Comparison of instant messaging clients
Encyclopedia
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of instant messaging
clients. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date. External links lead to extensions that add a feature to a client.
s the clients can run on without emulation
or compatibility layer
s.
Note 1: Not a dedicated Mac OS X
but a POSIX
application: Will need an X server
and additional libraries installed, and will not look like a native Mac OS X application.
Note 2: Requires ANSI terminal. See e.g. Windows ANSI driver problem on how to load ANSI.SYS
.
Note 3: MSN Web Messenger can be used with a compatible browser and valid Windows Live ID
account.
Note 4: Numerous talk/ytalk clients exist for Win32; others are available under the Cygwin environment.
Note 5: Only available in the upcoming version QuteCom already available through Subversion.
Note 6: Generally only available as source, not as a ready-to-install binary.
Note 7: Client will only work on Mac OS X within a Unix terminal session (Terminal.app, Xterm, iTerm, or similar.)
Note 8: It is called Messenger for Mac, currently version 7.
Note 9: Working with Wine (software)
, not natively.
Many IRC
-only clients are listed at Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients
Note 1: Not really compatible with Jingle specification, does not work with all clients http://forum.psi-im.org/thread/5335
Note 2: Not compatible with Jingle specification and available for Windows only
Note 1: Plugin available
Note 2: Plugin available
Note 3: Interoperability with proprietary protocols can be achieved using server-side gateways (so-called transports) in XMPP
.
Note 4: Plugin available, but requires installed and running Skype.
Note 5: LAN and chat protocols supported for Miranda include NetSend, WinPopup, Novell Netware NCP, BattleNet, Vypress Chat, Quick Chat, and Walla Chat.
Note 6: Uses the AIM TOC2 protocol, which has fewer features than the Oscar protocol the official client uses. An Oscar plugin is available, but is still in early development.
Note 7: Plugin available
Note 8: Can only enter one ICQ/AOL IM account, so users who have both an ICQ number and an AOL IM account name, can't use both.
Note 9: Text-based messaging only; does not support Bonjour/iChat's audio IM functionality.
Note 10: Probably text-based messaging only, without support for Bonjour/iChat's audio IM functionality.
Note 11: Only trunk builds of Adium have IRC support, which is very limited.
Note 12: AIM interoperability: can send/receive to
AIM from an ICQ account.
Note 13: The support is optional. It currently isn't feature-complete,
but basic operations should be fine.
Note 14: Claims to be supported, though frequently fails to receive or deliver messages, and tends to crash when receiving multiuser chat invites or file transfer requests.
Note 15: Feature incomplete. Lacks service discovery and transport support, making user search, multiuser chat, connections to other IM networks via XMPP difficult or impossible.
Note 16: Yahoo! Messenger interoperability (some bugs): can send/receive to
Yahoo! Messenger from a Windows Live Messenger on-line account. No audio or video support as of yet.
Note 17: Windows Live Messenger interoperability: can always send/receive to Windows Live Messenger from a Yahoo! Messenger account.
Note 18: Using IBM Sametime Gateway you can establish a server to server communication to other IM communities.
Note 19: With plug-in, requires Skype to be running. http://eion.robbmob.com/
Note 21: With using third-party plug-in MirandaQQ developed by Stark Wong from Hong Kong
. http://addons.miranda-im.org/details.php?action=viewfile&id=3348
Note 22: Facebook Chat plugin for Pidgin
Note 23: No audio or video, and generally poor support for anything beyond the very basic in the protocol. So there is chat and smileys, but no Photo Album Sharing, SMS and the rest. Also, although the official client does have the ability to embed the communication through HTTP there is no such option for Gaim.
Note 24: among others, the privacy settings are not working
Note 24: Access is denied in the Yahoo network as it uses a deprecated protocol.
Note 25: Bitlbee does not provide access to IRC. Instead users connect to it as if it were an IRC server so Bitlbee and IRC will both be used from the same IRC client.
Note 26: Digsby does not support XMPP conferences.
Note 27: Nimbuzz does not support skype on the PC clients. Source: http://forum.nimbuzz.com/index.php?action=vthread&forum=11&topic=406
Note 28: Plugin available
Note 29: Plugin available
Note 30: Restricted to Google Talk only. [
Note 1: Plug-in system to add/expand the default features for the application, or protocol. Such as (but not limited to) Trillian chat client - Plugins.
Note 2: Third party add-ons which are usually not approved by the author of the application and are usually standalone. Such as (but not limited to) AOL Instant messenger - Third-party add-ons.
Note 3: Using third party add-on software. Consult the client's page for details.
Note 4: Proprietary; compatible only to itself.
Note 5: ICQ: SSL-encrypted direct connections; compatible between climm, Licq.
Note 6: Any protocol: GPG
-encrypted messages.
Note 7: Blowfish-encrypted direct connection; compatible only to itself.
Note 8: Newer version Pidgin: Pidgin-encryption plugin, older version Gaim: Gaim-encryption plugin. This plugin is compatible with Pidgin/Gaim clients only.
Note 9: Compatible with all XMPP clients implementing XEP-0027 (standard XMPP encryption).
Note 10: SecureIM plugin provides 192 bits AES Encryption, compatible only between Miranda clients, and implements XEP-0027: Current Jabber OpenPGP Usage.
Note 11: End to end encryption via "Off The Record
" (OTR) encryption. Adium: Plugin (built-in), Kopete: Plugin,
Pidgin: Plugin, Miranda: Plugin, climm: built-in since (mICQ) 0.5.4, Trillian Pro: Plugin
Note 13: While IMVU does not allow add-ons to extend the client, registered accounts can create new content for use inside the simulation.
Note 14: IMVU logs all actions perceived by the client, including actions that do not have a textual result, making the log difficult to use for reading of messages.
Note 15: WebCam Video, a plugin for Miranda IM, allows for video chat between two users of the Miranda IM client through a different method than whichever protocol they may currently use.
Note 16: AES256-encrypted direct connection; compatible only to itself.
Note 17: Voice clips are fully supported in the stable version, while the audio conference feature is available only in the development version.
Note 19: The IRC client connecting to the bitlbee server should take care of this feature.
Note 20: The Jabberwocky client allows scripting in the ARexx language
.
Note 21: Only for members of MobileMe
Note 22: GPG Encryption with Kryptonite plugin
Note 23: Since version 8.0
Note 24: Official support since version 10 build 10784
Note 25: Prior to version 8.0 Gadu-Gadu was written in Win32
Note 26: End-to-end encryption using a combination of Blowfish and RSA algorithms (official Encryption plugin)
Note 27: Depends heavily on libpurple
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
clients. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date. External links lead to extensions that add a feature to a client.
General information
Basic general information about the real time communication services: creator/company, license/price, amongst others.| Author / Creator | First public release | Type | Latest stable version | License | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adium Adium Adium is a free and open source instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports multiple IM networks, including Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, and XMPP. It supports many protocols through the libraries libezv , MGTwitterEngine , and libpurple... |
Adam Iser, Evan Schoenberg | 2001-09 | Multi-protocol | (Mac OS X) | |
| AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) AOL Instant Messenger AOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997... |
AOL AOL AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services... |
1997-05 | Multi-protocol | 7.5.8.2 (Windows) 7.5.5.7 Beta 2 (Win) 2.2.429 (Mac OS X) 1.5.286 (Linux) |
|
| aMSN AMSN aMSN is a free Windows Live Messenger clone. aMSN attempts to emulate the look and feel of Windows Live Messenger, and supports many of its features... |
The aMSN team | 2002-05 | Single protocol | 0.98.4 | |
| AQQ | CT Creative Team S.A. | ? | Single protocol | 2.2.5.10 | |
| Ayttm Ayttm Ayttm is a multi-protocol instant messaging client. It is the heir of the EveryBuddy project.- Services :Ayttm primarily supports one to one and group chatting on MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, AIM, XMPP and IRC. It also has support for sending rudimentary emails via SMTP, which may be used to send SMS via... |
Colin Leroy and Philip Tellis | 2003-04 | Multi-protocol | 0.6.1 (Linux) 0.4.6-17 (Windows) |
|
| BeejiveIM | Beejive, Inc. | 2007-06 | Multi protocol | 4.5 (iPhone & iPad) 2.6.0 (Android) 2.6.1 (BlackBerry) |
|
| BitWise IM | BitWise Communications, LLC | 2002-03-17 | Single protocol/Encrypted | 2007 (v1.7.3) | |
| BitlBee BitlBee BitlBee is a cross-platform IRC instant messaging gateway, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.BitlBee communicates with the user via the IRC protocol, providing a gateway to popular chat networks such as AIM and ICQ via OSCAR, .NET Messenger Service, Yahoo! and XMPP and the... |
Wilmer van der Gaast | 2002-08-09 | IRC Gateway, Multi-protocol | ||
| Bombus (software) Bombus (software) Bombus is a GPL instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol. It is written in Java, and runs on Java ME/MIDP capable cellphones, including Windows Mobile platform with installed Java ME virtual machine, or any other platform, where Java ME is available. It can also be used on Android handheld... |
Eugene Stahov | 2005-01-05 | Single-protocol | 2008 (v0.6) | |
| Bopup Messenger | B Labs | 2007-02 | Single protocol/Encrypted | 5.5 (October 2010) | |
| Brosix Brosix Brosix is a secure instant messenger that is designed to help users connect to each other. It uses 256-bits AES encryption in order to encrypt messages, thus ensuring their security... |
Brosix, Inc. | 2006-06 | Single protocol/Encrypted | 3.1.1 (January 2011) | |
| Centericq Centericq Centericq is a text mode menu- and window-driven instant messaging interface that supports the ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, XMPP, LiveJournal, and Gadu-Gadu protocols. It allows you to send, receive, and forward messages, URLs, SMSes , contacts, and email express messages, and it has many other... |
Konstantin Klyagin | 1999 | Multi-protocol | ||
| climm | Mattew D. Smith (up to ICQv5); Rüdiger Kuhlmann | 1997(?); 2001 | Dual protocol | 0.7.1 (March 2010) | |
| Coccinella Coccinella (Instant Messenger) Coccinella is a free client for the XMPP/Jabber-Instant-Messaging-protocol.The software is written in the Tcl/Tk language, and it runs under BSD, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, Windows and all other platforms that support Tcl/Tk. Mats Bengtsson published it in 1999, under the name Whiteboard... |
Mats Bengtsson | 1999-12-01 | Single protocol | 0.96.16 (1 December 2009) | |
| Cspace | Tachyon Technologies | 2008-02-22 | Single protocol | 1.27 | |
| Digsby Digsby Digsby is a freeware proprietary multiprotocol instant messaging application developed by dotSyntax, LLC. Digsby is written in Python and uses wxPython as its widget toolkit and WebKit for rendering... |
Steven Shapiro | 2008-01 | Multi-protocol | 2011 Beta | |
| eBuddy EBuddy eBuddy is a privately held company which owns a browser-based web and mobile messenger service supporting various instant messaging services. eBuddy was launched in 2003 under the name e-Messenger, located at www.e-messenger.net, before rebranding itself in 2006 to eBuddy.eBuddy supports Windows... |
Paulo Taylor | 2003-03-09 | Multi-protocol | 2011 | |
| eM Client EM Client eM Client is a Windows-based Communication Client for managing E-mail, calendars, contacts and tasks. It contains integrated Instant Messaging for XMPP and Skype integration.... |
E&S Software Ltd. | 2006-11 | Single protocol | 2.5 | |
| EQO EQO EQO is a downloadable mobile application that brings free instant messaging, low-cost mobile VoIP and free or low-cost text messaging to mobile phones from manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG, BlackBerry and HTC... |
EQO Communications | 2006-02-06 | Multi-protocol | 1.4 | |
| emesene Emesene emesene is an open source instant messaging client designed for use with Microsoft's .NET Messenger Service. It is a clone of Windows Live Messenger. emesene is the Spanish pronunciation of MSN, former name of Windows Live Messenger... |
Luis Mariano Guerra | 2006-05-24 | Multi-protocol | 2.11.9 | |
| Empathy Empathy (software) Empathy is an instant messaging client which supports text, voice, video, file transfers, and inter-application communication over various IM protocols.... |
GNOME GNOME GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software... |
2007-05 | Multi-protocol | ||
| Exodus | Peter Millard | 2002 | Single protocol | 0.10.0.0 | |
| Fire Fire (instant messaging client) Fire is the first instant messaging client for Mac OS X , that can access IRC, XMPP, AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, and Bonjour. All services are built on GPL’d libraries, including firetalk, libfaim, libicq2000, libmsn, XMPP, and libyahoo2. Fire supports OS X v10.1 and higher.The latest version... |
Eric Peyton | 1999-04-01 | Multi-protocol | ||
| Fring | 2007 | Multi-protocol | 2011 | ||
| Gabtastik | Mesa Dynamics, LLC | 2008-05 | HTTP | 0.2 | |
| Gadu-Gadu Gadu-Gadu Gadu-Gadu is a Polish instant messaging client using a proprietary protocol. Gadu-Gadu is the most popular IM service in Poland, with over 15 million registered accounts and approximately 6.5 million users online daily. Gadu-Gadu’s casual gaming portal had some 500,000 active users at the end of... |
Łukasz Foltyn | 2000-08 | Single protocol | 10.0 build 10784 (Now Gadu-Gadu) | |
| Gajim Gajim Gajim is an instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the GTK+ toolkit. The name Gajim is a recursive acronym for Gajim's a jabber instant messenger. Gajim runs on GNU/Linux, BSD and Microsoft Windows. Released under the GNU General Public License, Gajim is free software... |
Yann Le Boulanger | 2004-05-21 | Single protocol | ||
| GCN Global Communications Network Global Communications Network is an instant messaging client for Microsoft Windows. The software and service are provided free of charge, and supported by banner advertisements... |
Jason K. Resch | 2000-11-18 | Single protocol | 2.9.1 | |
| GOIM GOIM GOIM , is a free software instant messaging client based on the Eclipse Rich Client Platform. It uses the XMPP protocol for communication with an extended presence packet to transmit information about games a user is currently playing.Although GOIM runs on all platforms supported by Java and... |
Herbert Poul | 2005-08-16 | Single protocol | ||
| Goofey Goofey Goofey was an early instant messaging program for UNIX systems, written in the mid-1990s by Tim MacKenzie and Darren Platt. At the time it was seen as an improvement over the UNIX talk and mail programs and was popular with computer science students studying at Monash University in Melbourne,... |
Tim Mackenzie | 1990 (Early 1990s) | Single protocol | 2.08 | |
| Google Talk Google Talk Google Talk is a freeware voice over Internet protocol client application offered by Google Inc. The first beta version of the program was released on August 24, 2005... |
Google, Inc. Google Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program... |
2005-08-24 | Dual protocol | ||
| Gyachi Gyachi GyachE Improved program is a fork from Gyach Enhanced Yahoo! client for Linux operating systems intended for bug-fixes and further development that supports the Yahoo! Messenger Protocol... |
2006-01-26 | Single protocol | 1.2.10 (2010-07-25) | ||
| iChat IChat iChat is an instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its Mac OS X operating system. It has audio, video and screen-sharing capabilities as well as text messaging... |
Apple Inc. | 2002-08 | Multi-protocol | 6.0 (927) | |
| IBM Lotus Sametime IBM Lotus Sametime IBM Sametime is a client–server application and middleware platform that provides real-time, unified communications and collaboration for enterprises. Those capabilities include presence information, enterprise instant messaging, web conferencing, community collaboration, and telephony capabilities... |
IBM IBM International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas... , Ubique |
1998 | Multi-protocol—proprietary T.120, SIP, XMPP | 8.5; December 2009 | |
| ICQ ICQ ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, which was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company Mirabilis, then bought by America Online, and since April 2010 owned by Mail.ru Group. The name ICQ is a homophone for the phrase "I seek you"... |
Mirabilis Mirabilis (company) Mirabilis is an Israeli company that developed the ICQ instant messaging program, a pioneer of online chatting that revolutionized communication over the Internet.-History:... (AOL) |
1996-11 | Single protocol | 7.6; August 14, 2011 | |
| IM+ | SHAPE Services SHAPE Services SHAPE Services GmbH is a cross-platform independent software vendor and web-based services provider. The company develops instant messaging, social networking, productivity, entertainment, games, media and location-based applications for Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, BlackBerry, Windows... |
2002 | Multi-protocol | 5.4 (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad); Sept, 2011 9.0.2 (BlackBerry); Sept, 2011 4.1.7 (Android); Sept, 2011 |
|
| imo.im Imo.im imo.im is a free web-based service that allows users to connect to a variety of instant-messaging services and conduct text, voice and video chats from their browser... |
imo | 2007 | Multi-protocol | ||
| IMVU IMVU IMVU, Inc. is an online social entertainment destination in which members use 3D avatars to meet new people, chat, create, and play games created by Fydor Guthenschlag. IMVU has over 50 million registered users, 10 million unique visitors per month and three million monthly active users... |
Will Harveyfq | 2001-07 | Single protocol | 3.0 | |
| InSpeak Communicator InSpeak Communicator InSpeak Communicator is an internet chat program offering text, audio and video interaction.InSpeak is based and operated in Sunrise, FL, USA.-Usage:inSpeak is currently formatted for Microsoft Windows and currently does not support any other platform.... |
Mark Jaafar GLobal Unicom, LLC |
2004 | Multi-protocol | 9.1.1 | |
| Instantbird Instantbird Instantbird is a cross-platform instant messenging client based on Mozilla's XULRunner and the open source library libpurple used in Pidgin. Instantbird is free software available under the GNU General Public License... |
Florian Quèze | 2007 | Multi-protocol | ||
| Jabbin | Jabbin Team | 2005-12 | Single protocol | jabbin 2.0 beta | |
| Jitsi | Emil Ivov | 2003 | Multi-protocol | ||
| Kadu Kadu (software) Kadu is a Polish instant messenger using the Gadu-Gadu and Xmpp protocol. Kadu is a free software, open-source software and does not contain advertisements . Since 0.6.5 version there is a Windows port available... |
Kadu Team | 2001-08 | Multi-protocol | 0.9.2 | |
| KMess | The KMess team | 2002-04 | Single protocol | 2.0.6.1 (Februari 2011) | |
| Konnekt Konnekt Konnekt is a Polish instant messaging client for Microsoft Windows.Konnekt provides a basic client framework and an advanced plugin architecture... |
Stamina | 2002 | Multi-protocol | 0.6.22.137 | |
| Kopete Kopete Kopete is a multi-protocol, free software instant messaging client. Although it can run in numerous environments, it was designed for and integrates with the KDE desktop environment... |
Kopete Team | 2002-03-03 | Multi-protocol | 1.0.80 | |
| Licq | Graham Roff (up to v1.0) Jon Keating |
1998-06-22 | Multi-protocol | 1.3.6 | |
| Mail.ru Agent Mail.ru Agent Mail.Ru Agent is a free instant messaging program created by Mail.ru, one of the largest Russian web portals. Besides basic IM functionality , M-Agent also provides online gaming, peer-to-peer voice calls, video calls, low-rate VoIP calls, free SMS, automatic mail checking and... |
Mail.ru Mail.ru Mail.ru is the largest free e-mail service of the Runet. The business was originally owned by Port.ru, a company founded in 1998 by Eugene Goland, Michael Zaitsev and Alexey Krivenkov as spin-off from DataArt. It received an initial investment of USD 1 million from the well-known investor James... |
2003-05 | Multi-protocol | 5.0 (Windows) 1.0 (Windows Mobile) 2.1 (Java ME) |
|
| MCabber MCabber MCabber is a free software client for the instant messaging protocol XMPP with a text user interface based on ncurses. It runs on a range of platforms, including GNU/Linux, BSD, and Mac OS X. As free software it is freely available – including the source code – under the terms of the GNU General... |
Mikael Berthe | 2005-06-07 | Single protocol | ||
| MECA Messenger | ? | Multi-protocol | 5.2 | ||
| meebo Meebo Meebo is a social platform connecting users with their friends across the web. It began in 2005 as a browser based instant messaging program which supported multiple IM services, including Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, ICQ, MySpaceIM, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, CafeMom and... |
Meebo, Inc. | 2005 | Multi-protocol, web-based Web application A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are... |
alpha v19 | |
| Meetro Meetro Meetro was a multi-network social messenger with location-based services . It was compatible with AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, GTalk, XMPP, and ICQ. Meetro's features made it useful for meeting people with similar interests in a given area, as well as bundling multiple... |
Paul Bragiel & Samuel Stauffer | 2005 | Multi-protocol | 0.96 Beta (Win) 0.53 Beta (Mac OS X) |
|
| Mercury Messenger | Danny | 2003 | Single protocol | 2011 (v2) | |
| MindSpring MindSpring MindSpring Enterprise was a major Internet service provider headquartered in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Mindspring merged with EarthLink on February 4, 2000, with the company retaining the EarthLink name... |
EarthLink EarthLink EarthLink , is an Internet service provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It claims 1.94 million subscribers.- Business :EarthLink provides a variety of Internet connection types, including dial-up, DSL, satellite, and cable. Both dial-up and high speed Internet access are available... |
2006-04-03 | Multi-protocol | 1.0 (v53.0) | |
| Miranda IM Miranda IM Miranda IM is an open source multiprotocol instant messaging application, designed for Microsoft Windows. Miranda is free software distributed under GNU General Public License.- Architecture :... |
Miranda IM project | 2000-02-06 | Multi-protocol | ||
| Microsoft Lync (formerly Microsoft Office Communicator) | Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions... |
2005 | Single protocol | 2007 R2 (Windows) | |
| Microsoft Messenger for Mac Microsoft Messenger for Mac Microsoft Messenger for Mac is the official Mac OS X instant messaging client for use with Microsoft's .NET Messenger Service and is developed by the Macintosh Business Unit, a division of Microsoft. However, the feature list is limited in comparison to that of its counterpart Windows Live Messenger... |
Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions... |
? | Single protocol | 8.0.1 (May 3, 2011) | |
| MySpaceIM MySpaceIM MySpaceIM is the official instant messaging client for the social networking site MySpace.In 2009, a web-based client dubbed was released to all English-speaking countries, allowing users to interact with friends and non-friends alike to grow their network... |
MySpace MySpace Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors.... |
2006-05-09 | Single protocol | 1.0.754.0 (February 7, 2008) | |
| Naim | Daniel Reed | 1998-10-05 | Multi-protocol | 0.11.8.3.1 (2007-07-09) | |
| Nimbuzz | Nimbuzz B.V. | 2006 | Multi-protocol | 2.0.1 | |
| Ometheus | Ometheus | 2007 | Multi-protocol, web-based Web application A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are... |
alpha v0.1 | |
| Omegler | Flamefusion | 2009 | Single protocol | 1.001.003 | N/A |
| Pandion Pandion (software) Pandion is an XMPP client, developed by Dries Staelens and Sebastiaan Deckers.Pandion is developed as a Rich Desktop Application. This means it uses HTML, CSS and JavaScript to make up its interface and C++ for a backend. The backend embeds a web browser to host the interface and provides access to... |
Dries Staelens, Sebastiaan Deckers | 2002-08-05 | Single protocol | ||
| Palringo Palringo Palringo is a server-based instant messaging client for various platforms. It supports several protocols such as AOL Instant Messenger , Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, XMPP/Jabber, Google Talk, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ, MobileMe/iChat and Facebook IM.... |
Palringo Ltd | 2006 | Multi-protocol | ||
| Paltalk Paltalk Paltalk Messenger, or simply referred to as Paltalk, is an Internet chat service that allows users to communicate via instant messaging, voice and video chat. It offers thousands of chat rooms and the ability for users to create their own virtual chat room on any topic and category... |
Jason Katz | 1998 | Multi-protocol | 9.0 | |
| uTalk Utalk uTalk is a free client for messaging between phones and computers. With uTalk you can send free pictures, voice and text to your friends from any social network, chat in groups, and view your friends locations... |
Unio Group LLC | 2006 | Multi-protocol | Android v.4.0 | |
| Pidgin Pidgin (software) Pidgin is an open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple. Libpurple has support for many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log into various services from one application.The number of Pidgin users was estimated to be over 3... (formerly Gaim) |
Mark Spencer | 1998-11 | Multi-protocol | ||
| PopNote | Mike Raymond | 2004-07 | Single Protocol | 3.6 | |
| pork | Ryan McCabe | 2002-12-08 | AIM, IRC Gateway | 0.99.8.1 | |
| Proteus Proteus (instant messaging client) Proteus is an instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports multiple protocols through the libpurple library. It is written using OS X's Cocoa API.-History:Proteus was originally developed by Justin Wood, then in 2004 Defaultware took over development... |
Justin Wood, et al. | 2001-11 | Multi-protocol | ||
| Psi Psi (instant messaging client) Psi is a GPL instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the Qt toolkit. It runs on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and eComStation.Ready-to-install deb and RPM packages are available for many Linux distributions... |
Justin Karneges | 2001 | Single protocol | ||
| psyced | psyced.org Project | 1997 | IRC+XMPP+PSYC Gateway, Multi-protocol | 0.99 | |
| QIP Quiet Internet Pager QIP is a multiprotocol instant messaging client. It is a closed source freeware program originally developed by Ilgam Zyulkorneev. In 2008 it was bought by RosBusinessConsulting media group and named most popular RBC service in 2009.- Features :... |
Ilgam Zyulkorneev | 2004 | Multi-protocol | 9030 (Windows) 2120 (Windows Mobile) 2000 (Symbian S60 and UIQ3) |
|
| Qnext Qnext Qnext is a multi-protocol instant messaging service for Linux, Mac OS, Windows, and mobile devices. Qnext lets people connect to their digital content when they have access to the internet.Qnext desktop client runs on Linux, Macintosh, and Windows.... |
Qnext Corp. | 2010-06 | Multi-protocol | 4.0.4 Windows, Mac, Linux (June, 2010) 1.0.0.61 iPhone (June, 2010) 2.0.1.55 Mobile Web (June, 2010) |
|
| QuteCom | QuteCom | 2004 | Multi-protocol | 2.1.2 | |
| qutIM | Rustam Chakin, Ruslan Nigmatullin | 2008-06 | Multi-protocol | 0.2 | |
| Tencent QQ Tencent QQ Tencent QQ, generally referred to as QQ, is the most popular free instant messaging computer program in mainland China. As of July 11, 2011, the active QQ users accounts for QQ IM totaled 812.3 million, possibly making it the world's second largest online community. The number of simultaneous... |
Ma Huateng (马化腾) | 1999-02 | Single protocol | QQ2011 Beta 2 | |
| RealTimeQuery | realtimequery.com | 2005–2007 | Single protocol | v3.0 - 2007 | |
| Spark Spark (software) Spark is a free open source instant messaging client for the XMPP XML-based protocol for queuing and exchanging audio and text messages and subscribed users lists over the Internet. It is written in Java. It can be used standalone or as an add-on or plugin to certain Web browsers. It appears... |
Jive Software | 2006 | Multi-protocol | 2.6.3 (2011-07-01) | Apache License 2.0 Apache License The Apache License is a copyfree free software license authored by the Apache Software Foundation . The Apache License requires preservation of the copyright notice and disclaimer.... |
| Skype Skype Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system... |
Niklas Zennström Niklas Zennström Niklas Zennström is an entrepreneur best known for founding several high-profile online ventures with Janus Friis including Skype and Kazaa. More recently he founded the investment group Atomico and has become a significant figurehead for entrepreneurs in the tech sector.-Career:Zennström started... and Janus Friis Janus Friis Janus Friis is a Danish entrepreneur best known for co-founding the file-sharing application KaZaA, and the peer-to-peer telephony application Skype. In September 2005, he and his partner Niklas Zennström sold Skype to eBay for $2.6B... |
2003 | Single protocol | ||
| talk | Kipp Hickman | 1982 | Single protocol | 1.7 (BSD version) | |
| Tkabber Tkabber Tkabber is a GPL instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the Tk toolkit for the GUI. It runs on anything to which Tcl/Tk is ported: almost any X-based system , Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X.... |
Alexey Shchepin | 2002-07-03 | Single protocol | 0.11.1 | |
| Trillian | Cerulean Studios Cerulean Studios Cerulean Studios is a software house based in Connecticut, United States, notable for developing Trillian, an instant messaging client.It was founded in May 1998 by Kevin Kurtz and Scott Werndorfer. While still living at his parent's home, Werndorfer used $10,000 of his savings to start Cerulean... |
2000-07-01 | Multi-protocol | ||
| Trillian Pro | Cerulean Studios Cerulean Studios Cerulean Studios is a software house based in Connecticut, United States, notable for developing Trillian, an instant messaging client.It was founded in May 1998 by Kevin Kurtz and Scott Werndorfer. While still living at his parent's home, Werndorfer used $10,000 of his savings to start Cerulean... |
2002-09-10 | Multi-protocol | ||
| Trillian Astra | Cerulean Studios Cerulean Studios Cerulean Studios is a software house based in Connecticut, United States, notable for developing Trillian, an instant messaging client.It was founded in May 1998 by Kevin Kurtz and Scott Werndorfer. While still living at his parent's home, Werndorfer used $10,000 of his savings to start Cerulean... |
? | Multi-protocol | 4.1 | |
| VZOchat VZOchat VZOchat is a free software for making video calls and instant messaging. Unlike well-known Skype and other VoIP software, VZOchat is not based on P2P technology. Instead, it uses a central server to handle data flows... |
Visicron Systems | 2005-02-14 | Single protocol | ||
| Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD... (formerly MSN Messenger) |
Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions... |
1999-07 | Dual protocol | 2011 (Build 15.4.3502.922) (Windows XP/Vista/7) 1.0.6141 (Windows Live for Nokia S60 S60 platform The S60 Platform is a software platform for mobile phones that runs on Symbian OS. It was created by Nokia, who made the platform open source and contributed it to the Symbian Foundation. S60 has been used by mobile device manufacturers including Siemens mobile, Lenovo, LG Electronics, Panasonic... ) |
|
| Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions... |
2001-10-25 | Multi-protocol | 5.1.0701 (Windows XP SP2/2000/Sever 2003) | ||
| WTW | K2T.eu | 2008-12-20 | Multi-protocol | 0.8.0.1947 | |
| Xfire Xfire Xfire is a proprietary freeware instant messaging service for gamers, that also serves as a game server browser and has various other features. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows. Xfire was originally developed by Ultimate Arena based in Menlo Park, California... |
Xfire Inc. | 2004 | Dual protocol | ||
| Yahoo Messenger | Yahoo! Yahoo! Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,... |
1999-06-21 | Dual protocol | 10.0.0.1102 (Win) 2.5.3 (Mac) 1.0.4 (Unix) |
|
| Zephyr Zephyr (protocol) Created at MIT, as part of Project Athena, Zephyr was designed as an instant messaging protocol and application-suite with a heavy Unix background. Using the "do one thing, do it well" philosophy of Unix, it was made up of several separate programs working together to make a complete messaging... |
Project Athena Project Athena Project Athena was a joint project of MIT, Digital Equipment Corporation, and IBM to produce a campus-wide distributed computing environment for educational use. It was launched in 1983, and research and development ran until June 30, 1991, eight years after it began... |
1987 | Single protocol | 2.0 | |
| Sococo | Social Communications Company | 2008 | Multi protocol | 0.77.2.409 | |
| FaceTime | Apple Inc. | 2010 | Single protocol | 0.9- Beta | |
| Author / Creator | First public release date | Type | Latest stable version | License |
Operating system support
The operating systemOperating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s the clients can run on without emulation
Emulator
In computing, an emulator is hardware or software or both that duplicates the functions of a first computer system in a different second computer system, so that the behavior of the second system closely resembles the behavior of the first system...
or compatibility layer
Compatibility layer
A compatibility layer is a term that refers to components that allow for non-native support of components.In software engineering, a compatibility layer allows binaries for a legacy or foreign system to run on a host system. This translates system calls for the foreign system into native system...
s.
| Client | Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... |
Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems... |
Linux Linux Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds... |
BSD Berkeley Software Distribution Berkeley Software Distribution is a Unix operating system derivative developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1977 to 1995... |
Unix Unix Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna... |
Windows Mobile Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft that was used in smartphones and Pocket PCs, but by 2011 was rarely supplied on new phones. The last version is "Windows Mobile 6.5.5"; it is superseded by Windows Phone, which does not run Windows Mobile software.Windows Mobile is... |
Android | BlackBerry BlackBerry BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more... |
iOS | Other Other The Other or Constitutive Other is a key concept in continental philosophy; it opposes the Same. The Other refers, or attempts to refer, to that which is Other than the initial concept being considered... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adium Adium Adium is a free and open source instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports multiple IM networks, including Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, and XMPP. It supports many protocols through the libraries libezv , MGTwitterEngine , and libpurple... |
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| AIM AOL Instant Messenger AOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997... |
(1.5.286) | |||||||||
| aMSN AMSN aMSN is a free Windows Live Messenger clone. aMSN attempts to emulate the look and feel of Windows Live Messenger, and supports many of its features... |
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| Ayttm Ayttm Ayttm is a multi-protocol instant messaging client. It is the heir of the EveryBuddy project.- Services :Ayttm primarily supports one to one and group chatting on MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, AIM, XMPP and IRC. It also has support for sending rudimentary emails via SMTP, which may be used to send SMS via... |
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| BayanICQ | ||||||||||
| Beejive | ||||||||||
| BitlBee BitlBee BitlBee is a cross-platform IRC instant messaging gateway, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.BitlBee communicates with the user via the IRC protocol, providing a gateway to popular chat networks such as AIM and ICQ via OSCAR, .NET Messenger Service, Yahoo! and XMPP and the... |
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| BitWise IM | ||||||||||
| Bombus Bombus (software) Bombus is a GPL instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol. It is written in Java, and runs on Java ME/MIDP capable cellphones, including Windows Mobile platform with installed Java ME virtual machine, or any other platform, where Java ME is available. It can also be used on Android handheld... |
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| Bopup Messenger | ||||||||||
| Brosix Brosix Brosix is a secure instant messenger that is designed to help users connect to each other. It uses 256-bits AES encryption in order to encrypt messages, thus ensuring their security... |
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| Carrier (formerly Funpidgin) | ||||||||||
| Centericq Centericq Centericq is a text mode menu- and window-driven instant messaging interface that supports the ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, XMPP, LiveJournal, and Gadu-Gadu protocols. It allows you to send, receive, and forward messages, URLs, SMSes , contacts, and email express messages, and it has many other... |
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| climm | 2 | |||||||||
| Coccinella | ||||||||||
| Digsby Digsby Digsby is a freeware proprietary multiprotocol instant messaging application developed by dotSyntax, LLC. Digsby is written in Python and uses wxPython as its widget toolkit and WebKit for rendering... |
in development | in development | ||||||||
| eBuddy EBuddy eBuddy is a privately held company which owns a browser-based web and mobile messenger service supporting various instant messaging services. eBuddy was launched in 2003 under the name e-Messenger, located at www.e-messenger.net, before rebranding itself in 2006 to eBuddy.eBuddy supports Windows... |
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| eM Client EM Client eM Client is a Windows-based Communication Client for managing E-mail, calendars, contacts and tasks. It contains integrated Instant Messaging for XMPP and Skype integration.... |
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| emesene Emesene emesene is an open source instant messaging client designed for use with Microsoft's .NET Messenger Service. It is a clone of Windows Live Messenger. emesene is the Spanish pronunciation of MSN, former name of Windows Live Messenger... |
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| Empathy Empathy (software) Empathy is an instant messaging client which supports text, voice, video, file transfers, and inter-application communication over various IM protocols.... |
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| EQO EQO EQO is a downloadable mobile application that brings free instant messaging, low-cost mobile VoIP and free or low-cost text messaging to mobile phones from manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG, BlackBerry and HTC... |
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| Exodus | ||||||||||
| FaceTime FaceTime FaceTime is a video calling software application and related protocol developed by Apple for supported mobile devices running the iOS, in addition to Macintosh computers running Mac OS X 10.6.6 and higher... |
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| Fire Fire (instant messaging client) Fire is the first instant messaging client for Mac OS X , that can access IRC, XMPP, AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, and Bonjour. All services are built on GPL’d libraries, including firetalk, libfaim, libicq2000, libmsn, XMPP, and libyahoo2. Fire supports OS X v10.1 and higher.The latest version... |
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| Fring | ||||||||||
| Gadu-Gadu Gadu-Gadu Gadu-Gadu is a Polish instant messaging client using a proprietary protocol. Gadu-Gadu is the most popular IM service in Poland, with over 15 million registered accounts and approximately 6.5 million users online daily. Gadu-Gadu’s casual gaming portal had some 500,000 active users at the end of... |
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| Gajim Gajim Gajim is an instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the GTK+ toolkit. The name Gajim is a recursive acronym for Gajim's a jabber instant messenger. Gajim runs on GNU/Linux, BSD and Microsoft Windows. Released under the GNU General Public License, Gajim is free software... |
1 | |||||||||
| GCN Global Communications Network Global Communications Network is an instant messaging client for Microsoft Windows. The software and service are provided free of charge, and supported by banner advertisements... |
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| GOIM GOIM GOIM , is a free software instant messaging client based on the Eclipse Rich Client Platform. It uses the XMPP protocol for communication with an extended presence packet to transmit information about games a user is currently playing.Although GOIM runs on all platforms supported by Java and... |
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| Goofey Goofey Goofey was an early instant messaging program for UNIX systems, written in the mid-1990s by Tim MacKenzie and Darren Platt. At the time it was seen as an improvement over the UNIX talk and mail programs and was popular with computer science students studying at Monash University in Melbourne,... 6 |
7 | |||||||||
| Google Talk Google Talk Google Talk is a freeware voice over Internet protocol client application offered by Google Inc. The first beta version of the program was released on August 24, 2005... |
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| Gyachi Gyachi GyachE Improved program is a fork from Gyach Enhanced Yahoo! client for Linux operating systems intended for bug-fixes and further development that supports the Yahoo! Messenger Protocol... |
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| IBM Lotus Sametime IBM Lotus Sametime IBM Sametime is a client–server application and middleware platform that provides real-time, unified communications and collaboration for enterprises. Those capabilities include presence information, enterprise instant messaging, web conferencing, community collaboration, and telephony capabilities... |
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| iChat IChat iChat is an instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its Mac OS X operating system. It has audio, video and screen-sharing capabilities as well as text messaging... |
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| ICQ ICQ ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, which was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company Mirabilis, then bought by America Online, and since April 2010 owned by Mail.ru Group. The name ICQ is a homophone for the phrase "I seek you"... |
(3.4.23) | |||||||||
| IM+ | ||||||||||
| imo.im | ||||||||||
| InSpeak Communicator InSpeak Communicator InSpeak Communicator is an internet chat program offering text, audio and video interaction.InSpeak is based and operated in Sunrise, FL, USA.-Usage:inSpeak is currently formatted for Microsoft Windows and currently does not support any other platform.... |
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| IMVU IMVU IMVU, Inc. is an online social entertainment destination in which members use 3D avatars to meet new people, chat, create, and play games created by Fydor Guthenschlag. IMVU has over 50 million registered users, 10 million unique visitors per month and three million monthly active users... |
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| Instan-t | ||||||||||
| Instantbird Instantbird Instantbird is a cross-platform instant messenging client based on Mozilla's XULRunner and the open source library libpurple used in Pidgin. Instantbird is free software available under the GNU General Public License... |
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| Jabberwocky Jabberwocky (disambiguation) "Jabberwocky" is an 1872 nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, about an encounter between a young boy and a monster called the Jabberwock.Jabberwocky or Jabberwock may also refer to:-Films and television:... |
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| Jabiru Jabiru The Jabiru is a large stork found in the Americas from Mexico to Argentina, except west of the Andes. It is most common in the Pantanal region of Brazil and the Eastern Chaco region of Paraguay. It is the only member of the genus Jabiru... |
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| JClaim JClaim JClaim was released for first public use on the 3rd August 2007. It is a multiprotocol instant messaging application for any OS supporting Java 1.5 or better... |
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| Jitsi | ||||||||||
| Kadu Kadu (software) Kadu is a Polish instant messenger using the Gadu-Gadu and Xmpp protocol. Kadu is a free software, open-source software and does not contain advertisements . Since 0.6.5 version there is a Windows port available... |
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| KMess | ||||||||||
| Kopete Kopete Kopete is a multi-protocol, free software instant messaging client. Although it can run in numerous environments, it was designed for and integrates with the KDE desktop environment... |
1 | |||||||||
| LiveProfile LiveProfile LiveProfile is a cross-platform mobile messenger and mobile social network, owned and operated by LiveProfile Inc., for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. LiveProfile includes features such as sending messages, photos, videos, post status updates, customizing your profile and set... |
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| Licq | ||||||||||
| Mail.ru Agent Mail.ru Agent Mail.Ru Agent is a free instant messaging program created by Mail.ru, one of the largest Russian web portals. Besides basic IM functionality , M-Agent also provides online gaming, peer-to-peer voice calls, video calls, low-rate VoIP calls, free SMS, automatic mail checking and... |
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| MCabber MCabber MCabber is a free software client for the instant messaging protocol XMPP with a text user interface based on ncurses. It runs on a range of platforms, including GNU/Linux, BSD, and Mac OS X. As free software it is freely available – including the source code – under the terms of the GNU General... |
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| MECA Messenger | ||||||||||
| meebo Meebo Meebo is a social platform connecting users with their friends across the web. It began in 2005 as a browser based instant messaging program which supported multiple IM services, including Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, ICQ, MySpaceIM, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, CafeMom and... |
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| Mercury Messenger | ||||||||||
| Microsoft Lync (formerly Microsoft Office Communicator) | ||||||||||
| Microsoft Messenger for Mac Microsoft Messenger for Mac Microsoft Messenger for Mac is the official Mac OS X instant messaging client for use with Microsoft's .NET Messenger Service and is developed by the Macintosh Business Unit, a division of Microsoft. However, the feature list is limited in comparison to that of its counterpart Windows Live Messenger... |
3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||||||
| MindSpring MindSpring MindSpring Enterprise was a major Internet service provider headquartered in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Mindspring merged with EarthLink on February 4, 2000, with the company retaining the EarthLink name... |
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| Miranda IM Miranda IM Miranda IM is an open source multiprotocol instant messaging application, designed for Microsoft Windows. Miranda is free software distributed under GNU General Public License.- Architecture :... |
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| MSNP-Sharp | ||||||||||
| Mundu IM | ||||||||||
| MySpaceIM MySpaceIM MySpaceIM is the official instant messaging client for the social networking site MySpace.In 2009, a web-based client dubbed was released to all English-speaking countries, allowing users to interact with friends and non-friends alike to grow their network... |
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| naim | ||||||||||
| Nimbuzz | ||||||||||
| OctroTalk | ||||||||||
| ooVoo | ||||||||||
| Palringo Palringo Palringo is a server-based instant messaging client for various platforms. It supports several protocols such as AOL Instant Messenger , Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, XMPP/Jabber, Google Talk, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ, MobileMe/iChat and Facebook IM.... |
9 | |||||||||
| Paltalk Paltalk Paltalk Messenger, or simply referred to as Paltalk, is an Internet chat service that allows users to communicate via instant messaging, voice and video chat. It offers thousands of chat rooms and the ability for users to create their own virtual chat room on any topic and category... |
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| Pandion Pandion (software) Pandion is an XMPP client, developed by Dries Staelens and Sebastiaan Deckers.Pandion is developed as a Rich Desktop Application. This means it uses HTML, CSS and JavaScript to make up its interface and C++ for a backend. The backend embeds a web browser to host the interface and provides access to... |
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| Pidgin Pidgin (software) Pidgin is an open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple. Libpurple has support for many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log into various services from one application.The number of Pidgin users was estimated to be over 3... (formerly Gaim) |
1 | |||||||||
| uTalk Utalk uTalk is a free client for messaging between phones and computers. With uTalk you can send free pictures, voice and text to your friends from any social network, chat in groups, and view your friends locations... |
9 | |||||||||
| PlayXpert PlayXpert PLAYXPERT is an in-game tool set targeted towards gamers. It was built by former Xfire users, who felt it could use improvement. It features several in-game widgets, such as multi-protocol instant messaging, web browsing, a media manager, and others, all of which can be opened in-game, eliminating... |
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| PopNote | ||||||||||
| pork | ||||||||||
| Proteus Proteus (instant messaging client) Proteus is an instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports multiple protocols through the libpurple library. It is written using OS X's Cocoa API.-History:Proteus was originally developed by Justin Wood, then in 2004 Defaultware took over development... |
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| Psi Psi (instant messaging client) Psi is a GPL instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the Qt toolkit. It runs on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and eComStation.Ready-to-install deb and RPM packages are available for many Linux distributions... |
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| psyced | ||||||||||
| QIP Quiet Internet Pager QIP is a multiprotocol instant messaging client. It is a closed source freeware program originally developed by Ilgam Zyulkorneev. In 2008 it was bought by RosBusinessConsulting media group and named most popular RBC service in 2009.- Features :... |
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| Qnext Qnext Qnext is a multi-protocol instant messaging service for Linux, Mac OS, Windows, and mobile devices. Qnext lets people connect to their digital content when they have access to the internet.Qnext desktop client runs on Linux, Macintosh, and Windows.... |
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| QQ Tencent QQ Tencent QQ, generally referred to as QQ, is the most popular free instant messaging computer program in mainland China. As of July 11, 2011, the active QQ users accounts for QQ IM totaled 812.3 million, possibly making it the world's second largest online community. The number of simultaneous... |
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| Quicksilver | ||||||||||
| QuteCom | 5 | |||||||||
| qutIM | ||||||||||
| RealTimeQuery | ||||||||||
| Steam Friends | ||||||||||
| Skype Skype Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system... |
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| Sococo | ||||||||||
| talk | 4 | |||||||||
| Tkabber Tkabber Tkabber is a GPL instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the Tk toolkit for the GUI. It runs on anything to which Tcl/Tk is ported: almost any X-based system , Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X.... |
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| Trillian | ||||||||||
| VZOchat VZOchat VZOchat is a free software for making video calls and instant messaging. Unlike well-known Skype and other VoIP software, VZOchat is not based on P2P technology. Instead, it uses a central server to handle data flows... |
||||||||||
| Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD... |
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| (XP) | 8 | |||||||||
| WTW | ||||||||||
| Xfire Xfire Xfire is a proprietary freeware instant messaging service for gamers, that also serves as a game server browser and has various other features. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows. Xfire was originally developed by Ultimate Arena based in Menlo Park, California... |
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| VoxOx | ||||||||||
| Yahoo Messenger | ||||||||||
| Ya.Online | ||||||||||
| Zephyr Zephyr (protocol) Created at MIT, as part of Project Athena, Zephyr was designed as an instant messaging protocol and application-suite with a heavy Unix background. Using the "do one thing, do it well" philosophy of Unix, it was made up of several separate programs working together to make a complete messaging... |
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| Client | Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... |
Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems... |
Linux Linux Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds... |
BSD Berkeley Software Distribution Berkeley Software Distribution is a Unix operating system derivative developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1977 to 1995... |
Unix Unix Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna... |
Windows Mobile Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft that was used in smartphones and Pocket PCs, but by 2011 was rarely supplied on new phones. The last version is "Windows Mobile 6.5.5"; it is superseded by Windows Phone, which does not run Windows Mobile software.Windows Mobile is... |
Android | BlackBerry BlackBerry BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more... |
iOS | Other Other The Other or Constitutive Other is a key concept in continental philosophy; it opposes the Same. The Other refers, or attempts to refer, to that which is Other than the initial concept being considered... |
Note 1: Not a dedicated Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
but a POSIX
POSIX
POSIX , an acronym for "Portable Operating System Interface", is a family of standards specified by the IEEE for maintaining compatibility between operating systems...
application: Will need an X server
X Window System
The X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...
and additional libraries installed, and will not look like a native Mac OS X application.
Note 2: Requires ANSI terminal. See e.g. Windows ANSI driver problem on how to load ANSI.SYS
ANSI.SYS
ANSI.SYS is a device driver in the DOS operating system that provides extra console functions through ANSI escape sequences. It is partially based upon a subset of the text terminal control standard proposed by the ANSI X3L2 Technical Committee on Codes and Character Sets .-Usage:To use ANSI.SYS...
.
Note 3: MSN Web Messenger can be used with a compatible browser and valid Windows Live ID
Windows Live ID
Windows Live ID is a single sign-on web service developed and provided by Microsoft that allows users to log in to many websites using one account...
account.
Note 4: Numerous talk/ytalk clients exist for Win32; others are available under the Cygwin environment.
Note 5: Only available in the upcoming version QuteCom already available through Subversion.
Note 6: Generally only available as source, not as a ready-to-install binary.
Note 7: Client will only work on Mac OS X within a Unix terminal session (Terminal.app, Xterm, iTerm, or similar.)
Note 8: It is called Messenger for Mac, currently version 7.
Note 9: Working with Wine (software)
Wine (software)
Wine is a free software application that aims to allow computer programs written for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. Wine also provides a software library, known as Winelib, against which developers can compile Windows applications to help port them to Unix-like...
, not natively.
Single protocol clients
- aMSNAMSNaMSN is a free Windows Live Messenger clone. aMSN attempts to emulate the look and feel of Windows Live Messenger, and supports many of its features...
- MSNP - BitWise IM
- Bopup Messenger
- BrosixBrosixBrosix is a secure instant messenger that is designed to help users connect to each other. It uses 256-bits AES encryption in order to encrypt messages, thus ensuring their security...
- eM ClientEM ClienteM Client is a Windows-based Communication Client for managing E-mail, calendars, contacts and tasks. It contains integrated Instant Messaging for XMPP and Skype integration....
- Gale
- GoofeyGoofeyGoofey was an early instant messaging program for UNIX systems, written in the mid-1990s by Tim MacKenzie and Darren Platt. At the time it was seen as an improvement over the UNIX talk and mail programs and was popular with computer science students studying at Monash University in Melbourne,...
- Google TalkGoogle TalkGoogle Talk is a freeware voice over Internet protocol client application offered by Google Inc. The first beta version of the program was released on August 24, 2005...
- GyachiGyachiGyachE Improved program is a fork from Gyach Enhanced Yahoo! client for Linux operating systems intended for bug-fixes and further development that supports the Yahoo! Messenger Protocol...
- KMess - MSNP
- Mail.ru AgentMail.ru AgentMail.Ru Agent is a free instant messaging program created by Mail.ru, one of the largest Russian web portals. Besides basic IM functionality , M-Agent also provides online gaming, peer-to-peer voice calls, video calls, low-rate VoIP calls, free SMS, automatic mail checking and...
- Mercury Messenger - MSNP
- Microsoft Messenger for MacMicrosoft Messenger for MacMicrosoft Messenger for Mac is the official Mac OS X instant messaging client for use with Microsoft's .NET Messenger Service and is developed by the Macintosh Business Unit, a division of Microsoft. However, the feature list is limited in comparison to that of its counterpart Windows Live Messenger...
- MSNP - MSNP-Sharp - MSNP
- NateOnNateNate is a South Korean web portal, developed by SK Communications. In 2003, Nate acquired the online community service Cyworld, and in 2004, it achieved first place in local page views with a total of 3.8 million, surpassing rival Daum for the first time....
- SkypeSkypeSkype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
- Tencent QQTencent QQTencent QQ, generally referred to as QQ, is the most popular free instant messaging computer program in mainland China. As of July 11, 2011, the active QQ users accounts for QQ IM totaled 812.3 million, possibly making it the world's second largest online community. The number of simultaneous...
- TerraIMTerraIMTerraIM is a free, lightweight, cross-platform AOL Instant Messenger client, supporting most standard features of AIM's OSCAR protocol. One notable exception is the lack of Direct Connect support, which TerraIM compensates for with its file sending and download manager. Some features include...
- VZOchatVZOchatVZOchat is a free software for making video calls and instant messaging. Unlike well-known Skype and other VoIP software, VZOchat is not based on P2P technology. Instead, it uses a central server to handle data flows...
- ZephyrZephyr (protocol)Created at MIT, as part of Project Athena, Zephyr was designed as an instant messaging protocol and application-suite with a heavy Unix background. Using the "do one thing, do it well" philosophy of Unix, it was made up of several separate programs working together to make a complete messaging...
Many IRC
Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...
-only clients are listed at Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients
Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients
The following tables compare general and technical information between a number of IRC client programs. Please see the individual products articles for further information.- General :...
XMPP clients
| Client | Instant messaging | Transports | File transfer | Jingle (voice) Jingle (protocol) Jingle is an extension to the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol . It implements peer-to-peer session control for multimedia interactions such as in Voice over IP or videoconferencing communications. It was designed by Google and the XMPP Standards Foundation. The multimedia streams are... |
Jingle (video) Jingle (protocol) Jingle is an extension to the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol . It implements peer-to-peer session control for multimedia interactions such as in Voice over IP or videoconferencing communications. It was designed by Google and the XMPP Standards Foundation. The multimedia streams are... |
Cryptography (Text) | Cryptography (Voice) | OAuth for Client Authorization |
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| Adium Adium Adium is a free and open source instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports multiple IM networks, including Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, and XMPP. It supports many protocols through the libraries libezv , MGTwitterEngine , and libpurple... |
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| Bombus Bombus (software) Bombus is a GPL instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol. It is written in Java, and runs on Java ME/MIDP capable cellphones, including Windows Mobile platform with installed Java ME virtual machine, or any other platform, where Java ME is available. It can also be used on Android handheld... |
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| Candy | ||||||||
| Coccinella | ||||||||
| eM Client EM Client eM Client is a Windows-based Communication Client for managing E-mail, calendars, contacts and tasks. It contains integrated Instant Messaging for XMPP and Skype integration.... |
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| Empathy Empathy (software) Empathy is an instant messaging client which supports text, voice, video, file transfers, and inter-application communication over various IM protocols.... |
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| Exodus | ||||||||
| Gajim Gajim Gajim is an instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the GTK+ toolkit. The name Gajim is a recursive acronym for Gajim's a jabber instant messenger. Gajim runs on GNU/Linux, BSD and Microsoft Windows. Released under the GNU General Public License, Gajim is free software... |
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| Global Communications Network Global Communications Network Global Communications Network is an instant messaging client for Microsoft Windows. The software and service are provided free of charge, and supported by banner advertisements... |
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| GOIM GOIM GOIM , is a free software instant messaging client based on the Eclipse Rich Client Platform. It uses the XMPP protocol for communication with an extended presence packet to transmit information about games a user is currently playing.Although GOIM runs on all platforms supported by Java and... |
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| Google Talk Google Talk Google Talk is a freeware voice over Internet protocol client application offered by Google Inc. The first beta version of the program was released on August 24, 2005... (Gmail) |
2 | 2 | ||||||
| Google Talk Google Talk Google Talk is a freeware voice over Internet protocol client application offered by Google Inc. The first beta version of the program was released on August 24, 2005... (standalone) |
1 | |||||||
| iChat IChat iChat is an instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its Mac OS X operating system. It has audio, video and screen-sharing capabilities as well as text messaging... |
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| Jappix | ||||||||
| Jitsi | ||||||||
| Kadu | ||||||||
| MCabber MCabber MCabber is a free software client for the instant messaging protocol XMPP with a text user interface based on ncurses. It runs on a range of platforms, including GNU/Linux, BSD, and Mac OS X. As free software it is freely available – including the source code – under the terms of the GNU General... |
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| MindSpring MindSpring MindSpring Enterprise was a major Internet service provider headquartered in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Mindspring merged with EarthLink on February 4, 2000, with the company retaining the EarthLink name... |
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| Nimbuzz | ||||||||
| Pandion Pandion (software) Pandion is an XMPP client, developed by Dries Staelens and Sebastiaan Deckers.Pandion is developed as a Rich Desktop Application. This means it uses HTML, CSS and JavaScript to make up its interface and C++ for a backend. The backend embeds a web browser to host the interface and provides access to... |
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| Pidgin Pidgin (software) Pidgin is an open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple. Libpurple has support for many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log into various services from one application.The number of Pidgin users was estimated to be over 3... |
(via plugins) | |||||||
| Psi Psi (instant messaging client) Psi is a GPL instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the Qt toolkit. It runs on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and eComStation.Ready-to-install deb and RPM packages are available for many Linux distributions... |
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| psyced | ||||||||
| Quicksilver | ||||||||
| Tkabber Tkabber Tkabber is a GPL instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the Tk toolkit for the GUI. It runs on anything to which Tcl/Tk is ported: almost any X-based system , Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X.... |
Note 1: Not really compatible with Jingle specification, does not work with all clients http://forum.psi-im.org/thread/5335
Note 2: Not compatible with Jingle specification and available for Windows only
Multiprotocol clients
Information on the instant messaging protocols that each client supports.| Supported Protocols | WLM Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD... (formerly MSN Messenger) |
YM | AIM AOL Instant Messenger AOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997... |
ICQ ICQ ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, which was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company Mirabilis, then bought by America Online, and since April 2010 owned by Mail.ru Group. The name ICQ is a homophone for the phrase "I seek you"... |
XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence... (Google Talk, etc.) |
Jingle (voice) Jingle (protocol) Jingle is an extension to the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol . It implements peer-to-peer session control for multimedia interactions such as in Voice over IP or videoconferencing communications. It was designed by Google and the XMPP Standards Foundation. The multimedia streams are... |
Jingle (video) Jingle (protocol) Jingle is an extension to the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol . It implements peer-to-peer session control for multimedia interactions such as in Voice over IP or videoconferencing communications. It was designed by Google and the XMPP Standards Foundation. The multimedia streams are... |
IRC Internet Relay Chat Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file... |
IBM Lotus Sametime IBM Lotus Sametime IBM Sametime is a client–server application and middleware platform that provides real-time, unified communications and collaboration for enterprises. Those capabilities include presence information, enterprise instant messaging, web conferencing, community collaboration, and telephony capabilities... |
Novell GroupWise Messenger Novell GroupWise GroupWise is a messaging and collaborative software platform from Novell that supports email, calendaring, personal information management, instant messaging, and document management. The platform consists of the client software, which is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and the server... |
Bonjour Bonjour (software) In computing, Bonjour is Apple Inc.'s trade name for its implementation of Zeroconf, a group of technologies that includes service discovery, address assignment, and name resolution... (formerly Rendezvous) |
Gadu-Gadu Gadu-Gadu Gadu-Gadu is a Polish instant messaging client using a proprietary protocol. Gadu-Gadu is the most popular IM service in Poland, with over 15 million registered accounts and approximately 6.5 million users online daily. Gadu-Gadu’s casual gaming portal had some 500,000 active users at the end of... |
QQ Tencent QQ Tencent QQ, generally referred to as QQ, is the most popular free instant messaging computer program in mainland China. As of July 11, 2011, the active QQ users accounts for QQ IM totaled 812.3 million, possibly making it the world's second largest online community. The number of simultaneous... |
OTR Off-the-record messaging Off-the-Record Messaging, commonly referred to as OTR, is a cryptographic protocol that provides strong encryption for instant messaging conversations. OTR uses a combination of the AES symmetric-key algorithm, the Diffie–Hellman key exchange, and the SHA-1 hash function... |
LAN Local area network A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building... |
Xfire Xfire Xfire is a proprietary freeware instant messaging service for gamers, that also serves as a game server browser and has various other features. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows. Xfire was originally developed by Ultimate Arena based in Menlo Park, California... |
Skype Skype Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system... |
MySpaceIM MySpaceIM MySpaceIM is the official instant messaging client for the social networking site MySpace.In 2009, a web-based client dubbed was released to all English-speaking countries, allowing users to interact with friends and non-friends alike to grow their network... |
Facebook Facebook Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as... |
LiveJournal LiveJournal LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community.... |
Others | |
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| Adium Adium Adium is a free and open source instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports multiple IM networks, including Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, and XMPP. It supports many protocols through the libraries libezv , MGTwitterEngine , and libpurple... |
17 | 17 | 11 | 10 | With plugin | With plugin4 | MobileMe MobileMe MobileMe was a subscription-based collection of online services and software offered by Apple Inc. Originally launched on January 5, 2000, as iTools, a free collection of Internet-based services for users of Mac OS 9, Apple relaunched it as .Mac on July 17, 2002, when it became a paid subscription... , Yahoo! Japan Yahoo! Japan is a Japanese internet company formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! and the Japanese internet company SoftBank. It is headquartered at Midtown Tower in the Tokyo Midtown complex in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo.-History:... , Zephyr Zephyr (protocol) Created at MIT, as part of Project Athena, Zephyr was designed as an instant messaging protocol and application-suite with a heavy Unix background. Using the "do one thing, do it well" philosophy of Unix, it was made up of several separate programs working together to make a complete messaging... , NateOn Nate Nate is a South Korean web portal, developed by SK Communications. In 2003, Nate acquired the online community service Cyworld, and in 2004, it achieved first place in local page views with a total of 3.8 million, surpassing rival Daum for the first time.... , Tlen, Twitter Twitter Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July... |
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| AIM AOL Instant Messenger AOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997... |
4 | With proxy Off-the-record messaging Off-the-Record Messaging, commonly referred to as OTR, is a cryptographic protocol that provides strong encryption for instant messaging conversations. OTR uses a combination of the AES symmetric-key algorithm, the Diffie–Hellman key exchange, and the SHA-1 hash function... |
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| Ayttm Ayttm Ayttm is a multi-protocol instant messaging client. It is the heir of the EveryBuddy project.- Services :Ayttm primarily supports one to one and group chatting on MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, AIM, XMPP and IRC. It also has support for sending rudimentary emails via SMTP, which may be used to send SMS via... |
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| Beejive | 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| bhsIM | 7 | NateOn Nate Nate is a South Korean web portal, developed by SK Communications. In 2003, Nate acquired the online community service Cyworld, and in 2004, it achieved first place in local page views with a total of 3.8 million, surpassing rival Daum for the first time.... |
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| BitlBee BitlBee BitlBee is a cross-platform IRC instant messaging gateway, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.BitlBee communicates with the user via the IRC protocol, providing a gateway to popular chat networks such as AIM and ICQ via OSCAR, .NET Messenger Service, Yahoo! and XMPP and the... |
5 | Indirect25 | With plugin | With plugin28 | Twitter Twitter Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July... , and with libpurple, all protocols supported by Pidgin Pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the... |
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| Carrier (formerly Funpidgin) | 11 | 17 | 15 | 10 | With plugin1 | SILC SILC (protocol) SILC is a protocol that provides secure synchronous conferencing services over the Internet.- Components :... , Zephyr Zephyr (protocol) Created at MIT, as part of Project Athena, Zephyr was designed as an instant messaging protocol and application-suite with a heavy Unix background. Using the "do one thing, do it well" philosophy of Unix, it was made up of several separate programs working together to make a complete messaging... , Blizzard Battle-Net Chat (with plugins) |
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| Centericq Centericq Centericq is a text mode menu- and window-driven instant messaging interface that supports the ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, XMPP, LiveJournal, and Gadu-Gadu protocols. It allows you to send, receive, and forward messages, URLs, SMSes , contacts, and email express messages, and it has many other... |
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| climm | 2 | 12 | 13 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Digsby Digsby Digsby is a freeware proprietary multiprotocol instant messaging application developed by dotSyntax, LLC. Digsby is written in Python and uses wxPython as its widget toolkit and WebKit for rendering... |
7 | 26 | Twitter Twitter Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July... |
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| eBuddy EBuddy eBuddy is a privately held company which owns a browser-based web and mobile messenger service supporting various instant messaging services. eBuddy was launched in 2003 under the name e-Messenger, located at www.e-messenger.net, before rebranding itself in 2006 to eBuddy.eBuddy supports Windows... |
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| emesene Emesene emesene is an open source instant messaging client designed for use with Microsoft's .NET Messenger Service. It is a clone of Windows Live Messenger. emesene is the Spanish pronunciation of MSN, former name of Windows Live Messenger... |
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| Empathy Empathy (software) Empathy is an instant messaging client which supports text, voice, video, file transfers, and inter-application communication over various IM protocols.... |
20 | With plugin | Blizzard Battle-Net Chat, NateOn Nate Nate is a South Korean web portal, developed by SK Communications. In 2003, Nate acquired the online community service Cyworld, and in 2004, it achieved first place in local page views with a total of 3.8 million, surpassing rival Daum for the first time.... , SILC SILC (protocol) SILC is a protocol that provides secure synchronous conferencing services over the Internet.- Components :... , Tlen, Zephyr Zephyr (protocol) Created at MIT, as part of Project Athena, Zephyr was designed as an instant messaging protocol and application-suite with a heavy Unix background. Using the "do one thing, do it well" philosophy of Unix, it was made up of several separate programs working together to make a complete messaging... (with plugins) |
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| Eyeball Chat | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Fire Fire (instant messaging client) Fire is the first instant messaging client for Mac OS X , that can access IRC, XMPP, AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, and Bonjour. All services are built on GPL’d libraries, including firetalk, libfaim, libicq2000, libmsn, XMPP, and libyahoo2. Fire supports OS X v10.1 and higher.The latest version... |
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| Fring | 7 | 30 | Yahoo | |||||||||||||||||||
| IBM Lotus Sametime IBM Lotus Sametime IBM Sametime is a client–server application and middleware platform that provides real-time, unified communications and collaboration for enterprises. Those capabilities include presence information, enterprise instant messaging, web conferencing, community collaboration, and telephony capabilities... |
5 | 18 | 18 | 18 | SIP Session Initiation Protocol The Session Initiation Protocol is an IETF-defined signaling protocol widely used for controlling communication sessions such as voice and video calls over Internet Protocol . The protocol can be used for creating, modifying and terminating two-party or multiparty sessions... |
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| iChat IChat iChat is an instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its Mac OS X operating system. It has audio, video and screen-sharing capabilities as well as text messaging... |
6 | MobileMe MobileMe MobileMe was a subscription-based collection of online services and software offered by Apple Inc. Originally launched on January 5, 2000, as iTools, a free collection of Internet-based services for users of Mac OS 9, Apple relaunched it as .Mac on July 17, 2002, when it became a paid subscription... |
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| ICQ ICQ ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, which was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company Mirabilis, then bought by America Online, and since April 2010 owned by Mail.ru Group. The name ICQ is a homophone for the phrase "I seek you"... |
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| IM+ | 12 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| imo.im | 8 | Hyves Hyves Hyves is a social networking site in the Netherlands with mainly Dutch visitors and members and competes in this country with sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Hyves was founded in 2004 by Raymond Spanjar, Koen Kam, and Floris Rost van Tonningen.... , Steam |
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| IMVU IMVU IMVU, Inc. is an online social entertainment destination in which members use 3D avatars to meet new people, chat, create, and play games created by Fydor Guthenschlag. IMVU has over 50 million registered users, 10 million unique visitors per month and three million monthly active users... |
6 | IMVU IMVU IMVU, Inc. is an online social entertainment destination in which members use 3D avatars to meet new people, chat, create, and play games created by Fydor Guthenschlag. IMVU has over 50 million registered users, 10 million unique visitors per month and three million monthly active users... |
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| Instan-t | 6 | Instan-t | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Instantbird Instantbird Instantbird is a cross-platform instant messenging client based on Mozilla's XULRunner and the open source library libpurple used in Pidgin. Instantbird is free software available under the GNU General Public License... |
15 | Netsoul, SIMPLE SIMPLE SIMPLE, the Session Initiation Protocol for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions, is an instant messaging and presence protocol suite based on Session Initiation Protocol managed by the IETF... Twitter Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July... , Yahoo! Japan Yahoo! Japan is a Japanese internet company formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! and the Japanese internet company SoftBank. It is headquartered at Midtown Tower in the Tokyo Midtown complex in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo.-History:... |
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| Jabberwocky Jabberwocky (disambiguation) "Jabberwocky" is an 1872 nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, about an encounter between a young boy and a monster called the Jabberwock.Jabberwocky or Jabberwock may also refer to:-Films and television:... |
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| JClaim JClaim JClaim was released for first public use on the 3rd August 2007. It is a multiprotocol instant messaging application for any OS supporting Java 1.5 or better... |
8 | SMS SMS SMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :... , Nate Nate Nate is a South Korean web portal, developed by SK Communications. In 2003, Nate acquired the online community service Cyworld, and in 2004, it achieved first place in local page views with a total of 3.8 million, surpassing rival Daum for the first time.... , Yahoo! Japan Yahoo! Japan is a Japanese internet company formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! and the Japanese internet company SoftBank. It is headquartered at Midtown Tower in the Tokyo Midtown complex in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo.-History:... |
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| Jitsi (formerly SIP Communicator) | 10 | SIP Session Initiation Protocol The Session Initiation Protocol is an IETF-defined signaling protocol widely used for controlling communication sessions such as voice and video calls over Internet Protocol . The protocol can be used for creating, modifying and terminating two-party or multiparty sessions... |
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| Kadu | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Kopete Kopete Kopete is a multi-protocol, free software instant messaging client. Although it can run in numerous environments, it was designed for and integrates with the KDE desktop environment... |
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| Licq | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| MECA Messenger | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| meebo Meebo Meebo is a social platform connecting users with their friends across the web. It began in 2005 as a browser based instant messaging program which supported multiple IM services, including Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, ICQ, MySpaceIM, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, CafeMom and... |
5 | (via XMPP) | MyYearbook MyYearbook -History:myYearbook was initially created by two high school students, David and Catherine Cook, and their older brother Geoff, during Spring Break of 2005. Catherine persuaded Geoff, who founded EssayEdge.com and ResumeEdge.com from a dorm in 1997, to invest in their project... |
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| Miranda IM Miranda IM Miranda IM is an open source multiprotocol instant messaging application, designed for Microsoft Windows. Miranda is free software distributed under GNU General Public License.- Architecture :... |
19+ | With plugin21 | 5 | With plugin4 | With plugin29 | Twitter, Tlen, LAN5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Mundu IM | 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Naim | 3 | Lily | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nimbuzz | 12 | 27 | StudiVZ, SchülerVZ, Hyves | |||||||||||||||||||
| ooVoo | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| QuteCom | 6 | SIP Session Initiation Protocol The Session Initiation Protocol is an IETF-defined signaling protocol widely used for controlling communication sessions such as voice and video calls over Internet Protocol . The protocol can be used for creating, modifying and terminating two-party or multiparty sessions... |
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| Palringo Palringo Palringo is a server-based instant messaging client for various platforms. It supports several protocols such as AOL Instant Messenger , Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, XMPP/Jabber, Google Talk, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ, MobileMe/iChat and Facebook IM.... |
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| Paltalk Paltalk Paltalk Messenger, or simply referred to as Paltalk, is an Internet chat service that allows users to communicate via instant messaging, voice and video chat. It offers thousands of chat rooms and the ability for users to create their own virtual chat room on any topic and category... |
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| Pidgin Pidgin (software) Pidgin is an open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple. Libpurple has support for many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log into various services from one application.The number of Pidgin users was estimated to be over 3... (formerly Gaim) |
14 | 17 | 23 | 24 | 10 | With plugin | With plugin | With plugin4,19 | Blizzard Battle-Net Chat, SIPE, NateOn Nate Nate is a South Korean web portal, developed by SK Communications. In 2003, Nate acquired the online community service Cyworld, and in 2004, it achieved first place in local page views with a total of 3.8 million, surpassing rival Daum for the first time.... , SILC SILC (protocol) SILC is a protocol that provides secure synchronous conferencing services over the Internet.- Components :... , Tlen, Zephyr Zephyr (protocol) Created at MIT, as part of Project Athena, Zephyr was designed as an instant messaging protocol and application-suite with a heavy Unix background. Using the "do one thing, do it well" philosophy of Unix, it was made up of several separate programs working together to make a complete messaging... (with plugins) |
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| PlayXpert PlayXpert PLAYXPERT is an in-game tool set targeted towards gamers. It was built by former Xfire users, who felt it could use improvement. It features several in-game widgets, such as multi-protocol instant messaging, web browsing, a media manager, and others, all of which can be opened in-game, eliminating... |
7 | Sony Station Friends | ||||||||||||||||||||
| uTalk Utalk uTalk is a free client for messaging between phones and computers. With uTalk you can send free pictures, voice and text to your friends from any social network, chat in groups, and view your friends locations... |
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| pork | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Proteus Proteus (instant messaging client) Proteus is an instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports multiple protocols through the libpurple library. It is written using OS X's Cocoa API.-History:Proteus was originally developed by Justin Wood, then in 2004 Defaultware took over development... |
8 | 9 | With proxy Off-the-record messaging Off-the-Record Messaging, commonly referred to as OTR, is a cryptographic protocol that provides strong encryption for instant messaging conversations. OTR uses a combination of the AES symmetric-key algorithm, the Diffie–Hellman key exchange, and the SHA-1 hash function... |
Yahoo! Japan Yahoo! Japan is a Japanese internet company formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! and the Japanese internet company SoftBank. It is headquartered at Midtown Tower in the Tokyo Midtown complex in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo.-History:... |
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| QIP Quiet Internet Pager QIP is a multiprotocol instant messaging client. It is a closed source freeware program originally developed by Ilgam Zyulkorneev. In 2008 it was bought by RosBusinessConsulting media group and named most popular RBC service in 2009.- Features :... |
2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| QIP Infium | 6 | Mail.ru Agent, Euroset, Phoning | ||||||||||||||||||||
| qutIM | 6 | Mail.ru Agent, VKontakte, Twitter | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Qnext Qnext Qnext is a multi-protocol instant messaging service for Linux, Mac OS, Windows, and mobile devices. Qnext lets people connect to their digital content when they have access to the internet.Qnext desktop client runs on Linux, Macintosh, and Windows.... |
7 | Qnext | ||||||||||||||||||||
| talk | 2 | ntalk, ytalk | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Trillian Basic | 5 | 17 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Trillian Pro | 6 | 14, 15 | With plugin1 | 10 | With plugin1 | With plugin1 | With plugin1 | With plugin | ||||||||||||||
| Trillian Astra | 11 | 14, 15 | With plugin1 | With plugin1 | ASTRA | |||||||||||||||||
| VoxOx | 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD... (formerly MSN Messenger) |
3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | SIP Session Initiation Protocol The Session Initiation Protocol is an IETF-defined signaling protocol widely used for controlling communication sessions such as voice and video calls over Internet Protocol . The protocol can be used for creating, modifying and terminating two-party or multiparty sessions... , EIM |
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| WTW | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Yahoo Messenger | 3 | 17 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Supported Protocols | WLM Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD... (formerly MSN Messenger) |
YM | AIM AOL Instant Messenger AOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997... |
ICQ ICQ ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, which was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company Mirabilis, then bought by America Online, and since April 2010 owned by Mail.ru Group. The name ICQ is a homophone for the phrase "I seek you"... |
XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence... (Google Talk, etc.) |
Jingle (voice) Jingle (protocol) Jingle is an extension to the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol . It implements peer-to-peer session control for multimedia interactions such as in Voice over IP or videoconferencing communications. It was designed by Google and the XMPP Standards Foundation. The multimedia streams are... |
Jingle (video) Jingle (protocol) Jingle is an extension to the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol . It implements peer-to-peer session control for multimedia interactions such as in Voice over IP or videoconferencing communications. It was designed by Google and the XMPP Standards Foundation. The multimedia streams are... |
IRC Internet Relay Chat Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file... |
IBM Lotus Sametime IBM Lotus Sametime IBM Sametime is a client–server application and middleware platform that provides real-time, unified communications and collaboration for enterprises. Those capabilities include presence information, enterprise instant messaging, web conferencing, community collaboration, and telephony capabilities... |
Novell GroupWise Messenger Novell GroupWise GroupWise is a messaging and collaborative software platform from Novell that supports email, calendaring, personal information management, instant messaging, and document management. The platform consists of the client software, which is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and the server... |
Bonjour Bonjour (software) In computing, Bonjour is Apple Inc.'s trade name for its implementation of Zeroconf, a group of technologies that includes service discovery, address assignment, and name resolution... (formerly Rendezvous) |
Gadu-Gadu Gadu-Gadu Gadu-Gadu is a Polish instant messaging client using a proprietary protocol. Gadu-Gadu is the most popular IM service in Poland, with over 15 million registered accounts and approximately 6.5 million users online daily. Gadu-Gadu’s casual gaming portal had some 500,000 active users at the end of... |
QQ Tencent QQ Tencent QQ, generally referred to as QQ, is the most popular free instant messaging computer program in mainland China. As of July 11, 2011, the active QQ users accounts for QQ IM totaled 812.3 million, possibly making it the world's second largest online community. The number of simultaneous... |
OTR Off-the-record messaging Off-the-Record Messaging, commonly referred to as OTR, is a cryptographic protocol that provides strong encryption for instant messaging conversations. OTR uses a combination of the AES symmetric-key algorithm, the Diffie–Hellman key exchange, and the SHA-1 hash function... |
LAN Local area network A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building... |
Xfire Xfire Xfire is a proprietary freeware instant messaging service for gamers, that also serves as a game server browser and has various other features. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows. Xfire was originally developed by Ultimate Arena based in Menlo Park, California... |
Skype Skype Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system... |
MySpaceIM MySpaceIM MySpaceIM is the official instant messaging client for the social networking site MySpace.In 2009, a web-based client dubbed was released to all English-speaking countries, allowing users to interact with friends and non-friends alike to grow their network... |
Facebook Facebook Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as... |
LiveJournal LiveJournal LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community.... |
Others |
Note 1: Plugin available
Note 2: Plugin available
Note 3: Interoperability with proprietary protocols can be achieved using server-side gateways (so-called transports) in XMPP
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence...
.
Note 4: Plugin available, but requires installed and running Skype.
Note 5: LAN and chat protocols supported for Miranda include NetSend, WinPopup, Novell Netware NCP, BattleNet, Vypress Chat, Quick Chat, and Walla Chat.
Note 6: Uses the AIM TOC2 protocol, which has fewer features than the Oscar protocol the official client uses. An Oscar plugin is available, but is still in early development.
Note 7: Plugin available
Note 8: Can only enter one ICQ/AOL IM account, so users who have both an ICQ number and an AOL IM account name, can't use both.
Note 9: Text-based messaging only; does not support Bonjour/iChat's audio IM functionality.
Note 10: Probably text-based messaging only, without support for Bonjour/iChat's audio IM functionality.
Note 11: Only trunk builds of Adium have IRC support, which is very limited.
Note 12: AIM interoperability: can send/receive to
AIM from an ICQ account.
Note 13: The support is optional. It currently isn't feature-complete,
but basic operations should be fine.
Note 14: Claims to be supported, though frequently fails to receive or deliver messages, and tends to crash when receiving multiuser chat invites or file transfer requests.
Note 15: Feature incomplete. Lacks service discovery and transport support, making user search, multiuser chat, connections to other IM networks via XMPP difficult or impossible.
Note 16: Yahoo! Messenger interoperability (some bugs): can send/receive to
Yahoo! Messenger from a Windows Live Messenger on-line account. No audio or video support as of yet.
Note 17: Windows Live Messenger interoperability: can always send/receive to Windows Live Messenger from a Yahoo! Messenger account.
Note 18: Using IBM Sametime Gateway you can establish a server to server communication to other IM communities.
Note 19: With plug-in, requires Skype to be running. http://eion.robbmob.com/
Note 21: With using third-party plug-in MirandaQQ developed by Stark Wong from Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. http://addons.miranda-im.org/details.php?action=viewfile&id=3348
Note 22: Facebook Chat plugin for Pidgin
Note 23: No audio or video, and generally poor support for anything beyond the very basic in the protocol. So there is chat and smileys, but no Photo Album Sharing, SMS and the rest. Also, although the official client does have the ability to embed the communication through HTTP there is no such option for Gaim.
Note 24: among others, the privacy settings are not working
Note 24: Access is denied in the Yahoo network as it uses a deprecated protocol.
Note 25: Bitlbee does not provide access to IRC. Instead users connect to it as if it were an IRC server so Bitlbee and IRC will both be used from the same IRC client.
Note 26: Digsby does not support XMPP conferences.
Note 27: Nimbuzz does not support skype on the PC clients. Source: http://forum.nimbuzz.com/index.php?action=vthread&forum=11&topic=406
Note 28: Plugin available
Note 29: Plugin available
Note 30: Restricted to Google Talk only. [
Features
Information on what features each of the clients support.| Client | Number of Features Included | Toolkits or SDKs | Encryption | File transfer | Proxy-server | Graphical smiley Smiley A smiley, smiley face, or happy face, is a stylized representation of a smiling human face, commonly occurring in popular culture. It is commonly represented as a yellow circle with two black dots representing eyes and a black arc representing the mouth... s |
Unicode (UTF-8) | Built-in games | Themes / skins | Plugin system 1 | Third party add-on Add-on Add-on might mean:* Plug-in , a piece of software which enhances another software application and usually cannot be run independently** Browser extension, which modifies the interface and/or behavior of web browsers... s 2 |
Scripting | Message Logging | Voice messaging | Voice Mail | Webcam Support | Offline messaging | Remote desktop application assistance | Whiteboard Whiteboarding Whiteboarding is the placement of shared files on an on-screen shared notebook or whiteboard. Videoconferencing and data conferencing software often lets the user annotate the shared documents as on a physical whiteboard.... |
Right-to-Left texting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adium Adium Adium is a free and open source instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports multiple IM networks, including Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, and XMPP. It supports many protocols through the libraries libezv , MGTwitterEngine , and libpurple... |
11 | Cocoa | 11 | |||||||||||||||||
| AIM AOL Instant Messenger AOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997... |
11 | W32 | ||||||||||||||||||
| AIM for Mac AOL Instant Messenger AOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997... |
4 | Cocoa | ||||||||||||||||||
| aMSN AMSN aMSN is a free Windows Live Messenger clone. aMSN attempts to emulate the look and feel of Windows Live Messenger, and supports many of its features... |
14 | Tcl/Tk | 22 | http, socks5, msn gateway | 17 | |||||||||||||||
| Ayttm Ayttm Ayttm is a multi-protocol instant messaging client. It is the heir of the EveryBuddy project.- Services :Ayttm primarily supports one to one and group chatting on MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, AIM, XMPP and IRC. It also has support for sending rudimentary emails via SMTP, which may be used to send SMS via... |
9 | GTK2 | http, socks4, socks5 | |||||||||||||||||
| BeejiveIM | 8 | |||||||||||||||||||
| BitlBee BitlBee BitlBee is a cross-platform IRC instant messaging gateway, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.BitlBee communicates with the user via the IRC protocol, providing a gateway to popular chat networks such as AIM and ICQ via OSCAR, .NET Messenger Service, Yahoo! and XMPP and the... |
3 | 27 | 19 | 19 | ||||||||||||||||
| BitWise IM | 8 | W32, GTK2, Carbon | 7 | |||||||||||||||||
| Bombus Bombus (software) Bombus is a GPL instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol. It is written in Java, and runs on Java ME/MIDP capable cellphones, including Windows Mobile platform with installed Java ME virtual machine, or any other platform, where Java ME is available. It can also be used on Android handheld... |
10 | Java ME | ||||||||||||||||||
| Bopup Messenger | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Brosix Brosix Brosix is a secure instant messenger that is designed to help users connect to each other. It uses 256-bits AES encryption in order to encrypt messages, thus ensuring their security... |
14 | W32 | https, socks4, 4A, 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| Centericq Centericq Centericq is a text mode menu- and window-driven instant messaging interface that supports the ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, XMPP, LiveJournal, and Gadu-Gadu protocols. It allows you to send, receive, and forward messages, URLs, SMSes , contacts, and email express messages, and it has many other... |
5 | ncurses | 9 | |||||||||||||||||
| climm | 7 | line based | 5,11 | |||||||||||||||||
| Coccinella | 11 | Tcl/Tk | http, socks4, 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| Digsby Digsby Digsby is a freeware proprietary multiprotocol instant messaging application developed by dotSyntax, LLC. Digsby is written in Python and uses wxPython as its widget toolkit and WebKit for rendering... |
9 | |||||||||||||||||||
| eBuddy EBuddy eBuddy is a privately held company which owns a browser-based web and mobile messenger service supporting various instant messaging services. eBuddy was launched in 2003 under the name e-Messenger, located at www.e-messenger.net, before rebranding itself in 2006 to eBuddy.eBuddy supports Windows... |
6 | |||||||||||||||||||
| eM Client EM Client eM Client is a Windows-based Communication Client for managing E-mail, calendars, contacts and tasks. It contains integrated Instant Messaging for XMPP and Skype integration.... |
6 | W32 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Empathy Empathy (software) Empathy is an instant messaging client which supports text, voice, video, file transfers, and inter-application communication over various IM protocols.... |
12 | GTK2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| EQO EQO EQO is a downloadable mobile application that brings free instant messaging, low-cost mobile VoIP and free or low-cost text messaging to mobile phones from manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG, BlackBerry and HTC... |
5 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Exodus | 5 | W32 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Fire Fire (instant messaging client) Fire is the first instant messaging client for Mac OS X , that can access IRC, XMPP, AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, and Bonjour. All services are built on GPL’d libraries, including firetalk, libfaim, libicq2000, libmsn, XMPP, and libyahoo2. Fire supports OS X v10.1 and higher.The latest version... |
9 | Cocoa | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| Gadu-Gadu Gadu-Gadu Gadu-Gadu is a Polish instant messaging client using a proprietary protocol. Gadu-Gadu is the most popular IM service in Poland, with over 15 million registered accounts and approximately 6.5 million users online daily. Gadu-Gadu’s casual gaming portal had some 500,000 active users at the end of... |
8 | Qt 25 | 24 | 23 | ||||||||||||||||
| Gajim Gajim Gajim is an instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the GTK+ toolkit. The name Gajim is a recursive acronym for Gajim's a jabber instant messenger. Gajim runs on GNU/Linux, BSD and Microsoft Windows. Released under the GNU General Public License, Gajim is free software... |
7 | GTK2 | 9 | http | ||||||||||||||||
| GCN Global Communications Network Global Communications Network is an instant messaging client for Microsoft Windows. The software and service are provided free of charge, and supported by banner advertisements... |
5 | W32 | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| GOIM GOIM GOIM , is a free software instant messaging client based on the Eclipse Rich Client Platform. It uses the XMPP protocol for communication with an extended presence packet to transmit information about games a user is currently playing.Although GOIM runs on all platforms supported by Java and... |
5 | Java/SWT | ||||||||||||||||||
| Google Talk Google Talk Google Talk is a freeware voice over Internet protocol client application offered by Google Inc. The first beta version of the program was released on August 24, 2005... |
8 | W32 | Third party plugin | |||||||||||||||||
| Gyachi Gyachi GyachE Improved program is a fork from Gyach Enhanced Yahoo! client for Linux operating systems intended for bug-fixes and further development that supports the Yahoo! Messenger Protocol... |
9 | GTK2 | https | |||||||||||||||||
| IBM Lotus Sametime IBM Lotus Sametime IBM Sametime is a client–server application and middleware platform that provides real-time, unified communications and collaboration for enterprises. Those capabilities include presence information, enterprise instant messaging, web conferencing, community collaboration, and telephony capabilities... |
15 | available | ||||||||||||||||||
| iChat IChat iChat is an instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its Mac OS X operating system. It has audio, video and screen-sharing capabilities as well as text messaging... |
11 | Cocoa | 21 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| ICQ ICQ ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, which was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company Mirabilis, then bought by America Online, and since April 2010 owned by Mail.ru Group. The name ICQ is a homophone for the phrase "I seek you"... |
12 | W32 | ||||||||||||||||||
| imo.im | 10 | |||||||||||||||||||
| InSpeak Communicator InSpeak Communicator InSpeak Communicator is an internet chat program offering text, audio and video interaction.InSpeak is based and operated in Sunrise, FL, USA.-Usage:inSpeak is currently formatted for Microsoft Windows and currently does not support any other platform.... |
9 | |||||||||||||||||||
| IM+ | X | |||||||||||||||||||
| IMVU IMVU IMVU, Inc. is an online social entertainment destination in which members use 3D avatars to meet new people, chat, create, and play games created by Fydor Guthenschlag. IMVU has over 50 million registered users, 10 million unique visitors per month and three million monthly active users... |
6 | 13 | 14 | |||||||||||||||||
| Jabberwocky Jabberwocky (disambiguation) "Jabberwocky" is an 1872 nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, about an encounter between a young boy and a monster called the Jabberwock.Jabberwocky or Jabberwock may also refer to:-Films and television:... |
1 | 20 | ||||||||||||||||||
| JClaim JClaim JClaim was released for first public use on the 3rd August 2007. It is a multiprotocol instant messaging application for any OS supporting Java 1.5 or better... |
11 | JDK (Java) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Kadu Kadu (software) Kadu is a Polish instant messenger using the Gadu-Gadu and Xmpp protocol. Kadu is a free software, open-source software and does not contain advertisements . Since 0.6.5 version there is a Windows port available... |
10 | Qt | 26 | |||||||||||||||||
| KMess | 7 | Qt/KDE | ||||||||||||||||||
| Kopete Kopete Kopete is a multi-protocol, free software instant messaging client. Although it can run in numerous environments, it was designed for and integrates with the KDE desktop environment... |
8 | Qt/KDE | 9,11 | With plugin | With plugin (Partial) | |||||||||||||||
| Licq | 9 | Qt | 5 | https | ||||||||||||||||
| MCabber MCabber MCabber is a free software client for the instant messaging protocol XMPP with a text user interface based on ncurses. It runs on a range of platforms, including GNU/Linux, BSD, and Mac OS X. As free software it is freely available – including the source code – under the terms of the GNU General... |
4 | Curses | 11 | |||||||||||||||||
| MECA Messenger | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Mercury Messenger | 11 | Swing | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| Miranda IM Miranda IM Miranda IM is an open source multiprotocol instant messaging application, designed for Microsoft Windows. Miranda is free software distributed under GNU General Public License.- Architecture :... |
12 | W32 | 10,11 | : socks4/5, HTTP(S) | 15 | 15 | ||||||||||||||
| Microsoft Messenger for Mac Microsoft Messenger for Mac Microsoft Messenger for Mac is the official Mac OS X instant messaging client for use with Microsoft's .NET Messenger Service and is developed by the Macintosh Business Unit, a division of Microsoft. However, the feature list is limited in comparison to that of its counterpart Windows Live Messenger... |
4 | Carbon | ||||||||||||||||||
| MSNP-Sharp | 11 | W32 | http, socks5, msn gateway | 17 | ||||||||||||||||
| Mundu IM | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Nimbuzz | 7 | |||||||||||||||||||
| ooVoo | 9 | (signaling only) | ||||||||||||||||||
| QuteCom | 6 | Qt | ||||||||||||||||||
| Palringo Palringo Palringo is a server-based instant messaging client for various platforms. It supports several protocols such as AOL Instant Messenger , Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, XMPP/Jabber, Google Talk, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ, MobileMe/iChat and Facebook IM.... |
3 | (picture capture only) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Paltalk Paltalk Paltalk Messenger, or simply referred to as Paltalk, is an Internet chat service that allows users to communicate via instant messaging, voice and video chat. It offers thousands of chat rooms and the ability for users to create their own virtual chat room on any topic and category... |
9 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Pandion Pandion (software) Pandion is an XMPP client, developed by Dries Staelens and Sebastiaan Deckers.Pandion is developed as a Rich Desktop Application. This means it uses HTML, CSS and JavaScript to make up its interface and C++ for a backend. The backend embeds a web browser to host the interface and provides access to... |
11 | http | ||||||||||||||||||
| Pidgin Pidgin (software) Pidgin is an open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple. Libpurple has support for many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log into various services from one application.The number of Pidgin users was estimated to be over 3... (formerly Gaim) |
7 | GTK2 | 8,11 | (XMPP in Linux) | (XMPP in Linux) | |||||||||||||||
| PopNote | 21 | W32 | ||||||||||||||||||
| pork | 3 | ncurses Ncurses ncurses is a programming library that provides an API which allows the programmer to write text user interfaces in a terminal-independent manner. It is a toolkit for developing "GUI-like" application software that runs under a terminal emulator... |
||||||||||||||||||
| Proteus Proteus (instant messaging client) Proteus is an instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports multiple protocols through the libpurple library. It is written using OS X's Cocoa API.-History:Proteus was originally developed by Justin Wood, then in 2004 Defaultware took over development... |
5 | Cocoa | ||||||||||||||||||
| Psi Psi (instant messaging client) Psi is a GPL instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the Qt toolkit. It runs on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and eComStation.Ready-to-install deb and RPM packages are available for many Linux distributions... |
6 | KDE/Qt | 9 | (Icon sets only) | (Linux & Unix) | |||||||||||||||
| psyced | 7 | |||||||||||||||||||
| QIP Quiet Internet Pager QIP is a multiprotocol instant messaging client. It is a closed source freeware program originally developed by Ilgam Zyulkorneev. In 2008 it was bought by RosBusinessConsulting media group and named most popular RBC service in 2009.- Features :... |
10 | W32, VCL | http(s), socks4, 4A, 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| Qnext Qnext Qnext is a multi-protocol instant messaging service for Linux, Mac OS, Windows, and mobile devices. Qnext lets people connect to their digital content when they have access to the internet.Qnext desktop client runs on Linux, Macintosh, and Windows.... |
15 | Swing | ||||||||||||||||||
| QQ Tencent QQ Tencent QQ, generally referred to as QQ, is the most popular free instant messaging computer program in mainland China. As of July 11, 2011, the active QQ users accounts for QQ IM totaled 812.3 million, possibly making it the world's second largest online community. The number of simultaneous... |
11 | W32 | ||||||||||||||||||
| qutIM | 7 | Qt | http(s), socks 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| RealTimeQuery | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Skype Skype Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system... |
12 | Qt/KDE, W32 | With plugin (Windows only) | |||||||||||||||||
| Sococo | 6 | None | ||||||||||||||||||
| talk | 0 | curses | ||||||||||||||||||
| Tkabber Tkabber Tkabber is a GPL instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the Tk toolkit for the GUI. It runs on anything to which Tcl/Tk is ported: almost any X-based system , Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X.... |
13 | Tcl/Tk | ||||||||||||||||||
| Trillian Basic 3.0 | 7 | W32 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Trillian Pro 3.0 | 11 | W32 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Trillian Astra | 12 | W32 | ||||||||||||||||||
| VoxOx | 7 | |||||||||||||||||||
| VZOchat VZOchat VZOchat is a free software for making video calls and instant messaging. Unlike well-known Skype and other VoIP software, VZOchat is not based on P2P technology. Instead, it uses a central server to handle data flows... |
7 | W32 | https, socks4, 4A, 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD... (formerly MSN Messenger) |
15 | W32 | : socks4/5, HTTP | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | W32 | |||||||||||||||||||
| WTW | 10 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Xfire Xfire Xfire is a proprietary freeware instant messaging service for gamers, that also serves as a game server browser and has various other features. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows. Xfire was originally developed by Ultimate Arena based in Menlo Park, California... |
6 | W32 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Yahoo Messenger | 11 | W32, Cocoa, GTK | Yes (Flash based Doodle background) | |||||||||||||||||
| Client | Number of Features Included | Toolkits or SDKs | Encryption | File transfer | Proxy-server | Graphical smiley Smiley A smiley, smiley face, or happy face, is a stylized representation of a smiling human face, commonly occurring in popular culture. It is commonly represented as a yellow circle with two black dots representing eyes and a black arc representing the mouth... s |
Unicode (UTF-8) | Built-in games | Themes / skins | Plugin system 1 | Third party add-on Add-on Add-on might mean:* Plug-in , a piece of software which enhances another software application and usually cannot be run independently** Browser extension, which modifies the interface and/or behavior of web browsers... s 2 |
Scripting | Message Logging | Voice messaging | Voice Mail | Webcam Support | Offline messaging | Remote desktop application assistance | Whiteboard | Right-to-Left texting |
Note 1: Plug-in system to add/expand the default features for the application, or protocol. Such as (but not limited to) Trillian chat client - Plugins.
Note 2: Third party add-ons which are usually not approved by the author of the application and are usually standalone. Such as (but not limited to) AOL Instant messenger - Third-party add-ons.
Note 3: Using third party add-on software. Consult the client's page for details.
Note 4: Proprietary; compatible only to itself.
Note 5: ICQ: SSL-encrypted direct connections; compatible between climm, Licq.
Note 6: Any protocol: GPG
GNU Privacy Guard
GNU Privacy Guard is a GPL Licensed alternative to the PGP suite of cryptographic software. GnuPG is compliant with RFC 4880, which is the current IETF standards track specification of OpenPGP...
-encrypted messages.
Note 7: Blowfish-encrypted direct connection; compatible only to itself.
Note 8: Newer version Pidgin: Pidgin-encryption plugin, older version Gaim: Gaim-encryption plugin. This plugin is compatible with Pidgin/Gaim clients only.
Note 9: Compatible with all XMPP clients implementing XEP-0027 (standard XMPP encryption).
Note 10: SecureIM plugin provides 192 bits AES Encryption, compatible only between Miranda clients, and implements XEP-0027: Current Jabber OpenPGP Usage.
Note 11: End to end encryption via "Off The Record
Off-the-record messaging
Off-the-Record Messaging, commonly referred to as OTR, is a cryptographic protocol that provides strong encryption for instant messaging conversations. OTR uses a combination of the AES symmetric-key algorithm, the Diffie–Hellman key exchange, and the SHA-1 hash function...
" (OTR) encryption. Adium: Plugin (built-in), Kopete: Plugin,
Pidgin: Plugin, Miranda: Plugin, climm: built-in since (mICQ) 0.5.4, Trillian Pro: Plugin
Note 13: While IMVU does not allow add-ons to extend the client, registered accounts can create new content for use inside the simulation.
Note 14: IMVU logs all actions perceived by the client, including actions that do not have a textual result, making the log difficult to use for reading of messages.
Note 15: WebCam Video, a plugin for Miranda IM, allows for video chat between two users of the Miranda IM client through a different method than whichever protocol they may currently use.
Note 16: AES256-encrypted direct connection; compatible only to itself.
Note 17: Voice clips are fully supported in the stable version, while the audio conference feature is available only in the development version.
Note 19: The IRC client connecting to the bitlbee server should take care of this feature.
Note 20: The Jabberwocky client allows scripting in the ARexx language
ARexx
ARexx is an implementation of the REXX language for the Amiga, written in 1987 by William S. Hawes, with a number of Amiga-specific features beyond standard REXX facilities. Like most REXX implementations, ARexx is an interpreted language...
.
Note 21: Only for members of MobileMe
Note 22: GPG Encryption with Kryptonite plugin
Note 23: Since version 8.0
Note 24: Official support since version 10 build 10784
Note 25: Prior to version 8.0 Gadu-Gadu was written in Win32
Note 26: End-to-end encryption using a combination of Blowfish and RSA algorithms (official Encryption plugin)
Note 27: Depends heavily on libpurple
Features 2
| Client | Handwriting mode | Dockable | Multiaccount | Spell check | User-Defined Graphical Smileys | Animations | OAuth for Client Authorization |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adium Adium Adium is a free and open source instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports multiple IM networks, including Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, and XMPP. It supports many protocols through the libraries libezv , MGTwitterEngine , and libpurple... |
:Receive Only | ||||||
| AIM AOL Instant Messenger AOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997... |
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| aMSN AMSN aMSN is a free Windows Live Messenger clone. aMSN attempts to emulate the look and feel of Windows Live Messenger, and supports many of its features... |
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| Ayttm Ayttm Ayttm is a multi-protocol instant messaging client. It is the heir of the EveryBuddy project.- Services :Ayttm primarily supports one to one and group chatting on MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, AIM, XMPP and IRC. It also has support for sending rudimentary emails via SMTP, which may be used to send SMS via... |
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| BeejiveIM | |||||||
| BitlBee BitlBee BitlBee is a cross-platform IRC instant messaging gateway, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.BitlBee communicates with the user via the IRC protocol, providing a gateway to popular chat networks such as AIM and ICQ via OSCAR, .NET Messenger Service, Yahoo! and XMPP and the... |
? | ? | ? | ||||
| BitWise Bitwise Bitwise may refer to:* Bitwise operation, a basic function in computer programming* Bitwise IIT Kharagpur, an algorithm-intensive programming contest by CSE IIT Kharagpur... IM |
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Brosix Brosix Brosix is a secure instant messenger that is designed to help users connect to each other. It uses 256-bits AES encryption in order to encrypt messages, thus ensuring their security... |
? | ? | ? | ? | |||
| Centericq Centericq Centericq is a text mode menu- and window-driven instant messaging interface that supports the ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, XMPP, LiveJournal, and Gadu-Gadu protocols. It allows you to send, receive, and forward messages, URLs, SMSes , contacts, and email express messages, and it has many other... |
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| climm | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
| Coccinella Coccinella Coccinella is the most familiar genus of ladybird . The elytra of most species are of a red or orange colour, punctuated with black spots or bands... |
? | ? | ? | ||||
| Digsby Digsby Digsby is a freeware proprietary multiprotocol instant messaging application developed by dotSyntax, LLC. Digsby is written in Python and uses wxPython as its widget toolkit and WebKit for rendering... |
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| eM Client EM Client eM Client is a Windows-based Communication Client for managing E-mail, calendars, contacts and tasks. It contains integrated Instant Messaging for XMPP and Skype integration.... |
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| Empathy Empathy (software) Empathy is an instant messaging client which supports text, voice, video, file transfers, and inter-application communication over various IM protocols.... |
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| EQO EQO EQO is a downloadable mobile application that brings free instant messaging, low-cost mobile VoIP and free or low-cost text messaging to mobile phones from manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG, BlackBerry and HTC... |
n/a | n/a | |||||
| Exodus | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Fire Fire (instant messaging client) Fire is the first instant messaging client for Mac OS X , that can access IRC, XMPP, AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, and Bonjour. All services are built on GPL’d libraries, including firetalk, libfaim, libicq2000, libmsn, XMPP, and libyahoo2. Fire supports OS X v10.1 and higher.The latest version... |
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| Gajim Gajim Gajim is an instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the GTK+ toolkit. The name Gajim is a recursive acronym for Gajim's a jabber instant messenger. Gajim runs on GNU/Linux, BSD and Microsoft Windows. Released under the GNU General Public License, Gajim is free software... |
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| GCN Global Communications Network Global Communications Network is an instant messaging client for Microsoft Windows. The software and service are provided free of charge, and supported by banner advertisements... |
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| GOIM GOIM GOIM , is a free software instant messaging client based on the Eclipse Rich Client Platform. It uses the XMPP protocol for communication with an extended presence packet to transmit information about games a user is currently playing.Although GOIM runs on all platforms supported by Java and... |
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Goofey Goofey Goofey was an early instant messaging program for UNIX systems, written in the mid-1990s by Tim MacKenzie and Darren Platt. At the time it was seen as an improvement over the UNIX talk and mail programs and was popular with computer science students studying at Monash University in Melbourne,... 6 |
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Google Talk Google Talk Google Talk is a freeware voice over Internet protocol client application offered by Google Inc. The first beta version of the program was released on August 24, 2005... (standalone) |
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| Google Talk Google Talk Google Talk is a freeware voice over Internet protocol client application offered by Google Inc. The first beta version of the program was released on August 24, 2005... (Gmail Gmail Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though... ) |
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| Gyachi Gyachi GyachE Improved program is a fork from Gyach Enhanced Yahoo! client for Linux operating systems intended for bug-fixes and further development that supports the Yahoo! Messenger Protocol... |
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| iChat IChat iChat is an instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its Mac OS X operating system. It has audio, video and screen-sharing capabilities as well as text messaging... |
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| ICQ ICQ ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, which was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company Mirabilis, then bought by America Online, and since April 2010 owned by Mail.ru Group. The name ICQ is a homophone for the phrase "I seek you"... |
: tZer | ||||||
| InSpeak Communicator InSpeak Communicator InSpeak Communicator is an internet chat program offering text, audio and video interaction.InSpeak is based and operated in Sunrise, FL, USA.-Usage:inSpeak is currently formatted for Microsoft Windows and currently does not support any other platform.... |
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| IMVU IMVU IMVU, Inc. is an online social entertainment destination in which members use 3D avatars to meet new people, chat, create, and play games created by Fydor Guthenschlag. IMVU has over 50 million registered users, 10 million unique visitors per month and three million monthly active users... |
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| IM+ | |||||||
| imo.im | |||||||
| Jabberwocky Jabberwocky (disambiguation) "Jabberwocky" is an 1872 nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, about an encounter between a young boy and a monster called the Jabberwock.Jabberwocky or Jabberwock may also refer to:-Films and television:... |
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| JClaim JClaim JClaim was released for first public use on the 3rd August 2007. It is a multiprotocol instant messaging application for any OS supporting Java 1.5 or better... |
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| Kadu | :smileys | ||||||
| KMess | |||||||
| Kopete Kopete Kopete is a multi-protocol, free software instant messaging client. Although it can run in numerous environments, it was designed for and integrates with the KDE desktop environment... |
:smileys | ||||||
| Licq | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| MECA Messenger | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Meebo Meebo Meebo is a social platform connecting users with their friends across the web. It began in 2005 as a browser based instant messaging program which supported multiple IM services, including Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, ICQ, MySpaceIM, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, CafeMom and... |
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Mercury Messenger | ? | ? | |||||
| Miranda IM Miranda IM Miranda IM is an open source multiprotocol instant messaging application, designed for Microsoft Windows. Miranda is free software distributed under GNU General Public License.- Architecture :... |
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| Microsoft Messenger for Mac Microsoft Messenger for Mac Microsoft Messenger for Mac is the official Mac OS X instant messaging client for use with Microsoft's .NET Messenger Service and is developed by the Macintosh Business Unit, a division of Microsoft. However, the feature list is limited in comparison to that of its counterpart Windows Live Messenger... |
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| MindSpring MindSpring MindSpring Enterprise was a major Internet service provider headquartered in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Mindspring merged with EarthLink on February 4, 2000, with the company retaining the EarthLink name... |
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| MySpaceIM MySpaceIM MySpaceIM is the official instant messaging client for the social networking site MySpace.In 2009, a web-based client dubbed was released to all English-speaking countries, allowing users to interact with friends and non-friends alike to grow their network... |
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Naim | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Nimbuzz | |||||||
| ooVoo | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| QuteCom | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Pandion Pandion (software) Pandion is an XMPP client, developed by Dries Staelens and Sebastiaan Deckers.Pandion is developed as a Rich Desktop Application. This means it uses HTML, CSS and JavaScript to make up its interface and C++ for a backend. The backend embeds a web browser to host the interface and provides access to... |
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| Paltalk Paltalk Paltalk Messenger, or simply referred to as Paltalk, is an Internet chat service that allows users to communicate via instant messaging, voice and video chat. It offers thousands of chat rooms and the ability for users to create their own virtual chat room on any topic and category... |
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Pidgin Pidgin (software) Pidgin is an open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple. Libpurple has support for many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log into various services from one application.The number of Pidgin users was estimated to be over 3... (formerly Gaim) |
:smileys and user icons | ||||||
| PopNote | |||||||
| Pork | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Proteus Proteus (instant messaging client) Proteus is an instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports multiple protocols through the libpurple library. It is written using OS X's Cocoa API.-History:Proteus was originally developed by Justin Wood, then in 2004 Defaultware took over development... |
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Psi Psi (instant messaging client) Psi is a GPL instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the Qt toolkit. It runs on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and eComStation.Ready-to-install deb and RPM packages are available for many Linux distributions... |
? | ? | |||||
| psyced | ? | ? | |||||
| Qnext Qnext Qnext is a multi-protocol instant messaging service for Linux, Mac OS, Windows, and mobile devices. Qnext lets people connect to their digital content when they have access to the internet.Qnext desktop client runs on Linux, Macintosh, and Windows.... |
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| QIP Quiet Internet Pager QIP is a multiprotocol instant messaging client. It is a closed source freeware program originally developed by Ilgam Zyulkorneev. In 2008 it was bought by RosBusinessConsulting media group and named most popular RBC service in 2009.- Features :... |
:smileys | ||||||
| QQ Tencent QQ Tencent QQ, generally referred to as QQ, is the most popular free instant messaging computer program in mainland China. As of July 11, 2011, the active QQ users accounts for QQ IM totaled 812.3 million, possibly making it the world's second largest online community. The number of simultaneous... |
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| qutIM | :Animated emoticons | ||||||
| RealTimeQuery | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
| Skype Skype Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system... |
? | :Animated emoticons | |||||
| talk | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Trillian | :Animated emoticons | ||||||
| Trillian Pro | ? | :Animated emoticons | |||||
| Trillian Astra | :Animated emoticons | ||||||
| VoxOx | |||||||
| VZOchat VZOchat VZOchat is a free software for making video calls and instant messaging. Unlike well-known Skype and other VoIP software, VZOchat is not based on P2P technology. Instead, it uses a central server to handle data flows... |
: Animated user icons | ||||||
| Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD... |
: Animated emoticons, winks | ||||||
| ? | ? | ||||||
| WTW | |||||||
| Yahoo Messenger | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Client | Handwriting mode | Dockable | Multiaccount | Spell check | User-Defined Graphical Smileys | Animations | OAuth for Client Authorization |
See also
- Comparison of instant messaging protocols
- Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clientsComparison of Internet Relay Chat clientsThe following tables compare general and technical information between a number of IRC client programs. Please see the individual products articles for further information.- General :...
- Comparison of LAN messengersComparison of LAN messengers-General information:Basic general information about the LAN messengers: creator/company, license/price, among others.-Operating system support:The operating systems the messengers can run on without emulation or compatibility layers.-Features:...
- LAN messengerLAN messengerA LAN messenger is an instant messaging program designed for use within a single local area network .There are advantages using a LAN messenger over a normal instant messenger. The LAN messenger runs inside a company or private LAN, and so an active Internet connection or a central server is not...
- Messenger serviceMessenger ServiceMessenger Service is a network-based system notification service included in some versions of Microsoft Windows. This service, although it has a similar name, is not related in any way to the .NET Messenger Service or the Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger instant messaging...