IRC is always the best :) In that case I would recommend X-Chat.
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
Bitlbee is an irc gateway to all the messenger clients. This means that I can communicate with my MSN contacts over (what appears to me to be) irc.
This means I can run screen+irssi+bitlbee on my home server, and will never disconnect from any of my msn,aim,irc,etc and will be able to rejoin my clients from wherever in the world I am (very important for a laptop user like myself).
It organized all of my streams of communication into one single, easy, clean interface (irssi, really, but still) and allows me to manage my time much more efficiently then before. (not to mention the benefits of never logging off, so people can send you messages and you can pick them up without having to be "on line" at that moment.
I'm looking forward to naming my firstborn after it.
A few years ago, an IM client called Trepia was released (it was even featured on Slashdot). You could enter your geographical location, and it would display people in a "Buddy List" of sorts based upon how close to you they were. It was a neat way of finding local people to chat with.
It seemed to have a lot of promise, then one day it wouldn't connect to the server, and trepia.com got redirected to its author's homepage. Now the domain's been bought up by a squatter.
What ever happened to Trepia, does anyone know?
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...
- you could change your nick anytime :)
- I still remember my ICQ number
"Freiheit ist immer auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1871 - 1919
Trillian does all of these things, and much more. Instead of just saying things it SHOULD NOT do, how about moving those things into prefs or optional plugins, via a rich api for plugins.
I think Trillian is by far the best I've seen. I bought the pay version (like $25) because I loved the free version. The pay version is even better, with the best logging/activity history I've seen.
"Ain't I a stinka..." - Bugs
Useful features:
I expect the chat program to tackle at the very least windows, mac and linux.
Way too many IM's are bloated to the point where the system is appreciably slow.
We all need to send a zip, or gif at some point. Though I find the 'user pictures' cute, I think they add significant bloat.
This is critical. If you can't keep someone off your contacts, IM spam ensues.
A list of who is online & offline.
Low bandwith usually results low latency, when the connection is slow.
I'd like to be able to have a voice conversation, with text IM's.
I'd also like to be able to add a video stream.
Way too many clients lock their network, and so we have this huge network fragmentation. I don't mind if my friends want their own clients which have the nice bubbly windows and 'user photos', I just don't want to *have* to run them myself.
If someone want to play a game via their IM, then go right ahead.
I'm not sure how often I would use this, but it would be very useful when I do need to use 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.
The worst aspect of AIM was the "focus stealing" aspect, also present in MSI Installer. NO program EVER should pop up a window and instantly put focus to it. Never, No. Flash it, but don't come up to the front.
Imagine you are talking dirty to your girlfriend in a long typing message, and then an unexpected IM from your grandma pops up, and it's too late, you hit enter. Your message of "....and I'm gonna lick your clit" ends up being sent to grandma.
Yeah, it's never happened to me(happened to someone on bash.org), but a good IM client wouldn't let you do that.
ICQ is the best protocol in my opinion - but certainly only with another client.
Direct connections
offline messaging
e-mail an ICQ message to user (UIN@icq.org)
server routing for when direct connects fail
*per-buddy status* (always appear online to a couple of close friends, while mode goes away or busy for the rest of the world, or whatever you want to do)
changeable nick names (can be over-ridden by user if a buddy changes their name too often to keep track of)
talk from invisible mode
...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.
> Trillian is extremely overrated.
How about saying why?
I have used GAIM, Trillian Basic and Pro versions and found all were pretty good. In the end, I found GAIM to be a bit too 'clunky' and settled on Trillian Pro (of which I have been very happy with it's performance and stability).
A filter that slaps you in the face if you start typing in IM-speak.
"u" for "you", "4" for "for", etc.
More than one instance of "lol" per minute
More than two exclamation points (possibly mixed with ones) in a row
Smileys on more than one quarter of your messages
And so on.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
One of my favorite features of an IM client (which is present in both Google Talk and Adium) is the automatic grouping of multiple IMs from the same person. For example, if I type 5 lines before you type another, it only shows my name once with all 5 messages. I think it makes reading conversations much more pleasant :)
e w.jpg
Here's a screenshot of how Adium does it:
http://www.adiumx.com/screenshots.php?show=overvi
Adium is an open source IM client licensed under the GPL and based on libgaim. If you're calling it proprietary because it's Mac-only, when we're comparing it to the Windows-only, closed source Trillian, that's a little... dubious.
Granted, I've always been a huge jabber advocate, but I honestly don't see why more people here don't recommend it. A lot of features that are cited in other posts that are foudn in the more popular protocols that make them unique from one another are already present in jabber: permissions, offline messages, various status options, logging (not really a protocol feature). The protocol is easy-as-pie XML, and the is open and standard so that the sky is the limit as to how clients can choose to interact with one another. I've always found the protocol to be very flexible, and there are a lot of tiny little features that make it a pleasure to use (subscription management, anonymous chatting, etc etc).
It's the people on the network that keep me signing on. My family uses Yahoo, a few friends use MSN, and a few use AIM. (In the past AIM was great because you could use it to talk to AOL users for free, but these days, I don't know any)
...Appearantly, the Veronicas of the world are a rather uncreative bunch.
If I want to talk to all of them, I have use all three clients. In my experience most people install IM clients for the same reason -- a friend says, "You should download [AIM/Y!M/MSN] and chat with me! My screenname is veronica696969". No one really cares how many custom smilies any given client supports -- they're mostly all Good Enough at their basic job -- rapid transport of small snippits of text.
On a completely unrelated note, the following AOL screennames are already taken:
veronica69
veronica6969
veronica696969
veronica69696969
Don't ask me why I know that.
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.'
adium, growl and quicksilver, that's what
word
could it be?
I think an important feature of an IM client is the ability to take it with you. An all-bells-and-whistles version chained to a PC is pretty useless if you are in the middle of a conversation and need to move..cos really, the important feature of an IM client is the ability to have A CONVERSATION. Are they on AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo??? Who gives a rats-ass...you have the conversation thru the medium that is convenient.Even though i work on a laptop, i am not about to carry that with me on the train or to a game. Even a PDA is more than i want to carry most of the time....actually...all of the time! My zaurus has been laying dormant in a draw for months. Anyway...needs to be mobile....and i have only seen 2 applications that run across a variety of phones that support multiple protocols... Oz Mobile IM http://www.oz.com/ & mobichat http://www.mobichat.com/. At $1 per day per protocol, Oz mobile IM is going to sting the wallet a little though.
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?