I've been using http://www.pidgin.im/ for quite some time now, but maybe I'll try out digsby.
You guys finally fixed this comment box! Yah!
Douglas Karr
· 9 months ago
We use Pidgin at work and it crashes on me quite often... not sure if it's a local issue or not. It's also pretty ugly, I think there's a ton of opportunity to make it a much nicer looking application.
I use Adium on my Mac and it's beautiful - I never seem to have an issue.
GAC
· 9 months ago
Being an Ubuntu Linux user, I find Pidgin fairly adequate for my needs. Kopete also has nice features, including built-in webcam support (though I never tested if it actually functions through the various services).
Note, you Facebook Connect is broken. When I try to comment it says "Please provide a valid email.
mashable
· 9 months ago
Thanks, we're looking into FB Connect.
Marco
· 9 months ago
Digsby might be a good and free alternative to Trillian, but compared to any other instant messaging application Digsby can make people blind. It’s "design" (am I allowed to call it design?) is terrible and what is the 15 MB size for? Even Miranda (sure, doesn’t look better) is not half as big as Digsby. So what’s the 15 MB for?
Hopefully, Microsoft will soon release it’s "promised" Multi-Protocol Messenger. I bet every second user will switch back to Windows Live Messenger.
adamralph
· 9 months ago
I use Digsby on Windows and I think it's great. I only have one complaint - it's rather resource hungry. In Task Manager it's always fairly near the top of the list both in terms of CPU time and memory usage. If it could only be made more lightweight it would be near perfect.
Anon
· 9 months ago
I just downloaded Fring, but I do not see support for Facebook.
Neal
· 9 months ago
Hi Anon. From fring's main Buddy List screen, go Options > Go To > Add-ons and scroll down the list, you'll find the Facebook Add-on.
ivan_filios
· 9 months ago
I use Adium on my Mac.
Mimzy
· 9 months ago
Wow! No love for Linux, I see.
mashable
· 9 months ago
Good point kind sir! We have an old IM list that covers some Linux ones, but definitely time for a refresher!
I use empathy on ubuntu and fedora. it don't support facebook , but it works very well with msn and jabber.
Mike Davis (mcdavis)
· 9 months ago
I've used Pidgin for quite a few years and I tried Digsby a long time ago and wasn't too impressed. It was heavily memory hungry, didn't queue up messages while away and had a few other quirks I wasn't all that impressed with. Through trying Miranda, Trillium, Digsby and others, I've always came back to Pidgin. It works and does exactly what I need.
Suyash Ramineni
· 9 months ago
I use pidgin on my Ubuntu. May be I should give digsby a try. My friends are using it. Also, you have it featured here :). I should definitely try disgsby.
fern chasida
· 9 months ago
I started out with Meebo and still use it but I also like Digsby. Now that Meebo added Facebook it's got that going for it as well. I'd like to see e-mail integration in Meebo (like Digsby has) and the option to send sms in Digsby. Meebo is great when you can't download a program but I like DIgsby's interface.
Jmartens
· 9 months ago
Good list. However, nobody has solved the problem of one IM provider talking to another IM provider. When will IM be like email where I can use gtalk and you use skype, but we still talk to each other?
As Digsby looks interesting. However, would be nice if they supported Skype and also if they used OAUTH instead of me giving them my password for every service I use.
Then there is all the crapware they wanted to install on my computer but thats another story...
Stone
· 9 months ago
Digsby asks for your username/password b/c they need it to bypass the TOS of the service. That's how they are able to offer Facebook chat. It's not an open API, so they actually log into Facebook on your behalf in a hidden browser window and scrape the information to receive and send chats. It's a little sketchy.
roguedeals
· 9 months ago
I'd like to see Skype added in the future too... that's the only thing Digsby is missing.
As for performance, Digsby may be a 'hog' but I haven't noticed it... and its running on my laptop which is a non-gamer standard one, so I don't understand the fuss about cpu and such. My laptop is usually the first computer to notice a performance hog.
aleh49
· 9 months ago
i use digsby..it nice and simple..
Oren
· 9 months ago
I still use Meebo. I find that I'm having to find my friends much less on the traditional IM's and much more easily on FB or Twitter. So something's got to evolve. Is there currently any tool out there that allows you to see if a person your following on Twitter is logged in?
AMANI
· 9 months ago
Use meebo at work since I don't want to download anything. Just waiting for meebo to get twitter online. Also need to find a good video chat service. Does digsby do that? Meebo should get that soon as well. Adium is my backup at home on my MAC. I am going to try the IM program for iPHone you recommended. I like the sound of that.
spryka
· 9 months ago
Digsby is great, its just a massive resource hog. I actually am trying to convince my contacts to move to skype.. ! :D
Valencio
Shayon Pal
· 9 months ago
you have covered almost every platform out there but conveniently ignored Linux. How come?
Hillel Fuld
· 9 months ago
I did not completely ignore Linux, mentioned in with Pidgin, but being as I have less experience with Linux, I figured I'd let the experts tell us their opinions in the comments. Hope you enjoyed the article.
Thanks for this great info. I use meebo all the time at work. Looking forward to try Digsby
Lori
· 9 months ago
I like and use iChat the most, it's my favorite UI, I also just started using Meglobe while I'm at work. It's almost like a web based, single window version of iChat...but the neat thing is that it also adds real time language translation into the mix and it supports aol, msn and yahoo.
The translations are OK, not the best but still good enough to know what's being talked about. They could use some tweaking but I guess you can edit them and improve them, like a wiki-translation.
Gadget Sleuth
· 9 months ago
I really like Trillian, it's quick and easy to set up, and nice to look at (for just IM combos without Facebook and the like).
Leonard Badi
· 9 months ago
We are about to launch a beta version of our Yambi platform, a unified communications for the SMB with the following components and features: - Email Accounts aggregation - IM (jabber) aggregation through transports - Jingle and SIP VoIP - Exchange connector (remote connection to non IMAP enabled Exchange with Thunderbird ...) - Clients synchronizer (between legacy mail clients and our server allowing their already downloaded data to be accessible anywhere, any time with any device.
Yambi data are server hosted, processed and accessed over the air from any Yambi clients (Desktop, Mobile and Broswer). Yambi server can be locally and remotely hosted by a single user or by a company. It is Window only at this stage. Please check our site for more info: http://www.yambi.com. If you want to beta test our desktop client, please email us at badi@yambi.com. Our mobile client is scheduled for beta testing at the end of this month.
tpp
· 9 months ago
I have only one complaint about Digsby. There is no portable version.
I run all my personal apps from a USB drive I carry with me everywhere. Because Digsby doesn't run from a USB drive, I'm using the portable version of Pidgin instead.
Conspicuous by its (almost complete) absence. Skype. It's really the only IM I still use.
ondro
· 9 months ago
Since I'm using only ICQ and GTalk protocols I use QIP. It's fast and doesn't need that much cpu and ram. I think Digsby demands really lot of CPU. Also Miranda is great, but you have to find the best look of it for you, because the default one is really ugly :)
vojski
· 9 months ago
I agree with ondro, Miranda has probably the ugliest default look, yet it still is probably the most customizable IM client I have ever seen. You can do almost anything with it - if you have time required for manual putting DLLs in proper directories... :) I stick to Pidgin - impressive amount of supported protocols and clean, convenient interface, although I had some stability issues on Vista. Problem with Digsby - it doesn't support some country-specific protocols like polish Gadu-Gadu (which is essential for me) or chinese QQ, while Pidgin does.
Maggie
· 9 months ago
any aggregators that support video chat with contacts from all protocols? i now use gchat for gmail and aim contacts, but gchat video doesn't work for my aim buddies.
Eytan
· 9 months ago
I use beejiveIM from beejive for my iPhone. It may be pricy, but worth every penny. By far the best...
Mike
· 9 months ago
Waiting for Digsby Mac. In the meantime I'm using Adium....but there's no email feature....something I would really prefer.
hilzfuld
· 9 months ago
I am with you, can't wait till Digsby Mac is released!
Steve
· 9 months ago
I have been using Trillian for ages but iChat has some great properties too, especially the translation elements. Trillian was the first I used that synced aol, yahoo, etc. One thing I check before using a new service is This digital security site. Trillian seems pretty solid though, no issues after almost a decade. Man I'm getting old.
pots
· 9 months ago
for mobile usage: s60 software www.fring.com supports lots of networks
FlintZA
· 9 months ago
I use Nimbuzz on my N95, I'll have to give Trutap a try as well-though it will have to work damned hard to improve on Nimbuzz :) Spot on with Digsby, it's an almost perfect chat and social network app. The one thing it's missing is an official, stable portable version.
Chris
· 9 months ago
for mobile, i think BEOFRENZ is not bad. support MSN, YM, it has RSS news also.
work on my old nokia phones too.
heard they are releasing a brand new version which support MSN, YM, ICQ, GTALK, AIM, FACEBOOK and QQ.
I use beejiveim on the iPhone it doesn't have facebook but I rarely use it since almost all my facebook friends use live messenger
Nicholas Laux
· 9 months ago
It's always a bit disappointing when I see these lists and see that Trillian has dropped off of them.
I've been using the Trillian Astra beta for about a year or so now, and feel confident that once it's released, it will reclaim its spot at the top of many of these lists. Currently it offers all the features mentioned in regards to Digsby, with the addition of some Trillian-specific bonuses, such as universal setup synchronization (install it once, and set it up, and then any other computers you install it on will be able to sync preferences and accounts automatically) and the new Astra protocol, with my pet feature of sending a screen capture in a conversation.
Mario
· 9 months ago
Wow this digsy stuff is really great. Never really liked IM aggregators but this one is even incorporating FB and other social networks.. Quite amazing!
etuleu
· 9 months ago
Another good (but still young) web based instant messenger is https://imo.im/
Joshua Kaiser
· 9 months ago
"So, unless you are on some really small and unheard of network, Adium pretty much has you covered."
What? Is Skype a "small and unheard of network"? Don't get me wrong, I think Adium is pretty good, but I'm really wishing it included an interface to IM over Skype as well.
Vince
· 8 months ago
Nice list. Started off with Trillian, but switched over to Digsby and so far it's working beautifully. I haven't had any serious problems with it. Good stuff.
All Comments
You guys finally fixed this comment box! Yah!
I use Adium on my Mac and it's beautiful - I never seem to have an issue.
Note, you Facebook Connect is broken. When I try to comment it says "Please provide a valid email.
Hopefully, Microsoft will soon release it’s "promised" Multi-Protocol Messenger. I bet every second user will switch back to Windows Live Messenger.
http://mashable.com/2007/08/07/instant-messaging/
As Digsby looks interesting. However, would be nice if they supported Skype and also if they used OAUTH instead of me giving them my password for every service I use.
Then there is all the crapware they wanted to install on my computer but thats another story...
It's a little sketchy.
As for performance, Digsby may be a 'hog' but I haven't noticed it... and its running on my laptop which is a non-gamer standard one, so I don't understand the fuss about cpu and such. My laptop is usually the first computer to notice a performance hog.
Valencio
http://www.anewmorning.com/2009/01/02/10-best-i...
(one of the first results of Google search...)
Anyway, thank you for trying :-)
The translations are OK, not the best but still good enough to know what's being talked about. They could use some tweaking but I guess you can edit them and improve them, like a wiki-translation.
- Email Accounts aggregation
- IM (jabber) aggregation through transports
- Jingle and SIP VoIP
- Exchange connector (remote connection to non IMAP enabled Exchange with Thunderbird ...)
- Clients synchronizer (between legacy mail clients and our server allowing their already downloaded data to be accessible anywhere, any time with any device.
Yambi data are server hosted, processed and accessed over the air from any Yambi clients (Desktop, Mobile and Broswer). Yambi server can be locally and remotely hosted by a single user or by a company. It is Window only at this stage.
Please check our site for more info: http://www.yambi.com. If you want to beta test our desktop client, please email us at badi@yambi.com. Our mobile client is scheduled for beta testing at the end of this month.
I run all my personal apps from a USB drive I carry with me everywhere. Because Digsby doesn't run from a USB drive, I'm using the portable version of Pidgin instead.
Also Miranda is great, but you have to find the best look of it for you, because the default one is really ugly :)
Spot on with Digsby, it's an almost perfect chat and social network app. The one thing it's missing is an official, stable portable version.
work on my old nokia phones too.
heard they are releasing a brand new version which support MSN, YM, ICQ, GTALK, AIM, FACEBOOK and QQ.
and faster performance
go to www.beofrenz.com from you mobile browser.
I've been using the Trillian Astra beta for about a year or so now, and feel confident that once it's released, it will reclaim its spot at the top of many of these lists. Currently it offers all the features mentioned in regards to Digsby, with the addition of some Trillian-specific bonuses, such as universal setup synchronization (install it once, and set it up, and then any other computers you install it on will be able to sync preferences and accounts automatically) and the new Astra protocol, with my pet feature of sending a screen capture in a conversation.
What? Is Skype a "small and unheard of network"? Don't get me wrong, I think Adium is pretty good, but I'm really wishing it included an interface to IM over Skype as well.