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?"

Comments

Each Protocol Has Its Good Points

[duerra]

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.

Re:Each Protocol Has Its Good Points

[slavemowgli]

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)

Re:Each Protocol Has Its Good Points

[cheezus_es_lard]

I'd like to see the ability for you to have speech recognition, but also text to speech... I mean, if you're using the same client, you can train your client to recognize your voice, and also record the information on it; timbre, pitch, tone, etc... store that in a profile and have the client transmit it automatically (if desired) the first time your buddy tries to text-to-speech your incoming IMs. The recieving client could apply the settings from your profile to your incoming messages, reading them in a voice similar to your own (I'd expect eerily similar as the technology developed). I can't imagine this being that difficult, and with modern processing capabilities, rendering speedy text-to-speech isn't that hard, so I don't see why it couldn't be reasonably usable.

Aside from the obvious creep-out and privacy invasion issues, are there any technical reasons this would be hard, and is anyone working on something like this?

just curious ;-)

Fess up

[Anonymous Coward]

This was just an excuse to use the words "my girlfriend" in a Slashdot story.

Re:Fess up

[GetPFunky]

Once I heard the words "my girlfriend", I assumed this story was urban legend.

Re:Fess up

[That's Unpossible!]

My girlfriend thinks your comment was totally uncouth.

well...

[daeley]

If you could combine features from all of the IM clients out there, what would they be?

Adium? ;)

Re:well...

[JazzCrazed]

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

Re:well...

[zootm]

Thing with Gaim is that the interface isn't as polished as that of Adium — it could use a bit of work. The back-end (which, as you say, Adium uses) is top-notch, though.

Go with GAIM

[Anarke_Incarnate]

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.

Re:Go with GAIM

[kryten_nl]

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.

Two major ones

[Bananatree3]

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.

Hmm...

[TheSpoom]

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.

SIP has encryption integrated with AD

[beejhuff]

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.

One Simple Thing - Social Networking

[under_score]

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.

lol

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:lol

[duerra]

Yeah, it's too bad that ICQ has that stupid number instead of a username, though. Numbers are hard to remember, hard to give to people on a whim, etc.

ICQ was so close to being perfect!

Re:lol

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

I'd rather everyone have a numeric id, but not sequential. Unique id should be the hash of your public key, which is then used for verification/encryption.
You then do the rest icq style. I still don't remember my uncles icq uin, nor do I know his aim screenname, but I know if I type his name in the Find User dialog, I'd find his icq account. Long aim screennames are no easier considering aols db is merged with netscape/compuserve/a few other services by now. The number of unused old accounts wasting space is astonishing. I couldn't even register my full name as a screenname because it was already in use.

Unique numeric ids keep people from fighting over that stuff, and rarely have to actually be displayed, you just display the nick they set as the displayname. Then only show the numeric id in case of duplicate names when trying to find people. Even then you dont have to show the full digits, you can use graphical representation of the key. Forgot the name of the tech, but it looked promising when used for PKI.

Re:lol

[AoT]

Yeah, I never give people a contact number on a regular basis.

ICQ, the forgotton protocol

[jandrese]

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.

Adium, Adium, Adium

[illtron]

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.

Re:Adium, Adium, Adium

[John Nowak]

This isn't at all a reason. When you port software, there should be a basic effort made to follow the conventions of the target system. The truth is Gaim is just a mess in this regard on every platform, even Gnome. Trillian also craps all over conventions. The only solid AIM client out there that behaves itself is Adium, and it goes so far beyond that is well. Things like Adium, Quicksilver, etc, will keep me on the Mac platform for a long time.

Did we read the question?

[hubbah]

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

The Meebo Alternative.

[crlove]

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.

Re:The Meebo Alternative.

[Nevenmrgan]

I had never heard of this before. Impressive. It worked fine, except there were positioning problems with some elements (floating scrollbars 0 using latest Gecko). But overall, that's pretty damn swanky.

With a good plugin...

[irregular_hero]

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

iChat working with MSN, ICQ, Yahoo!

[Lord Satri]

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 :-)

Re:Good protocol is useless, if

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

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?

By your logic the only way to switch protocols would be if all your friends did so simultaneously or if you got new friends. Thus you are locked in forever. Here's an out. Set up your own Jabber server for you and your friends and configure it to have a bridge to the protocol you are currently using. Then you can still chat with the same people over the same protocol, but you can also chat with people over Jabber and if both you and the other person are using Jabber you can have end-to-end encryption and a secure server. If enough people switch over via this method, we can all ditch these proprietary walled gardens and everyone will be able to chat with everyone using the client of their choice.

Bitlbee changed my life

[Crimsane]

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.

Miranda

[eddy]

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.

BitlBee + rcirc

[bkhl]

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.

AIM steals focus

[British]

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.

One feature none of them has (as far as I know)

[Atario]

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.

Re:One feature none of them has (as far as I know)

[miyako]

GAIM actually automatically translates some common netspeak into proper english. "k" is translated to "Okay", and "u" to "You" for example. Not really all that useful since it only applies to outgoing messages, but if we could get everyone to use Gaim it would probably cut down on some of that crap people try to pass off as english. Plus it has a spell checker.
Having a spell checker in my IM client is probably the single most useful feature I've ever had in any program I've ever used.

Jabber is Underrated

[vga_init]

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).

Re:Those already exist, but I'd like

[jZnat]

# 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.