Information on what features each of the clients support. 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 4: Proprietary; compatible only to itself. Note 5: ICQ: SSL-encrypt ...

See also:

Comparison of instant messengers, Comparison of instant messengers - General information, Comparison of instant messengers - Operating system support, Comparison of instant messengers - Protocol support, Comparison of instant messengers - Features, Comparison of instant messengers - Advanced conferencing

Read more here: » Comparison of instant messengers: Encyclopedia II - Comparison of instant messengers - Features

Created at MIT, as part of Project Athena, Zephyr was designed as an instant messenger 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 system. Zephyr is still in use today at a few university environments such as Carnegie Mellon, Iowa State, Stanford University, University of Maryland, College Park, and MIT. It has been largely replaced by modern and more po ...

Read more here: » Zephyr protocol: Encyclopedia - Zephyr protocol

Yahoo! Messenger is a popular instant messaging client and protocol provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger is provided free of charge and can be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo! ID" which also allows access to other Yahoo! services, such as Yahoo! Mail, where users can be automatically notified when they receive new email. Yahoo Instant Messenger also includes a security feature which al ...

Including:

• Yahoo! Messenger - Yahoo Rooms
• Yahoo! Messenger - Latest Releases
• Yahoo! Messenger - Windows
• Yahoo! Messenger - Mac OS X and Mac OS 8/9
• Yahoo! Messenger - Unix
• Yahoo! Messenger - Feature & Release History
• Yahoo! Messenger - Windows
• Yahoo! Messenger - Plugins

Read more here: » Yahoo! Messenger: Encyclopedia - Yahoo! Messenger

MSN Messenger - MSN Messenger 1. The first product release, released July 22, 1999. Claimed operability with AOL's AIM network. It included only basic features, such as plain text messaging and a simplistic contact list. MSN Messenger - MSN Messenger 2. Released November 16, 1999. Included a rotating advertising banner and the ability to slightly customize the appearance of the chat window. It came as an install option for Windows ME. ...

See also:

MSN Messenger, MSN Messenger - Version Overview, MSN Messenger - MSN Messenger 1, MSN Messenger - MSN Messenger 2, MSN Messenger - MSN Messenger 3, MSN Messenger - MSN Messenger 4.6, MSN Messenger - MSN Messenger 5, MSN Messenger - MSN Messenger 6, MSN Messenger - MSN Messenger 6.1, MSN Messenger - MSN Messenger 6.2, MSN Messenger - MSN Messenger 7.0, MSN Messenger - MSN Messenger 7.5, MSN Messenger - MSN Messenger QFE Patch, MSN Messenger - MSN Web Messenger, MSN Messenger - Windows Live Messenger 8, MSN Messenger - Protocol, MSN Messenger - Games, MSN Messenger - Solitaire Showdown, MSN Messenger - American checkers, MSN Messenger - Bejeweled, MSN Messenger - Minesweeper Flags, MSN Messenger - Other Games, MSN Messenger - Applications, MSN Messenger - Activity SDK, MSN Messenger - Competition, MSN Messenger - Criticism

Read more here: » MSN Messenger: Encyclopedia II - MSN Messenger - Version Overview

If you don't want to run BitlBee server on your computer or if you are using Microsoft Windows, you could try to connect to a public BitlBee server. Read the MOTD for server specific rules: im.bitlbee.org (maintained by the BitlBee team) testing.bitlbee.org (maintained by the BitlBee team, most of the time running the latest snapshot) im.uk.bitlbee.org (Telford, UK, maintained by Sound Solutions Internet, SSL Enabled) im.us.bitlbee.org (St Louis, USA, maintained by Sound Solutions Internet) im ...

See also:

BitlBee, BitlBee - Startup, BitlBee - Public Servers, BitlBee - Version information

Read more here: » BitlBee: Encyclopedia II - BitlBee - Public Servers

The basic computer-to-computer service allows users to speak, to send instant messages or to send files to one another from their computers via the Internet at no cost. Conferences of up to five users are supported. Skype - SkypeOut. SkypeOut is a paid feature of the Skype Internet telephony service, which allows Skype users to call virtually any non-computer-based landline ...

See also:

Skype, Skype - Features, Skype - SkypeOut, Skype - SkypeIn, Skype - Skype Voicemail, Skype - Skype Chat, Skype - Skype Video Calling, Skype - Releases, Skype - Technology, Skype - GIPS iLBC CODEC, Skype - Security, Skype - General, Skype - Confidentiality of Data, Skype - Integrity/Authenticity of Data, Skype - Authenticity of user identity, Skype - Prank program, Skype - History, Skype - Skype business ecology, Skype - Distribution partners, Skype - Third Party Software products, Skype - Usage, Skype - Criticisms, Skype - Prohibitions and warnings, Skype - China 2005, Skype - France 2005, Skype - Skype vs traditional phone companies, Skype - Compatible products

Read more here: » Skype: Encyclopedia II - Skype - Features

QQ was initially developed by Tencent Inc. in February 1999. The first release of QQ was advertised as an "Internet Pager" instant messenger, which later developed into a complete suite with features such as chatrooms, personal avatars (similar to "Meego" in MSN), internet storage, and internet dating services. Its variety of features and easy-to-use interface made it especially popular with teenagers, and QQ has since developed into the most popular instant messenger in China. ...

See also:

QQ, QQ - Usage, QQ - Usage outside China, QQ - Client, QQ - Development, QQ - Naming, QQ - Membership, QQ - Versions, QQ - TM, QQ - Commercial Service, QQ - Merchandise, QQ - Controversies and Criticisms, QQ - Keyword Filtering, QQ - QQ Group Real Name Scheme, QQ - QQ levels, QQ - Plagiarism, QQ - Adult Materials on QQ.com, QQ - Resource Hungry

Read more here: » QQ: Encyclopedia II - QQ - Development

Basic general information about the protocols: creator, version, etc. Note 1: In ~usr@a.b.com, the a.b.com part is known as the "hostmask" and can either be the server being connected from or a "cloak" granted by the server administrator; a more realistic example is ~myname@myisp.example.com. The tilde generally indicates that the username provided by the IRC client on signon was not verified with the ident service. Note 2: In usr@a.b.c/home, the ...

See also:

Comparison of instant messaging protocols, Comparison of instant messaging protocols - General information

Read more here: » Comparison of instant messaging protocols: Encyclopedia II - Comparison of instant messaging protocols - General information

PhoneGaim is a software based on Gaim (and thus also available under the GPL) that uses the SIP protocol to be able to have voice communication over the internet via VoIP. Proteus and Adium are instant messaging clients for Mac OS X that support multiple protocols through the libgaim library. ...

See also:

Gaim, Gaim - Features, Gaim - Plugins, Gaim - Derivatives

Read more here: » Gaim: Encyclopedia II - Gaim - Derivatives

The Jabber network is server-based (i.e. clients do not talk directly to one another) but decentralized; there is no central authoritative server, as there is with services such as AOL Instant Messenger or MSN Messenger. Some confusion often arises on this point as there is, in fact, a public Jabber server being run at "Jabber.org", to which a large number of users subscribe. However, anyone may run their own Jabber server on their own domain. A user is identified with a user name and a server name. The two fields are separated by the @ sign. This identifier is c ...

See also:

Jabber, Jabber - History, Jabber - Advantages, Jabber - How it works, Jabber - Jabber ID, Jabber - Connecting to other protocols, Jabber - Jabber and HTTP, Jabber - Regional Jabber communities

Read more here: » Jabber: Encyclopedia II - Jabber - How it works

List of Jabber clients - Open Source. Bombus (J2ME/MIDP2.0) http://bombus.jrudevels.org/ (switched over to a Modified BSD license on November 2005) cabber (Cross-platform, http://cabber.sourceforge.net/ (outdated) Exodus (Windows) http://exodus.jabberstudio.org/ Freetalk (Linux/Unix) http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/freetalk/ Gabber (Linux/Unix) http://gabber.jabberstudio.org/ Gajim (Cross-platform) http://www.gajim.org/ GOIM (Cross-platform) http://g ...

See also:

List of Jabber clients, List of Jabber clients - Jabber-only, List of Jabber clients - Open Source, List of Jabber clients - Freeware, List of Jabber clients - Commercial, List of Jabber clients - Multi-Protocol, List of Jabber clients - Open Source, List of Jabber clients - Freeware, List of Jabber clients - Commercial

Read more here: » List of Jabber clients: Encyclopedia II - List of Jabber clients - Jabber-only

Miranda IM - Early days. Miranda IM was first started by Roland Rabien (figbug) on February 2, 2000. At that time, it was a minimalist ICQ clone and officially called Miranda ICQ. The first public release, version 0.0.1, was released in February 6, 2000. This release was made using LibICQ, had no support for message history, database, and plugins, and had a distribution size of less than 100KB. M ...

See also:

Miranda IM, Miranda IM - Connectivity, Miranda IM - Development history, Miranda IM - Early days, Miranda IM - Version 0.1.x, Miranda IM - Version 0.2.x, Miranda IM - Version 0.3.x, Miranda IM - Version 0.4.x, Miranda IM - Future plans

Read more here: » Miranda IM: Encyclopedia II - Miranda IM - Development history

ICQ allows the sending of text messages with offline support, URLs, multi-user character-by-character chats, resumable file transfers, SMSes, greeting cards and more. Other features included a searchable user directory and POP3 email support. Even though such features have been available since around 2000, many of the main competitors such as AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger have failed to implement such power-user oriented features even to this day. Instead, they have targeted younger users with an avalanche of ...

See also:

ICQ, ICQ - Features, ICQ - History, ICQ - Other products, ICQ - Clients, ICQ - Films

Read more here: » ICQ: Encyclopedia II - ICQ - Features

Critics of the new service have pointed out that contrary to Gmail's philosophy of storing all information with over two gigabytes of storage, Google's own client will not log more than 20 lines of text chat or handle offline messages. In addition, Google Talk does not allow users to search through their past conversation; this is interesting considering that Google specializes in searching. This was one of the notable features ...

See also:

Google Talk, Google Talk - History, Google Talk - Technical, Google Talk - Criticism reviews and bugs, Google Talk - Future releases

Read more here: » Google Talk: Encyclopedia II - Google Talk - Criticism reviews and bugs

In the early beta days of Mac OS X, Eric Peyton wanted to have an IM client which would run on this new OS. However, all of the official client vendors had not yet supported Mac OS X, so Peyton started expanding on an OPENSTEP project he had been working on, which used an open source library to connect with AIM servers. He started porting this using the new Cocoa libraries on OS X and a new IM client began to take shape. Development in the early days was fast and furious and Fire was touted by Apple as one of the keystone applications ...

See also:

Fire instant messenger, Fire instant messenger - History

Read more here: » Fire instant messenger: Encyclopedia II - Fire instant messenger - History

Yahoo! Messenger - Windows. 7.0.2.120 / December 23, 2005. Yahoo! Messenger - Mac OS X and Mac OS 8/9. 2.5.3 Yahoo! Messenger - Unix. 1.0.4 ...

See also:

Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger - Yahoo Rooms, Yahoo! Messenger - Latest Releases, Yahoo! Messenger - Windows, Yahoo! Messenger - Mac OS X and Mac OS 8/9, Yahoo! Messenger - Unix, Yahoo! Messenger - Feature & Release History, Yahoo! Messenger - Windows, Yahoo! Messenger - Plugins

Read more here: » Yahoo! Messenger: Encyclopedia II - Yahoo! Messenger - Latest Releases

Jeremie Miller began the project in 1998; its first major public release occurred in May 2000. The project's main product is jabberd, a server to which Jabber clients connect in order to chat. This server can either create a private Jabber network (behind a firewall, for instance) or it can join the global public Jabber network. The key features of Jabber are the distributed nature of the IM sy ...

See also:

Jabber, Jabber - History, Jabber - Advantages, Jabber - How it works, Jabber - Connecting to other protocols, Jabber - Jabber and HTTP, Jabber - Regional Jabber communities

Read more here: » Jabber: Encyclopedia II - Jabber - History

Instant messaging requires the use of a client program that hooks up an instant messaging service and differs from e-mail in that conversations are then able to happen in realtime. Most services offer a presence information feature, indicating whether people on one's list of contacts are currently online and available to chat. This may be called a 'Buddy List'. In early instant messaging programs, each letter appeared as it was typed, and when letters were deleted to correct typos this was also seen in real time. This made it more like a tel ...

See also:

Instant messaging, Instant messaging - Overview, Instant messaging - History, Instant messaging - Origin of term, Instant messaging - Cooperation, Instant messaging - Decentralized instant messaging, Instant messaging - Servers, Instant messaging - User base

Read more here: » Instant messaging: Encyclopedia II - Instant messaging - Overview

Trillian instant messenger - Representation. Trillian represents each client with a different-coloured sphere. Prior versions used the corporate logos for each service, but these were removed to avoid copyright issues, although some skins still use the original icons for the mediums. Red for Yahoo! Messenger Blue for MSN Messenger Green for ICQ Yellow for AIM White for IRC Purple for Jabber* Pink for Skype (via the Skyllian plugin)* See also:

Trillian instant messenger, Trillian instant messenger - Skins, Trillian instant messenger - Plugins, Trillian instant messenger - Other features, Trillian instant messenger - Representation, Trillian instant messenger - Activity History, Trillian instant messenger - Time travel, Trillian instant messenger - Instant lookup, Trillian instant messenger - Emotiblips, Trillian instant messenger - Hidden Smileys, Trillian instant messenger - Version history

Read more here: » Trillian instant messenger: Encyclopedia II - Trillian instant messenger - Other features

List of instant messaging clients - Mainstream. AIM Google Talk ICQ Microsoft Messenger for Mac MSN Messenger Psi QQ Skype Windows Messenger Yahoo! Messenger Rediff BOL List of instant messaging clients - Other. Akeni Babble BitWise IM DirectNet peer to peer instant messenger FotoSwap Gadu-Gadu Instan-t ...

See also:

List of instant messaging clients, List of instant messaging clients - Official, List of instant messaging clients - Mainstream, List of instant messaging clients - Other, List of instant messaging clients - Third-party, List of instant messaging clients - Multi-protocol, List of instant messaging clients - Single protocol, List of instant messaging clients - Jabber protocol

Read more here: » List of instant messaging clients: Encyclopedia II - List of instant messaging clients - Official