Comparison of instant messaging clients Totally Explained

Everything about Comparison Of Instant Messaging Clients totally explained

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 isn't 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 date	Type	Latest stable version	Cost (USD)	License
Adium	Adam Iser, Evan Schoenberg	September 2001	Multi-protocol	(Mac OS X)	Free	GPL v2
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)	AOL	May 1997	Single protocol	6.5.9.1 (Windows) 1.0.2 Build 110 Beta (Pro (Win)) 1.3.30.1 (Triton (Win)) 4.7.1333 (Mac OS X) 1.5.286 (Linux)	Free Ad-supported	Clickwrap license
aMSN	Alvaro J. Iradier Muro	May 2002	Single protocol	0.97	Free	GPL
A-Talk	Robert Edworthy	2006	Single protocol	1.0.3	Free	GPL
Ayttm	Colin Leroy and Philip Tellis	April 2003	Multi-protocol	0.5.0-10 (Linux) 0.4.6-17 (Windows)	Free	GPL
BitWise IM	BitWise Communications, LLC	2002-03-17	Single protocol/Encrypted	1.7.2	Free	Clickwrap license
BitlBee	Wilmer van der Gaast	2002-08-09	IRC Gateway, Multi-protocol	1.0.3	Free	GPL
Centericq	Konstantin Klyagin	1999	Multi-protocol		Free	GPL
climm	Mattew D. Smith (up to ICQv5); Rüdiger Kuhlmann	1997(?); 2001	Dual protocol	0.6.2	Free	GPL v2
Coccinella	Mats Bengtsson	1999-12-01	Single protocol		Free	GPL v3
Cspace	Cspace	2006-07-28	Single protocol	1.26	Free	GPL
Digsby	Steven Shapiro	Jan 2008	Multi-protocol	Beta	Free	Clickwrap license
Ebuddy	Paulo Taylor	2003-03-09	Multi-protocol	Beta v5.0.1	Free	Clickwrap license
EQO	EQO Communications	2006-02-06	Multi-protocol	1.4	Free	Clickwrap license
emesene	Luis Mariano Guerra	2006-05-24	Single protocol	1.0 Beta	Free	GPL
Exodus	Peter Millard	2002	Single protocol	0.9.1.0	Free	GPL
Fire	Eric Peyton	1999-04-01	Multi-protocol		Free	GPL
Fring			Multi-protocol		Free	Clickwrap license
Gadu-Gadu	Łukasz Foltyn		Single protocol	7.7	Free	Clickwrap license (?)
Gajim	Yann Le Boulanger	2004-05-21	Single protocol		Free	GPL
GCN	Jason K. Resch	2000-11-18	Single protocol	2.9.1	Free Ad-supported	Clickwrap license
GOIM	Herbert Poul	2005-08-16	Single protocol		Free	GPL
Goofey	Tim Mackenzie	1990s (Early 1990s)	Single protocol	2.08	Free	Clickwrap license
Google Talk	Google, Inc.	2005-08-24	Dual protocol		Free	Clickwrap license
iChat	Apple Inc.	August 2002	Multi-protocol		Free	Clickwrap license
IBM Lotus Sametime	IBM, Ubique	1998	Multi-protocol -- proprietary T.120, SIP, XMPP	8.0; March 2008	depends	Clickwrap license
ICQ	Mirabilis (AOL)	November 1996	Single protocol	6.0	Free Ad-supported	Clickwrap license
IMVU	Will Harvey	?	Single-protocol	beta	Free	Clickwrap license
Instantbird	Florian Quèze and Quentin Castier	2007	Multi-protocol	0.1.1	Free	GPL v2
Interaction Chat	Auriance	August 2006	HTTP	1.0	Free	Clickwrap license
Jabbin	Jabbin Team	December 2005	Multi-protocol	none	Free	GPL v2
Kadu	Kadu Team	August 2001	Single protocol	0.6.0	Free	GPL v2
Konnekt	Stamina	2002	Multi-protocol	0.6.22.137	Free	Clickwrap license
Kopete	Kopete Team	2002-03-03	Multi-protocol	0.50.2	Free	GPL
Licq	Graham Roff (up to v1.0) Jon Keating	1998-06-22	Multi-protocol	1.3.2	Free	GPL
Mail.ru Agent	Mail.ru	May 2003	Single-protocol	5.0 (Windows) 1.0 (Windows Mobile) 2.1 (J2ME)	Free	Clickwrap license
MCabber	Mikael Berthe	2005-06-07	Single-protocol		Free	GPL
MECA Messenger		?	Multi-protocol	5.2	Free	Clickwrap license
meebo	Meebo, Inc.	2005	Multi-protocol, Web-based	alpha v19	Free	Clickwrap license
Meetro	Paul Bragiel & Samuel Stauffer	2005	Multi-protocol	0.96 Beta (Win) 0.53 Beta (Mac OS X)	Free	Clickwrap license
Mercury Messenger	Danny	2003	Multi-protocol		Free	Clickwrap license
MindSpring	Earthlink	2006-04-03	Multi-protocol	1.0 (v53.0)	Free	Clickwrap license
Miranda IM	Miranda IM project	2000-02-06	Multi-protocol	0.7.6	Free	GPL
Microsoft Messenger for Mac	Microsoft	?	Single protocol	7.0	Free	Clickwrap license
MySpaceIM	MySpace	2006-05-09	Single protocol	1.0.754.0 (February 7, 2008)	Free Ad-supported	Clickwrap license
Naim	Daniel Reed	1998-10-05	Multi-protocol	0.11.8.3.1 (2007-07-09)	Free	GPL
OpenWengo	Wengo	2004	Multi-protocol	2.1.2	Free	GPL
Pandion	Dries Staelens, Sebastiaan Deckers	2004-06-28	Single protocol		Free	Clickwrap license
Paltalk	Jason Katz	1998	Multi-protocol	9.0	Free	Clickwrap license
Pidgin (formerly Gaim)	Mark Spencer	November 1998	Multi-protocol		Free	GPL
pork	Ryan McCabe	2006-12-06	AIM, IRC Gateway	0.99.8.1	Free	GPL v2
Proteus	Justin Wood, et al.	November 2001	Multi-protocol		Free	GPL
Psi	Justin Karneges	2001	Single protocol		Free	GPL
psyced	psyced.org Project	1997	IRC+XMPP+PSYC Gateway, Multi-protocol	0.99	Free	GPL
QIP	Ilgam Zyulkorneev	2004	Single-protocol	8050 (Windows) 1020 (Windows Mobile) 1040 (Symbian S60 and UIQ3)	Free	Clickwrap license
QIP infium	Ilgam Zyulkorneev	2007	Multi-protocol	9000	Free	Clickwrap license
Qnext	Qnext Corp.	2004-06-28	Multi-protocol	3.0.1.36 (Beta)(March 1, 2007)	Free Ad-supported	Clickwrap license
Tencent QQ	Tencent	February 1999	Single protocol	2008 贺岁版	Free Ad-supported	Clickwrap license
RealTimeQuery	realtimequery.com	2005-2007	Single protocol	v3.0 - 2007	$99.95	Clickwrap license
SIM	SIM project	?	Multi-protocol		Free	GPL
Solixa	www.solixa.com	?	Single-protocol		Free	GPL
Skype	Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis / eBay	2003	Single protocol		Free	Clickwrap license
talk	Kipp Hickman	1982	Single protocol	1.7 (BSD version)	Free	BSD
Trillian	Cerulean Studios	2000-07-01	Multi-protocol		Free	Clickwrap license
Trillian Pro	Cerulean Studios	2002-09-10	Multi-protocol		$25	Clickwrap license
Trillian Astra	Cerulean Studios	?	Multi-protocol	Alpha	?	Clickwrap license
Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger)	Microsoft	July 1999	Dual protocol	8.5.1302 (Windows XP/Vista) 1.0.6141 (Windows Live for Nokia S60)	Free Ad-supported	Clickwrap license
Windows Messenger	Microsoft	2001-10-25	Multi-protocol	5.1.0701 (Windows XP SP2)	Free	Clickwrap license
Xfire	Xfire Inc.	2004	Single protocol	1.92	Free Ad-supported	Clickwrap license
Yahoo! Messenger	Yahoo!	1999-06-21	Dual protocol	8.1.0.244 (Win) 2.5.3 (Mac) 1.0.4 (Unix)	Free Ad-supported	Clickwrap license
Zephyr	Project Athena	1987	Single protocol	2.0	Free	MIT
BigAnt Instant Messenger	BigAntSoft	2008-02-20	Single protocol	2.4	$14	Commercial license
	Author / Creator	First public release date	Type	Latest stable version	Cost (USD)	License

Operating system support

The operating systems the clients can run on without emulation or compatibility layers.

	Windows	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD	Unix	Windows Mobile	BlackBerry	Other
Adium
AIM		(4.7.1333)	(1.5.286)
SIM	Qt/KDE	^5,⁶								?		?	?	?		?	?
Skype	Qt/KDE, W32	(Skype only)								?		(Skype only)	?	(Skype only)		?	?
talk	curses
Trillian Basic 3.0	W32									?		?	?			?	?
Trillian Pro 3.0	W32												?			?	?
Trillian Astra	W32									?			?			?	?
Windows Live Messengerformerly MSN Messenger	W32
Windows Messenger	W32									?			?		?
Xfire	W32
Yahoo! Messenger	W32, Cocoa, GTK									?						?	?
	Toolkits or SDKs	Encryption	File transfer	Graphical smileys	Unicode (UTF-8)	Built-in games	Themes / skins	Plugin system ¹	Third party add-ons ²	Scripting	Message Logging	Voice messaging	Voice Mail	Webcam Support	Offline messaging	Remote desktop application assistance	Whiteboard

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 and SIM. 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, available at pidgin-encrypt.sf.net

. This plugin is compatible with Pidgin/Gaim clients only. Note 9: Compatible with all Jabber clients implementing JEP-0027 (standard Jabber encryption). Note 10: SecureIM

plugin provides 192 bits AES Encryption, compatible only between Miranda clients. Note 11: End to end encryption via "Off The Record" (OTR) encryption. Adium: Plugin (built-in), Kopete: Plugin (kopete-otr.follefuder.org

), Pidgin: Plugin (www.cypherpunks.ca/otr

), Miranda: Plugin (addons.miranda-im.org/details.php?action=viewfile&id=2644

), climm: built-in since (mICQ) 0.5.4, Trillian Pro: Plugin (trillianotr.kittyfox.net

) Note 13: While IMVU doesn't 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 don't 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: Only voice clips are fully supported, not the audio conference feature. 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.

Features 2

	Handwriting mode	Dockable	Multiaccount	Spell check	User-Defined Graphical Smileys	Animations
Adium	?				?	?
AIM	?	?		?	?	?
aMSN		?
BitlBee		?	?	?	?	?
BitWise IM	?	?	?	?	?	?
Centericq	?	?	?	?	?	?
climm		?		?	?	?
Coccinella	?				?	?
EQO	n/a	n/a
Exodus	?	?	?	?	?	?
Fire	?	?	?	?	?	?
Gajim	?	?		?	?	?
GCN	?	?	?	?	?	?
GOIM	?	?	?	?	?	?
Goofey⁶	?	?	?	?	?	?
Google Talk (standalone)		?		?	?	?
Google Talk (Gmail)		?	?	?	?
iChat	?	?	?	?	?	?
ICQ						: tZer
IMVU	?	?	?	?	?	?
Interaction Chat	?	?	?	?	?	?
imeem	?	?	?	?	?	?
Jabberwocky	?		?	?	?	?
Kadu	?	?	?	?	?	?
Kopete		?			?	?
Licq	?	?	?	?	?	?
MECA Messenger	?	?	?	?	?	?
meebo	?	?	?	?	?	?
Meetro	?	?	?	?	?	?
Mercury Messenger					?	?
Miranda IM
Microsoft Messenger for Mac	?	?	?	?	?	?
MindSpring	?	?	?	?	?	?
MySpaceIM	?	?	?	?	?	?
Naim		?	?	?	?	?
OpenWengo	?	?		?	?	?
Pandion	?	?	?	?	?	?
Paltalk	?	?	?	?	?	?
Pidgin (formerly Gaim)						?
pork	?	?	?	?	?	?
Proteus	?	?	?	?	?	?
Psi		?			?	?
psyced					?	?
Qnext	?	?	?	?	?	?
QIP					?	:smileys
QQ						?
RealTimeQuery		?		?	?	?
SIM	?				?	?
Skype					?	?
talk	?	?	?	?	?	?
Trillian					?	?
Trillian Pro					?	?
Trillian Astra					?	?
Windows Live Messenger						: Animoticons
Windows Messenger					?	?
Yahoo! Messenger	?	?	?		?	?
Zephyr	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Handwriting mode	Dockable	Multiaccount	Spell check	User-Defined Graphical Smileys	Animations

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