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5 Best Instant Messengers Compared & Analyzed

lifehacker.com — 5 Winners from the 550 comments on Lifehacker from users of IM services......They are compared and analyzed so that you can select the ones right for you.....Great article

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  • Jayzo21, on 04/03/2008, -12/+73Digsby pwneds and is only in beta stage. There is no competition
    • theragu40, on 04/03/2008, -9/+13No IRC support and a really large memory footprint (near 100k) are deal breakers for me as of right now...but otherwise it's a really slick program. If they can address those issues, Digsby will be a killer app.
      • Tenoq, on 04/03/2008, -9/+20Not sure how 100k is a large memory footprint? What, do you only have 20MB of RAM in your system or something?
        • theragu40, on 04/03/2008, -5/+15Large compared to Pidgin, which sits at around 30k or so. I don't think my chat program should be eating up 100k+ of memory, which is why I switched away from Trillian in the first place.
          • bigdoof, on 04/03/2008, -1/+15Pidgin running on 30KB? I think you mean 30MB
          • AshTR, on 04/03/2008, -1/+3I agree. I tried out Digsby and loved it but the high usage was too terrible for me and I switched back to Pidgin. Sooner they optimize it, sooner I'll start using it and loving the heck out of it.
          • Jenadae, on 04/03/2008, -1/+3Wow i must be really spoiled with my new PC because i used to be picky about the such as well. But as you said 100k is to much and before i had digsby i used ancient versions of AIM.
          • theragu40, on 04/03/2008, -2/+16I meant 100,000kb, sorry for the confusion. I was pretty sure everyone would know what I meant(100k kb), but looking back on it, that was a stupid way to say it.
          • p2a1x7, on 04/03/2008, -0/+15I just downloaded it, but didn't notice the usage until you said so. It was eating 120mb compared to 10mb by Pidgin.... I guess I'll stick with Pidgin until they make Digsby take less of my resources or I get more RAM (1gb is not enough for Vista)
          • DonSlice, on 04/04/2008, -1/+2Mine is using 64mb. I don't see what the HUGE deal is with this. Granted, it's just a chat app... but nowadays, we should all have enough RAM to not notice.
          • Baku, on 04/04/2008, -0/+3I was quite surprised... just checked the memory useage now... and I've got Firefox 3 beta 5 at 64mb... and Digsby at 94mb.
            I love the app though, so I think I'll stick with Digsby for the timebeing.
          • elnerdo, on 04/04/2008, -0/+4Just to add something: Upon seeing this thread, I checked the memory usage of pidgin right now. (I have two conversations open). It's at 13MB. That's good.
          • BassCadet, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1No Sametime plug-in with Digsby? Come on guys, get that working then worry about the Facebook crap.
          • msergeant, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1100mb, woopdedoo, pidgin is running around 440mb at the moment on my system, firefox 2 at 102mb (firefox 3 beta5 keeps bloody crashing!) + the rest and I've still got 1.5gb free..
        • BassCadet, on 04/04/2008, -2/+1"Not sure how 100k is a large memory footprint"?

          Hell, Yahoo Chat doesn't even use that much, and that's the most bloated POS software I can think of. Digsby is a bunch of pretty colors and slick looks but it takes a back seat to Pidgin in terms of nailing the interface just right.
      • PunkRampant, on 04/04/2008, -1/+2Cool, I don't care about IRC and 100mb memory isn't a problem. If those are the only things wrong with Digsby then I'm sold.
    • Tenoq, on 04/03/2008, -2/+16I see Miranda just fell out of the top 5. Surely that's better than Trillian on the Windows front? It was certainly more stable, reliable and functional than Pidgin when I tried that on Feisty. I _will_ try this Digsby though.
      • spyrochaete, on 04/03/2008, -1/+4I've loved Miranda for about 2 years and have pimped it on every Digg story comparing IM clients, but I just tried Digsby and see some great potential. It lacks a few features (like the contact list auto-resizing based on how many contacts are online) but it's a solid, lightweight client.

        I'm going to try Digsby for a few days and submit some feature requests (which you can do right from the client).
      • bryceman111, on 04/04/2008, -1/+3I have been using Miranda ever since I got smart and stopped using MSN. I love it, and I have tried, Digsby and Trillian. They just don't seem to be as compact and minimal as Miranda. Depends on what features you want I guess, but Miranda has more than enough for me. Also, skinning it is not too hard, although I cannot get the skinning plugins for it because the Miranda site has been messed up, but anyways, that is just how I feel about IM's.
      • weizilla, on 04/04/2008, -1/+3agreed. miranda im is the best
      • daizaru, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1I liked a lot of elements of Miranda but I always would find some error with it that forced me to uninstall it on every computer I tried it on. I really wish I could have made it work it's a fine program.
    • kevthecatslayer, on 04/03/2008, -0/+4I've had, on a few occasions, where digsby stopped receiving messages from friends. I had no idea someone responded to a question I asked until he called me and bitched about me not responding to him.
    • bs0l, on 04/03/2008, -7/+4Haven't tried Digsby yet, is it really that good?
    • quickgold192, on 04/03/2008, -1/+4Digsby's "social network integration" is basically an email checker for facebook. Once they *really* integrate it - put wall posts and messages in an instant message window and allow you to reply to them right there - then I'll go ahead and run a 60MB instant messenger client.
    • thatspsychotic, on 04/03/2008, -1/+2Digsby looks great, if only I could easily import my Pidgin logs.
    • blackbelt88, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1I tried Digsby for a few days a while ago and went back to Trillian. I like the concept, and it's pretty slick looking, but Digsby was way too buggy and seemed feature incomplete. Trillian isn't perfect, but I've found that it does more of what I want than any other chat client out there.
    • arcooke, on 04/04/2008, -3/+417MB for the compressed install file? 100MB memory usage? No thanks. Just because I have a big hard drive and lots of ram, doesn't mean I want to waste it.

    • Kavok, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1I usually use Trillian but I've installed Digsby and its decent. I just wish it more conversation themes that didn't waste space with aesthetics.
    • djbon2112, on 04/04/2008, -4/+8Closed-source, Windows only. Hardly the greatest or pwning anything.
      • GrantTLC, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Yeah, I'd agree. Mac and Linux are coming, and the Windows client is nice, but so far Digsby is merely potential waiting to happen. Much like the ludicrously delayed Trillian Astra...
    • daizaru, on 04/04/2008, -1/+4Wow I just tried it and I have to say, not impressed. It's really laggy.
    • sjmorton, on 04/04/2008, -1/+2Just tried to install Digsby and the installer crashed. Methinks I'll be sticking with Trillian.
    • encrypteduser, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Only if Digsby had LCS support!
    • amirman, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1digsby's GUI is as clunky as trillian, Pidgin is really the best.
  • double051, on 04/03/2008, -25/+66Digsby>Adium>Pidgin>Trillian>Meebo
    • Lijiman, on 04/03/2008, -3/+25Well said. Just need Digsby for Mac and Linux, then I'll be even more happy with it.
      • skyshock1, on 04/04/2008, -0/+4Bummer, all I use is OSX and Linux. No windows here... I guess I'll have to stick to pidgin until Digsby's released on the other platforms.
    • Daniel591992, on 04/03/2008, -4/+13Why ia Meebo last? It's perhaps the most convenient of them all.
      • fkr3, on 04/03/2008, -16/+5It's great but it's only the best if you can't install anything else.

        Where's MSN, AIM and Yahoo Messengers? I don't know much about AIM aside from it's the most popular, but MSN and Yahoo aren't too shabby these days.
        • solidus636, on 04/03/2008, -9/+3AIM is actually very good nowadays. Lots of options, and it looks really good.
          • SonicRush, on 04/03/2008, -1/+2Agreed. The spaced out Trillian look is great and clean and all, but if you've got 30 buddies online at the same time, it's vertical screen real estate that I don't have. As much as I don't like AOL, once you adhack AIM, it's pretty darn nice, with the status flyouts, lots of options, good file transfer, good tabbing system. It's a very refined program. I think I'll have to give Digsby a try though, it looks pretty nice as well.
          • zeeky, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1looks good, but its too slow
        • Raptor007, on 04/03/2008, -6/+5Where are they? Not in the top 5.

          Sure they are better than they once were, but they still can't beat the excellent alternatives listed in the article.
        • seventoes, on 04/03/2008, -3/+4Plus both of them are loaded with adware last i checked, i'd rather use something with no ads being forced into my retinas
        • PunkRampant, on 04/04/2008, -1/+3AIM has the most people by far on its network, but the actual AIM application sucks.
        • 6minuteabs, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1Nobody here seems to be interested in using all of the features on any of these networks. They would rather have a stripped down experience for the privilege of having no ads or multinetwork sign in. Different strokes I guess. I will use AIM, Y IM, & MSN thankyouverymuch
      • CokeEatsYummy, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2I currently like meebo the most too. It's nice to have access to the same chat logs everywhere and it's great that it runs everywhere without the need of installing anything.
    • zephyr42, on 04/03/2008, -6/+11Adium and Meebo are kinda in their own categories.... hard to compare Trillian to Pidgin since they're both exclusive to the OS.
      • Macskeeball, on 04/03/2008, -1/+4Meebo is a website. It's not exclusive to any OS. it is true that it's in its own category though.
        • Atomic1fire, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2But with something like prism you can access it from os
          though its still web based
          and that makes an issue of is the server on
          or am I stuck without an instant messenger
        • Macskeeball, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2Wait, apparently I misread. I thought you wrote "...hard to compare [to] Trillian [and] Pidgin..." I must have skimmed over too fast. Sorry about that. Like thebaconmonster said, Pdigin is not exclusive to one OS.

          Why exactly would Adium be in its own category?
          • LacY, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1I'd put it in its own category because it's the only Mac-only client on the list (the only mac client at all except for Meebo)
      • thebaconmonster, on 04/03/2008, -1/+10how is pidgin exclusive to an OS? last I checked it was win/linux and it's library was behind adium (like mentioned)
      • Ademan, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1not to mention people might *gasp* use multiple OSes, like me i swore by trillian for years, eventually the instability and memory hogginess turned me off of it, i tried gaim, hated it (gtk+ on windows is pretty *****) went back to aol's client (yeah i know...) and here I am now, happy with pidgin on both windows and linux, although pidgin on windows is still a bit iffy it's miles ahead of where it was when i first tried it.
    • duckyinc, on 04/03/2008, -13/+2Why is trillian worse then disby?
      • Synapse84, on 04/03/2008, -3/+11cause trillian sucks...
      • Macskeeball, on 04/03/2008, -2/+11Gee, I don't know. Could it be because its interface is appallingly horrendous?
        • MrMacMan, on 04/03/2008, -5/+3appallingly horrendous?
        • str1fe, on 04/04/2008, -0/+4Yes, appallingly horrendous. I used Trillian for a long time, decided to try Pidgin out, and never looked back.
    • nullx42, on 04/03/2008, -6/+32You have Digsby and Pidgin mixed up there,
      • lucidapathy, on 04/03/2008, -3/+14My thoughts exactly.
      • shredswithpiks, on 04/03/2008, -4/+1posting to agree with this.
        • str1fe, on 04/04/2008, -1/+9You can just use the green thumbs-up button to say that.
      • rpgmaker, on 04/04/2008, -8/+4You are really talking out of your ass. Don't get me wrong, I use Ubuntu and I used Pidgin a lot but because I didn't have a better choice on my platform.. until emesene (MSN client) came out, that's it. In my opinion Adium is far better than all of the clients listed there. Pidgin is good if you just want to "say what you have to say" but the other clients bring so much more to the table that pidgin just lags behind.
        • RoboDonut, on 04/04/2008, -2/+7It's an IM client.
          Its sole purpose is to enable you to "say what you have to say" Anything more is senseless.
          A program should have a single clear purpose, and avoid adding anything irrelevant.
          Desktop widgets and "social networking" integration, or whatever features these other IM clients are offering, have no place in an IM application. It's just unnecessary complexity. Harder for the developers to maintain, more room for error, more disk space on your drive, more wasted CPU cycles, etc.
        • dlllb, on 04/04/2008, -3/+2RoboDonut, you do know that what you think an IM client should be is relevent to yourself only? I personally want all of those features and more from an IM.
        • Daniel15, on 04/05/2008, -1/+1IMHO, aMSN is much better than emesene :)
          • rpgmaker, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1It has more features at this point but emesene is lighter (that is explicity one of its goals) and will catch up eventually :)
    • agaudet, on 04/04/2008, -6/+1aMSN pwns all of those
  • ZeroSumDivide, on 04/03/2008, -5/+38Digsby is what Pidgin would be if it were prettier and the if the Trillian developers weren't so lazy. I have high hopes for this awesome little app.
    • ralphthemagi, on 04/03/2008, -10/+5Digsby is what Pidgin might be if it wasn't open source. Pidgin is, and always will be, both free to download and use and free of ads. The same can not be said of Digsby.
      • ZeroSumDivide, on 04/03/2008, -6/+1You ARE aware a Linux version is in development, yes?
        • ralphthemagi, on 04/03/2008, -4/+7You ARE aware that you can compile an application for Linux without providing the source code, yes?
          • ZeroSumDivide, on 04/03/2008, -7/+1Yes, I am, but with most of the files in the Windows version being .py files, somehow I doubt it's going to stay closed source.
          • nullx42, on 04/03/2008, -1/+8@ ZeroSumDivide
            Python =/= Auto Open source.
          • ZeroSumDivide, on 04/03/2008, -4/+1@nullx42

            I'm well aware of this. What I'm saying is that, given that it's written in an easily portable language, and given the general attitude from the dev crew, I think it's very likely they will release the source code once it's out of beta.
          • apetresc, on 04/03/2008, -3/+3Releasing the source code and being open-source (in the sense diggers mean it) are not equivalent either. "Releasing" the source code out of necessity is not much use if they do not allow patches or commits from anyone except the core dev team, or if they sue anyone who starts a fork.
          • nullx42, on 04/03/2008, -1/+3@ ZeroSumDivide
            Thats what I thought when Limewire came out
          • ZeroSumDivide, on 04/03/2008, -2/+2@nullx42

            Limewire also blew chunks since day one.
          • ralphthemagi, on 04/04/2008, -1/+3It's not open source and there is no reason to believe it ever will be.

            If this was an open source project, it would have spun off from Pidgin or started as a new open source project.
    • webcrumb, on 04/03/2008, -2/+9I hope this gives the Pidgin devs a poke and gets them moving. I /know/ the devs aren't paid, but with the SoC etc. I'm sure much of the same functionality could be implemented.
      • iofthestorm, on 04/03/2008, -0/+8Yeah, I was thinking of writing a pidgin plugin for better facebook integration but then I found out one already exists but I couldn't get it to compile, and then I realized I don't know much about the pidgin plugin architecture so I'm learning the basics now. But unfortunately, the pidgin devs only work on stuff they're interested in and they honestly aren't interested in the same kind of stuff a lot of their vocal users are interested in (video/voice, social networking, although vv is actually not that useful for most people, whereas social networking is probably more useful).
        • estvir, on 04/04/2008, -1/+2I'd rather they put a low priority on social website integration, something I really do not care for with my IM program.
    • shredswithpiks, on 04/03/2008, -0/+13never used digsby but what I love about pidgin is it's oversimplified interface. I don't want it to look pretty. All I want is tabbed AIM/XMPP chat. That's absolutely all.
      • ZeroSumDivide, on 04/04/2008, -4/+4So use what works for you. I prefer a bit of polish on my chat clients.
        • djbon2112, on 04/04/2008, -1/+4Polish, or excessive unnecessary bloat.

          I'm all for Pidgin getting some more features (MSN personal message support, audio/video chat, etc.) but its interface is nearly perfect.
          • ZeroSumDivide, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Polish doesn't have to necessarily mean bloat. See also, Adium.
    • carrera594, on 04/04/2008, -1/+2I recently switched from pidgin to disby, I actually love it, AIM, Myspace(I know what your thinking), GMAIL, and Facebook. Its great but takes up a lot of memory. currently 104,088K memory usage, where as pidgin got about 30K to 40K for me.
    • madmack, on 04/04/2008, -0/+3"little" app ?
  • tdogg241, on 04/03/2008, -1/+106I'm gonna have to check out Digsby when I get home. Pidgin's starting to feel stale (mostly because of the minimalist UI), though I can't fault it too much since it worked better than Trillian ever did for me. Trillian became a bloated piece of ***** when I stopped using it several years ago, so I have no idea if it's gotten better since.
    • inbred, on 04/04/2008, -7/+4So, Pidgin is too minimalist and Trillian is too bloated? Make up your mind!
      • ThugThrasher, on 04/04/2008, -0/+4Y'know, it is possible to have something in between the two.

        1 is too small!

        800 is too large!

        well, then....why not go with 200?
        • inbred, on 04/04/2008, -4/+1Yes, what I said was mostly in jest.

          I'd go with 180 myself, though.
  • motang, on 04/03/2008, -1/+40Been using Pidgin/Gaim for many years and I started off with Trillian as my first multi protocol IM and didn't like it too much. Tried out Miranda for couple of days but quickly went back to Pidgin. But this Digsby seems cool will try it once there is a Linux version out.
    • SirPasta117, on 04/04/2008, -1/+3there already is a linux version. just an fyi
      • warkro, on 04/04/2008, -0/+4It's not out yet. The Digsby on Wine is unreliable. Native clients are better.
  • davingreenwell, on 04/03/2008, -2/+22Only one choice for the Mac really - and Adium is a beauty of one at that. Trillian coming to the Mac? What decade are they waiting for?
    • dpowre, on 04/04/2008, -2/+1trillion is on the mac.
      • Kypt, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Not yet its not. Its on alpha and hard to get it even if you are an alpha tester yourself (haven't been able to change my windows alpha account to a mac alpha one)
    • SirPasta117, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1dibsby is out for mac now as well
    • mapin0518, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Pidgin runs on mac os x as well. I'm using it as we speak.
      • SteveMax, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1But even Pidgin's developers tell people to use Adium instead. I see no reason why someone would use Pidgin instead of Adium on OS X (besides the obvious "because I can"), so, I ask you: why?
    • TheWorm, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2I used nothing but Adium when I had Tiger, but I tried using iChat again with Leopard and I really have no complaints. There's nothing that I miss from Adium.
  • pwnies, on 04/03/2008, -1/+6To be honest, I prefer smaller, lightweight clients. My current favorite for AIM is miniaim ( http://miniaim.net/ ), and on occaision naim as well when I'm on my linux boxes.
    • pizhole, on 04/04/2008, -1/+0whats the memory usage on this? lighter than pidgin?
  • marksman7328, on 04/03/2008, -2/+49I used to be a die-hard Pidgin fan. Used to be. Then Digsby came along and corrected everything that was wrong with Pidgin. Furthermore, the developers at Digsby are super friendly and actually implement your ideas. So far, just from posting in forums and voting for must-have tweaks, two of my ideas have been implemented - the do not show buddy list in taskbar, and the now playing functionality for away messages. This is the best supported app I have ever used and it is still in beta so the sky is the limit. I am very impressed with Digsby.
    • Bmarofsky, on 04/03/2008, -2/+7What exactly does Digsby do that Pidgin doesn't?
    • SuperMoses, on 04/03/2008, -1/+5Damn, I'm currently a die-hard Pidgin fan now considering Digsby.
    • WomensUnderwear, on 04/04/2008, -2/+3digsby is bloated crapware, more leaky than firefox, laggy system-draining garbation
    • warkro, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2Pidgin is more established than Digsby so there will be more developers working on Pidgin. There's not many people who post bugs or feature requests in Digsby so there is a tendency for these bugs and requests to be seen and implemented faster. Pidgin is a big project so it falls victim to bureaucracy and disagreements between developers.
    • KAMiKAZOW, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1> actually implement your ideas

      I had a look into their forums. It was asked to make Digsby open source but that request was denied.
  • leerayIG88, on 04/03/2008, -25/+9ICQ takes the cake.
  • xjonnyx134, on 04/03/2008, -3/+5problem with this is people like me who come by and do this 1) see which ones are being compared. 2) vote for the one I use. 3) if the one i use isnt present, vote for the one that works specifically on my OS and looks cooler
    • zongamin, on 04/04/2008, -0/+3don't worry about it, no one really gives a *****
      • jeriqo, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1Specially when you see Pidgin is #1.
        Come one, that thing who used to be gaim? The best client?
  • simplynix, on 04/03/2008, -4/+20Haven't seen Digsby, but will certainly try it out. IM, email AND social networking? That's just sexy.
    • jhuebel, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2Just installed it myself. Although I can't use it on my Macbook yet, it's found a happy home on my work machine (Dell laptop). I have to say, I'm pretty impressed so far. It takes a little getting used to, but it's highly configurable and looks very nice.
    • piXelatedEmpire, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Digsby is new to me too, and it certainly sounds promising.
    • condormcs, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1120,000k , digsby has love handles, and big ones at that, but some people are into that?
  • duckyinc, on 04/03/2008, -4/+6Trillian Astra is amazing, the latest build puts all free IMs to shame. If you don't have an account just go a torrent site or google it.
  • spect3r, on 04/03/2008, -9/+26Gtalk FTW!
    • quaunaut, on 04/03/2008, -4/+51 awesome service few people use FTL
    • theneb29, on 04/03/2008, -2/+5i 2nd that. Its the only one that i use now.
    • helliottlaw, on 04/04/2008, -2/+23rded
    • Jalh, on 04/04/2008, -2/+4no really , i think msn still leading the im clients. i would like to see Gtalk with a better interface and much more tools.
      • theneb29, on 04/04/2008, -3/+3i only reason i live gtalk is because of the absence of all the features available in msn or other bloated IM's.
        • Wartz, on 04/04/2008, -0/+3hear hear! I use gtalk whenever possible, but since I have tons of contacts on msn and aim, I have to use pidgen too.
    • peestandingup, on 04/04/2008, -4/+23 years & still no Mac client. ***** that. Even though I guarantee almost every Google employee uses a Mac.
      • blackjack75, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1I guarantee almost every google employee doesn't use Gtalk.
    • fatb0y42, on 04/04/2008, -3/+1eww
    • enterneo, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1only if it could be installed on linux
  • skinturtle, on 04/03/2008, -14/+9I don't see where any of these are as good as the native apps are such as MSN Messenger. I've tried Pidgin but I have found there are a lack of features in it. It's pretty much a step above a command line app.

    Sneegle geegle heegle (geek laugh)...Truly a geek app.
    • dragontail, on 04/03/2008, -1/+4If you have contacts in more than one native IM platform, you'll need to run multiple IM clients. For these cross-platform clients, you only need a single client, which saves memory. Also, MSN Messenger ain't too pretty on the eyes. Why settle for that when there are better ones on the market?
      • Macskeeball, on 04/03/2008, -1/+2For me it's not about the RAM. It's about not needing to worry about the protocol being used by the other person, and not having to deal with multiple status messages.
    • h3llscaper, on 04/03/2008, -5/+8Did he really just say MSN was a good native app?

      ...Really?
    • jhuebel, on 04/03/2008, -1/+5To be fair, multi-protocol clients do lack some features that native clients don't. For instance, webcam support is a biggie. However, i choose having all my instant communication in a single app over having webcam support any day.
    • moonguidex, on 04/04/2008, -1/+2MSN for Mac sucks big, hairy, balls.
  • Jo9100, on 04/03/2008, -0/+26We don't have the same definition of the verb 'to analyze'...
    • theragu40, on 04/03/2008, -2/+14See, nowadays, 'to analyze' means the same thing as 'to list'.
    • AntzNZ, on 04/03/2008, -3/+2I always think about anal, it's awesome.
  • BananaGrabber, on 04/03/2008, -3/+2It's been while since I've used pidgin/gaim. Does it still not let you see that message thing that tells you whether the person is typing atm or not? If not, is there a plugin for that?
    • webcrumb, on 04/03/2008, -2/+1It does that, you just have to enable the telepathy plugin.
      • webcrumb, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1OK fine, telepathy opens a window in response to the other person beginning to type as a new conversation.
    • lysdexic, on 04/03/2008, -0/+8The default install (on windows at least) lets you know when the other person is typing. No plugin needed.
    • Reziarfg, on 04/03/2008, -0/+6It has an icon indicating that the other user is typing now.
      • BananaGrabber, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2Oh, I must have missed that then. Thanks. I was used to aim where it just told you at the bottom the window. Could never figure it out on gaim..
    • GrantTLC, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1You can also setup pop-up style notifications using plugins. Can't remember what it's called, but it's there.
  • theAlice, on 04/03/2008, -7/+18Trillian is just a load of bloatware. Doesn't even deserve to make this list.
    • ExRe, on 04/04/2008, -5/+2How is trillian bloatware?

      It sucks, but it is one of the fastest loading apps I've used, and one of the simplest looking.
    • barnis, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1anyone else support sametime? trillian works for me as that is a critical feature
      • telvox, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Pidgin and Adium both support sametime, although loading groups from the domino address book can be a little flaky with Adium. We had to keep our macs at an older version of Notes that doesn't have the sametime integration so they are using Adium.
    • blackjack75, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1By bloatware I mean that it takes ages to load for something that's just supposed to sit there and receive text messages.
  • necromancer, on 04/03/2008, -0/+7I like Pidgin because it has an xfire plugin... but that is really the only reason I use it. Of course the xfire plugin just barely works, but I guess it is better than nothing.
    • qwertydvorak, on 04/03/2008, -0/+3would be nice if it worked with steam friends.
  • snareguy17, on 04/03/2008, -5/+15I call my bitches.
  • PubStomp, on 04/03/2008, -8/+9i prefer miniaim
    small 620 kb
    no ads
    and works perfect
    except for making chatrooms
    buts it perfect for on the go
    • serpentor, on 04/03/2008, -1/+8Not sure why you're being dugg down, I just tried it thx to your post. I love lite apps like this and utorrent.
    • pwnies, on 04/03/2008, -1/+3Man, it's a sad day. No one seems to like miniaim. I made a small plug for it near the top, but it's been ignored. People these days think pretty, flashy apps are better than smaller, simpler ones...
    • ExRe, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1Who has time to waste installing 5+ different messengers?

      Besides that, the last time I've gotten a message on AIM was probably well over a year ago...
      • Namaha, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1Get some friends.

        Also, why would you red a story about the 5 best IM clients when you haven't used any at all for over a year?
      • PubStomp, on 04/04/2008, -0/+0lol ownt
  • carl25, on 04/03/2008, -10/+4MSN ? i use it to send messages and check email. And games sometimes as well. Don't see what's special about any IM program
    • sexybobo, on 04/03/2008, -5/+5MSN has ads all over it. I dont know if it still does but when i used it 3 or so years ago they had ads with sound that would start to play even with it minimized.
    • alclone, on 04/03/2008, -2/+4Why is everyone digging him down? Remote Assistance ftw.
  • oderdigg, on 04/03/2008, -1/+11What about Kopete? I don't use Windows if I can get away with it because if I did.. I'd use MSN.. I prefer Kopete to Pidgin anyday...
    • gameforge, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2It seems like software reviewers who are open-minded enough to even consider Linux software will neglect all but their own desktop environment, if not neglect everything but GNOME because while not the only desktop environment with substantial usage, it is the default for Ubuntu and others and is highest in usage.

      But it's ignorant of the fact that Linux users commonly install at least part of the back-ends for both KDE and GNOME on their machines, and can therefore likely run Kopete with little issues no matter which desktop they use. It's also ignorant of the fact that with some additional software and libraries, Kopete can also run natively on OS X albeit with a different-looking interface.

      The only thing Pidgin has over Kopete is support for a few obscure protocols, which means nothing in most users' cases, and I agree it really should have been included in this list.
    • mGARANDEUR1, on 04/04/2008, -4/+2Kopete is garbage, it crashed for me so many times.
      • yacks, on 04/04/2008, -0/+3know of any other Linux im program with webcam support?
        • mGARANDEUR1, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1That's why I don't use linux- there are no decent programs for it.
    • estvir, on 04/04/2008, -1/+3Hopefully Empathy eventuates into a decent IM client. I never particularly liked Kopete.
      • GrantTLC, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Dugg for use of 'Eventuates' - I'm learning on Digg!
    • D14BL0, on 04/04/2008, -3/+2Kopete was a pretty nice client. Unfortunately, it seems that GAIM came along and did everything Kopete did, did it better, than then started doing more, while looking prettier.
    • agaudet, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1I prefer aMSN tis alot more like msn without the bloat :D
    • ahac, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Kopete should be on the list... or at least a honorable mention. It's a great client.
      I got the feeling the only reason why they didn't mention it is because there is no Windows or OSX version.
  • codyman, on 04/03/2008, -5/+8I tried Digsby and it just seemed to me to have "too much going on"... all I want is gtalk/aim support for simple chatting (no audio/visual) so adium on my macs / pidgin on my pcs works good for me...
    • AndrewDB, on 04/04/2008, -3/+1If you'd taken the time to look, it's skinnable, and almost everything is configurable.
  • rulezgetbent, on 04/03/2008, -0/+12Miranda probably did not make it because it seems really hard to configure and appears confusing when it is very first installed. After that though, I have loved it. It is lightweight, highly configurable, and there are tons of plug ins for it.
  • TheCheeks, on 04/03/2008, -6/+9I actually love iChat since its so integrated into OSX, tried Adium, it was nice but still stuck with iChat.
    • blurrie, on 04/04/2008, -0/+4i dunno why you are getting dugg down... i was going to say the same thing. i tried adium.. but it doesn't have viddie chat.. (though i don't really use it all that much) and it just didn't seem to fit the niche i want that ichat doesn't. since im strictly and aim user... ichat works great. looks great.. simple enuf... ima try digsby on my vista partition.. myspace/facebook sounds interesting.. but i don't think adium really beats out ichat.. if perhaps w/ adium 2 i'll be impressed...?
    • DeathJux, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1I, too, use iChat over Adium for OS X, mainly because AIM is my primary IM protocol.

      Check out Chax, it's a plug-in that adds a bunch of functionality that should be in iChat anyway.
    • jaisin, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1I didn't start using iChat until it was updated when Leopard was released. I used to use Adium, but I don't need to because iChat is good enough now. I use Pidgin whenever I boot into Windows.
    • sonicHeart, on 04/04/2008, -1/+0To hell with Adium-- nothing like doing shots over the interWeb in iChat

      *cheers*
  • psg188, on 04/03/2008, -0/+7I actually really like Skype.
    It's fast, easy, can copy+paste huge amounts of text into it.
    Very secure, easy to conference with, the voip is great.
    I know it sounds silly, but I also like the little pencil that writes when they are typing, and when they erase it shows such as opposed to just saying they are typing.
    • h3llscaper, on 04/03/2008, -1/+2I think they're working on getting Skype integration into Digsby, at least I think I saw that on their feature request forum.
  • xsquirrel378x, on 04/03/2008, -7/+2xchat FTW
    • webcrumb, on 04/03/2008, -1/+1Wrong protocol. And BitchX is far more utilitarian; leave it running inside a screen, run it off a remote system via SSH etc. etc.
  • ralphthemagi, on 04/03/2008, -7/+1Pidgin and Adium are open source. You never have to pay for them, and you'll never see ads.

    Meebo has ads... and it's starting to get more and more every day. Trillian wants me to pay for their pro *****, and Digsby is just waiting to get enough users so that they can spin off a pro versio,n or start spamming ads on your screen, or both.
    • ZeroSumDivide, on 04/03/2008, -1/+3Adblock Plus is your friend.
    • alclone, on 04/03/2008, -1/+4Have you gone anywhere where you don't have access to your own computer and needed to IM people? Meebo ftw cause you can do it from anywhere w/o installing software
      • ralphthemagi, on 04/04/2008, -0/+0Yeah, Meebo is great. I don't have a problem with Meebo.
  • Portezbie, on 04/03/2008, -0/+3Ever since I first heard of digsby a few weeks ago I have been following it and it is already a great program. I am confident that in a few more months once it gets a little more polished it will be truly awesome, its great even now. Its also apparently making its way to mac and linux at some point, but I get the feeling that might not be for a while. If you like very minimalistic aim clients try terraim or miniaim, I personally like terraim.
    • shaps776, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1Sooner than you think - we designed it to be cross platform from the ground up. Just launched for windows to make bugs more manageable. Once the windows version is stable/solid we will release the mac version.
  • peterkay, on 04/03/2008, -0/+93Why have I never heard of Digsby?
    • bumblefoot, on 04/03/2008, -1/+16its only been out a few months for windows,

      its good i love it :D
      • peterkay, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2I've downloaded it... man, it's awesome... now I can get AIM on Vista without it buggering up my system!
    • BebopBlues, on 04/04/2008, -2/+2because it's not called diggsby
    • asurroca, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1It's only been around for a little over three months, and most of those were spent in private beta.
    • TBoneFever, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2Awww, Windows only :-(
  • Emachine, on 04/03/2008, -7/+23I know it takes a *****-ton of resources, but I don't see anything wrong with MSN Live Messenger, it's pretty reliable, and everyone I know uses it. You can apply a "mess" patch, to remove ads, and clean up the interface by removing buttons you don't need.
    • 65daysofstatic, on 04/04/2008, -1/+4It's a Canadian thing, everyone over here uses it, so it's the de facto standard.
      • ukblacknight, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Everyone uses it in Europe too. Most people here (UK) won't have heard of AIM.
    • repick3, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2The problem I have with trillian/pidgin is that half of MSN's features don't work in them >_>
    • dopke, on 04/04/2008, -0/+0What's this "mess" patch? I also use MSN separate from pidgin because in pidgin, it lacks a lot of the features.
    • agaudet, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1aMSN better than mess
  • fxu1989, on 04/03/2008, -5/+13Still using msn :x
  • ileftfark, on 04/03/2008, -1/+4It's a bit fringe, but another vote for Kopete. Its like Pidgin in that you can access all your accounts simultaneously, but I like the interface better and it supports camwho... er, webcams.
  • digitallysick, on 04/03/2008, -1/+9I am happy with Adium, can't say that i have any issues with it.
  • kahrytan, on 04/03/2008, -2/+8Adium is everything you wish Pidgin was but the developers are to lazy to code. (pun)
    • TacticalPenguin, on 04/03/2008, -1/+4Adium is nothing without the core devs behind pidgin.
      • ThreeDee912, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1True, but libpurple (the library backitng both Pidgin and Adium) has lots of features, but Pidgin doesn't make good use of them!
        • 35263526, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1LIke what? I use both and TBH the only thing that stands out as a difference (besides the fact that one is an OS X binary and the other a Linux) to me is that Adium is nicer to look at, which in fairness to Pidgin is because OS X is nicer to look at and they both integrate with the OS look.

          I'm not calling you a liar, for the record, I'm genuinely interested if I've been missing out on some Adium features that I didn't realize existed.
  • mrguevara, on 04/03/2008, -2/+2Digsby looks cool. I used to use Pidgin, but it was a bit ungainly to use. The other thing I found was that everyone I kept in contact with was just using MSN anyways, so that's what I use now.
  • 000000001, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2interesting stuff.. their collaboration features must be tuned, as the demand/ use of whiteboards and shared workspaces increases online.
  • sirbeta, on 04/03/2008, -0/+4I wish Trillian didn't suck so bad. It has such bad support for AIM's Direct Connect that it's easy to have an error and not even know it, only to learn they've been trying to tell you something for an hour and Trillian just never let it through.
  • topace3000, on 04/03/2008, -0/+6Though the article exposed me to some new messengers, the amount of analysis was less than what I hoped for. They really could have done better. That being said, I look forward to trying digsby.
  • mordea, on 04/03/2008, -0/+4I was a longtime Miranda user and enjoyed it immensely, but now I just use Windows Live Messenger as I play the MSN games sometimes. Pidgin is a solid messenger, but its lack of true offline message support for the MSN protocol is a letdown.
  • bumblefoot, on 04/03/2008, -1/+4digsby should win followed by gaim/pidgin

    i got digsby when they just started the invite only beta and its good
  • fuckingusername, on 04/03/2008, -8/+6buried as inaccurate
  • oyster, on 04/03/2008, -3/+2Adium puts iChat to shame? Interesting, since it doesn't (at least last time I checked) support video. And if you're using YIM, you'll find that Adium doesn't tell you when a user is mobile, and therefore receiving your texts via SMS, which could be costing them money. YIMb3 does do that, so (out of courtesy for those I chat with) I'll stick with that. And until Adium does video, iChat is a must stay as well.
    • TremorX, on 04/03/2008, -0/+4iChat being limited to AIM and Jabber clients keep it from being universally useful, and what Adium excels at. Add to that the integration Adium has with the OSX Address Book and overwhelming level of customization and you've got a client that, well, puts iChat to shame. My only gripe is that it doesn't yet support Skype without having the normal Skype client running. And yes, it DOES track people who are mobile using Yahoo, I don't know what you're talking about.

      And not everyone (hardly anyone) uses video that much. Besides, word on the street is that it's coming to Adium soon anyway.
      • jonahan52, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Actually there is a video plugin for Adium. Mybeam sure it's flash but hey wth.
  • Thunderdome, on 04/03/2008, -1/+22Man, I remember when ICQ was cool.... and functional.
  • oxeneer, on 04/03/2008, -1/+5i can't believe trillian is on the list but miranda im is a honorable mention.
    what a disgrace
    • D14BL0, on 04/04/2008, -2/+1Miranda doesn't offer anything "special", though.
      • djchester, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1nothing special? are you kidding? what are you missing? Miranda have everything I need. It's highly customizable, low memory footprint and has support for IRC, ICQ and MSN (and more but this is what I use).
  • jawagas, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2Good List, but fairly useless descriptions.
  • Nubli, on 04/03/2008, -2/+2Been a Trillian bum for years, don't feel any need to change.
  • HaloZero, on 04/03/2008, -2/+5Digsby promises "there is always be a free version available to everyone." They're just another Trillian. Soon they'll start cutting features on the free version or only implement the nice stuff on the Pro.
  • SickBoy, on 04/03/2008, -1/+11***** I'm old. Still sticking with mirc.
  • Lancer010, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2Digsby & Rochester PWN
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