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Comparison of cross-platform instant messaging clients

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 208.101.144.231 (talk) at 22:13, 24 April 2007 (→Protocol support). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.


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.

An OpenOffice 1.0 spreadsheet with the information in this article (as of 29 March 2006) is available.

General information

Basic general information about the instant messengers: creator/company, license/price, amongst others.

Author / Creator First public release date Type Latest stable version Cost (USD) Software license
Adium Adam Iser, Evan Schoenberg September, 2001 Multi-protocol Template:Latest stable release/Adium X Free GPL v2
Agile Messenger Agilemobile.com Limited ? Multi-protocol 3.70 Subscription Proprietary
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) AOL May, 1997 Single protocol 6.1.32.1 (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
Adware 		Proprietary
aMSN Alvaro J. Iradier Muro May, 2002 Single protocol 0.96 Free GPL
Ayttm Colin Leroy and Philip Tellis April, 2003 Multi-protocol 0.4.6-17 Free GPL
BitWise IM BitWise Communications, LLC March 17, 2002 Single protocol/Encrypted 1.7.2 Free Proprietary
BitlBee Wilmer van der Gaast August 9, 2002 IRC Gateway, Multi-protocol 1.0.3 Free GPL
Centericq Konstantin Klyagin 1999 Multi-protocol 4.21.0 Free GPL
Coccinella Mats Bengtsson December 1, 1999 Single protocol 0.95.15 Free GPL
commode Super_Dimension_Fortress Feb 02, 1994 Dual Protocol Version 14 Free Proprietary
Cspace Cspace July 28, 2006 Single protocol 1.26 Free GPL
eMeSeNe Luis Mariano Guerra 24 May, 2006 Single protocol 0.2.2.1 Free GPL
Exodus Peter Millard 2002 Single protocol 0.9.1.0 Free GPL
Fire Eric Peyton April 1, 1999 Multi-protocol Template:Latest stable release/Fire Free GPL
Gajim Yann Le Boulanger May 21, 2004 Single protocol 0.11.1 Free GPL
GCN Jason K. Resch November 18, 2000 Single protocol 2.9.1 Free
Adware 		Proprietary
GOIM Herbert Poul August 16, 2005 Single protocol 1.1.0 Free GPL
Goofey Tim Mackenzie Early 1990s Single protocol 2.08 Free ?
Google Talk Google, Inc. August 24, 2005 Single protocol Windows Plugin:

3.19.1.13088 (May 14, 2013; 11 years ago (2013-05-14)) [±]

Free Proprietary
iChat Apple Inc. August, 2002 Multi-protocol 3.1.8 (v445) Free Proprietary
ICQ Mirabilis (AOL) November, 1996 Single protocol 6.0 Free
Adware 		Proprietary
IM2 IM2 Ltd. April, 2003 Multi-protocol 2.0.0.268 Free Proprietary
imeem IM2 Limited 2003 Multi-protocol 1.24.14.17016 Free GPL
IMVU Will Harvey Single-protocol beta Free Proprietary
Instan-t Interactive Networks Inc. March, 2001 Multi-protocol 4.5 Free Proprietary
Interaction Chat Auriance August, 2006 HTTP 1.0 Free Proprietary
Jabbin Jabbin Team December 2005 Multi-protocol 2.0 beta2 Free GPL v2
JMSN sediah, xrath 2002 Single protocol 0.9.9b2 Free BSD
Kadu Kadu Team August, 2001 Single protocol 0.5.0 Free GPL v2
Konnekt Stamina 2002 Multi-protocol 0.6.22.137 Free Proprietary
Kopete Kopete Team March 3, 2002 Multi-protocol 0.12.4 Free GPL
Licq Graham Roff (up to v1.0)
Jon Keating 		June 22, 1998 Multi-protocol 1.3.2 Free GPL
MECA Messenger ? Multi-protocol, Web-based 5.2 Free Proprietary
meebo Meebo, Inc. 2005 Multi-protocol, Web-based alpha v19 Free ?
Meetro Paul Bragiel & Samuel Stauffer 2005 Multi-protocol 0.96 Beta (Win)
0.53 Beta (MacOSX) 		Free ?
Mercury Messenger Danny 2003 Multi-protocol 1.8 Free Proprietary
mICQ Mattew D. Smith (up to ICQv5); Rüdiger Kuhlmann 1997(?); 2001 Single protocol 0.5.2 Free GPL v2
MindSpring Earthlink April 3, 2006 Multi-protocol 1.0 (v53.0) Free Proprietary
Miranda IM Miranda IM project February 6, 2000 Multi-protocol 0.6.8 Free GPL
Microsoft Messenger for Mac Microsoft ??? Single protocol 6.0.2 Free Proprietary
MySpaceIM MySpace May 09, 2006 Single protocol Template:Latest preview release/MySpaceIM (beta) Free
Adware 		Proprietary
msg Super_Dimension_Fortress Jun 16, 1990 Single Protocol Version 6 Free Proprietary
Naim Daniel Reed Oct 05, 1998 Multi-protocol http://naim.n.ml.org/download Free GPL
OpenWengo Wengo 2004 Single protocol 0.99 Free
 GPL
Pandion Dries Staelens, Sebastiaan Deckers Jun 28, 2004 Single protocol 2.5 Free
 Proprietary
Paltalk Jason Katz 1998 Multi-protocol 9.0 Free
 Proprietary
Pidgin Mark Spencer November, 1998 Multi-protocol Template:Latest stable release/Pidgin Free GPL
pork Ryan McCabe December 6, 2006 AIM, IRC Gateway 0.99.8.1 Free GPL v2
Proteus Justin Wood, et al. November 2001 Multi-protocol 4.15b6 Free GPL
Psi Justin Karneges 2001 Single protocol 0.10 Free GPL
psyced psyced.org Project 1997 IRC+XMPP Gateway, Multi-protocol 0.99 Free GPL
QIP Ilgam Zyulkorneev 2004 Single-protocol 8020 Free Proprietary
Qnext June 28, 2004 Multi-protocol 2.3.0.74 Free Proprietary
QQ Tencent February, 1999 Single protocol 2006 Beta1 Free
Adware 		Proprietary
Retroshare Team Retroshare.sf.net March, 2007 Single protocol 2006 Beta1 Free GPL
SAPO Messenger MESSENGER TEAM 2005,03,02 Multi-protocol 4.5.5 Free ?
SIM SIM project ? Multi-protocol 0.9.4.3 Free GPL
Skype Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis / eBay 2003 Single protocol
Windows, UWP15.132.3201.0 / 13 November 2024; 3 days ago (2024-11-13)[1][2][3]
Windows, desktop8.132.0.201 / 11 November 2024; 5 days ago (2024-11-11)[1][2]
macOS8.132.0.201 / 11 November 2024; 5 days ago (2024-11-11)[1][2]
Linux8.132.0.201 / 11 November 2024; 5 days ago (2024-11-11)[1][4]
Android8.132.0.201 / 13 November 2024; 3 days ago (2024-11-13)[5][6][7]
iOS8.132.0.201 / 13 November 2024; 3 days ago (2024-11-13)[5][8]
 Free Proprietary
talk Kipp Hickman 1982 Single protocol 1.7 (BSD version) Free BSD
Tkabber Alexey Shchepin 2003 Single protocol 0.9.9 Free GPL
Trillian Cerulean Studios July 1, 2000 Multi-protocol 3.1 Free Proprietary
Trillian Pro Cerulean Studios September 10, 2002 Multi-protocol 3.1 $25 Proprietary
Trillian Astra Cerulean Studios Alpha Multi-protocol ? ? Proprietary
Windows Live Messenger Microsoft July, 1999 Dual protocol 8.0.812 (Windows XP/Vista) Free
Adware 		Proprietary
Windows Messenger Microsoft 2001-10-25 Multi-protocl 5.1.0701 (Windows XP SP2) Free Proprietary
Xfire Xfire.inc 2004 Single protocol 1.38 Free
Adware 		Proprietary
Yahoo! Messenger Yahoo! June 21, 1999 Dual protocol 8.1.0.244 (Win)
2.5.3 (Mac)
1.0.4 (Unix) 		Free
Adware 		Proprietary
YSM rad2k 2001 Single protocol 2.9.6 Free GPL
Zephyr Project Athena 1987 Single protocol 2.0 Free MIT
Author / Creator First public release date Type Latest stable version Cost (USD) Software 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 No Yes No No No ? ?
Agile Messenger No No No No No Yes ?
AIM Yes Dropped (4.7.1333) Dropped (1.5.286) No No Yes ?
aMSN Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
BitlBee Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
BitWise IM Yes Yes Yes No No Yes ?
Centericq Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Coccinella Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Exodus Yes No No No No ? ?
Fire No Yes No No No ? ?
Gajim Yes Yes1 Yes Yes Yes ? ?
GCN Yes No No No No ? ?
GOIM Yes Yes Yes No No ? ?
Goofey6 No Yes7 Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Google Talk (standalone) Yes No No No No ? Yes
Google Talk (Gmail) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
iChat No Included No No No ? ?
ICQ Yes Dropped (3.4.23) No No No Yes ?
IM2 Yes No No No No ? ?
IMVU Yes No No No No ? ?
Instan-t Yes No No No No ? ?
Interaction Chat Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
imeem Yes Yes No No No ? ?
JMSN Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Kadu No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Kopete Not yet Yes1 Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Licq No No Yes Yes Yes ? ?
MECA Messenger Yes No No No No ? ?
meebo Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Meetro Yes Yes No No No ? ?
Mercury Messenger Yes Yes Yes Yes (Unofficially, Java) Yes (Unofficially, Java) ? ?
mICQ Yes2 Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Miranda IM Yes No No No No ? ?
Microsoft Messenger for Mac No3 Yes No3 No3 No3 ? ?
MindSpring Yes No No No No ? ?
MySpaceIM Yes No No No No ? ?
Naim Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
OpenWengo Yes Yes5 Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Pandion Yes No No No No ? ?
Paltalk Yes No No No No ? ?
Pidgin Yes Yes1 Yes Yes Yes ? ?
pork No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Proteus No Yes No No No ? ?
Psi Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
psyced Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
QIP Yes No No No No Yes No
Qnext Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
QQ Yes No No No No ? ?
Retroshare Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
SAPO Messenger Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ?
SIM Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Skype Yes Yes Yes No No Yes ?
talk Yes4 Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Tkabber Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Trillian Yes No No No No ? ?
Trillian Pro Yes No No No No ? ?
Trillian Astra Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Windows Live Messenger Yes No No No No Yes ?
Windows Messenger Included (XP) No No No No ? ?
Yahoo! Messenger Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
YSM Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Zephyr Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Windows Mac OS X Linux BSD Unix Windows Mobile BlackBerry

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 Microsoft Passport Network 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 OpenWengo-ng 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 OS X within a Unix terminal session (Terminal.app, Xterm, iTerm, or similar.)

Protocol support

Information on the instant messaging protocols that each client supports.

AIM ICQ Windows Live Messenger (previously MSN Messenger) Yahoo! Messenger IRC XMPP (Google Talk and many other XMPP compatible services) Bonjour
(formerly Rendezvous) 		Novell GroupWise Messenger Lotus Sametime Gadu-Gadu Skype QQ Others
Adium Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes ? 10 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yahoo! Japan, .Mac, Zephyr, OTR
Agile Messenger Yes Yes Yes Yes No ? No No No No No on request Wireless Village (on request)
AIM Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No Template:Palm aMSN No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No
BitlBee Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No
BitWise IM No No No No No No No No No No No No BitWise IM
Centericq Partial 6 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No No ?
Coccinella Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Yes No No No Partial 3 No No Partial 3
Exodus No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No
Fire Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? 10 No No No No No No
Gajim Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Yes Yes 10 No No Partial 3 No No No
GCN Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Yes No No No Partial 3 No No GCN
GOIM No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No
Google Talk No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No
iChat Yes Yes Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Yes Yes ? ? Partial 3 No No No
ICQ Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
IM2 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No ?
imeem Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No ?
IMVU Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No IMVU
Instan-t Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No Instan-t network
Interaction Chat No No No No No No No No No No No No No
JMSN No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No
Kadu No No No No No No No No No Yes No No No
Kopete Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Partial 4 No WinPopup
Licq Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No ?
MECA Messenger Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No
meebo Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No
Meetro Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No
Mercury Messenger Partial 3 Partial 3 Yes Partial 3 Partial 3 Yes No No No Partial 3 No No No
mICQ Partial12 Yes No No No Partial13 No No No No No No No
MindSpring No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No
Miranda IM Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Partial 4 Yes Tlen, LAN 5, Chat 5, OTR
Microsoft Messenger for Mac No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No
Paltalk Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No
Pandion No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No
Pidgin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? 10 Yes With plugin 1 Yes No Yes SILC, Zephyr, XFire, OTR (with plugin), Blizzard Battle-Net Chat (with plugin)
pork Yes No No No Yes No No No No No No No
Psi Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Yes No No No Partial 3 No No No
Proteus Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Partial 9 No Yes Yes No No Yahoo! Japan
psyced Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Yes Yes No No No Partial 3 No No PSYC, TELNET, SMTP, HTTP, WAP
QIP Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
Qnext Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No Qnext
QQ No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No
SIM Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No LiveJournal
Skype No No No No No No No No No No Yes No ?
talk No No No No No No No No No No No No ntalk, ytalk
Tkabber Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Yes No No No Partial 3 No No No
Trillian Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
Trillian Pro Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? 10 Yes Yes With plugin 1 With plugin 11 With plugin 1 XFire (with plugin)
Trillian Astra Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? 10 Yes Yes With plugin 1 With plugin 11 With plugin 1 ASTRA, MySpace, XFire (with plugin)
Windows Live Messenger No No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No
Windows Messenger No No Yes No No No No No No No No No SIP, EIM
Yahoo! Messenger No No Yes Yes No No No No Yes No No No No
YSM No Yes No No No No No No No No No No ?
Zephyr No No No No No No No No No No No No Zephyr
AIM ICQ Windows Live Messenger (previously MSN Messenger) Yahoo! Messenger IRC XMPP (Google Talk and many other XMPP compatible services) Bonjour
(formerly Rendezvous) 		Novell GroupWise Messenger Lotus Sametime Gadu-Gadu Skype QQ Others

Note 1: Plugin available [1]

Note 2: Plugin available

Note 3: Interoperability with proprietary protocols can be achieved using server-side gateways (so-called transports) in Jabber.

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 [2]

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: Plug-in available, but requires Skype to be installed and running.

Note 12: AIM interoperability: can send/receive to AIM from an ICQ account.

Note 13: The support is optional, but disabled by default. It currently is far from feature-complete.

Features

Information on what features each of the clients support.

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/ Remote Application/ Remote Assistance Whiteboard
Adium Cocoa Yes 11 Partial Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No ? No ? ? ?
Agile Messenger ? ? Partial Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? Yes ? ?
AIM W32 Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? ?
aMSN Tcl/Tk ? Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 17 ? Yes Yes ? ?
BitlBee n/a No No No ? No No No No ? ? ? ? No ? ? ?
BitWise IM W32, GTK2, Carbon Yes 7 Yes No ? Yes Yes No No ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes ? ?
Centericq ncurses Partial 9 Partial No ? No Yes Yes ? Yes Yes No No No Yes ? ?
Coccinella Tcl/Tk Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No Yes Yes ? No Yes ? Yes
Exodus W32 No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No ? ? ? ? No Yes ? ?
Fire Cocoa Yes 6 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
Gajim GTK2 Yes 9 Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No Yes No ? No Yes ? ?
GCN W32 Yes 4 Yes Yes ? Yes Partial No Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
GOIM Java/SWT Yes No Yes Yes No Partial Yes No No No No ? No Yes ? ?
Google Talk W32 No Yes Partial Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Template:Third-party plugin Yes ? ?
iChat Cocoa Yes Yes Yes ? No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? ?
ICQ W32 No Yes Yes ? Yes Yes No Yes ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ?
IM2 W32 Yes 4 Partial Yes ? No Yes No No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
imeem ? No Partial Yes ? No No No No ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IMVU ? ? No Yes Yes Partial Yes No Yes 13 No Yes 14 No ? No Yes ? ?
Instan-t W32 Yes Yes Yes ? No Yes Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
JMSN Java ? Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
Kadu Qt Yes Yes Yes ? No Partial Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? No No ? ?
Kopete Qt/KDE Yes 9 Partial Yes Partial No Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? ?
Licq Qt Yes 5 Yes Yes ? No Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
MECA Messenger ? ? Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes No No No Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
Meetro ? Yes No Yes ? No No No No ? Yes ? ? ? Yes ? ?
Mercury Messenger Swing Yes 4 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No ? Yes Yes ? ?
mICQ line based Yes 5 Yes — Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes — — — Yes — No
Miranda IM W32 Yes 10 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial 15 ? Partial15 Yes ? Yes
Microsoft Messenger for Mac Carbon No Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes No ? No Yes ? ?
OpenWengo Qt No No Yes Yes No Yes No No ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ?
Paltalk n/a Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? ?
Pandion ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No ? No Yes ? ?
Pidgin GTK2 With plugin 8 Partial Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No ? No Partial ? ?
pork ncurses ? Yes No ? ? No No No No Yes Yes ? No ? ? ?
Proteus Cocoa ? Partial Yes ? No Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ?
Psi KDE/Qt Yes 9 Yes Yes Yes No Partial (Iconsets only) No No No Yes No ? No Yes ? ?
psyced n/a Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes ? ?
QIP W32, VCL Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No No No Yes No No
Qnext Swing Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ?
QQ W32 No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ?
SAPO Messenger ? ? Yes Yes ? No ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ?
SIM Qt/KDE Yes 5 6 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ?
Skype Qt/KDE, W32 Yes (Skype-to-Skype) Yes Yes Partial Yes No Yes Yes ? Yes Yes (Skype-to-Skype) ? Yes (Skype-to-Skype) No ? ?
talk curses No No No No No No No No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Tkabber Tcl/Tk Yes 9 Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? No ? No Yes ? ?
Trillian Basic 3.0 W32 Yes Yes Yes Partial No Yes No Yes ? Yes ? ? No ? ? ?
Trillian Pro 3.0 W32 Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? ?
Trillian Astra W32 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes? Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? ?
Windows Live Messenger

formerly MSN Messenger

W32 No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes
Windows Messenger W32 No Yes Yes Yes No No Partial No ? No Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes
Yahoo! Messenger W32, Cocoa, GTK ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
YSM line based Yes 7 No ? ? ? No No No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
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/ Remote Application/ Remote 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 4: Proprietary; compatible only to itself.

Note 5: ICQ: SSL-encrypted direct connections; compatible between mICQ, licq and SIM.

Note 6: Any protocol: GPG-encrypted messages.

Note 7: Blowfish-encrypted direct connection; compatible only to itself.

Note 8: Available as a plugin at http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/ - the "Off-the-Record Messaging" (OTR) encryption system is open source and thus can in theory be used with any other instant messaging program (e.g. Miranda IM with OTR plugin), though it might be difficult to add support to closed-source clients. Also available as another plugin at http://gaim-encryption.sf.net. This plugin is compatible with Pidgin 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. Also available "Off The Record" (OTR) plugin at http://addons.miranda-im.org/details.php?action=viewfile&id=2644

Note 11: Encryption is "Off The Record" (OTR) encryption, which is currently supported primarily as a system of plugins.

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: Only voice clips are fully supported, not the audio conference feature.

Features 2

Handwriting mode
Adium
Agile Messenger
AIM
aMSN Yes
BitlBee
BitWise IM
Centericq
Coccinella
Exodus
Fire
Gajim
GCN
GOIM
Goofey6
Google Talk (standalone) No
Google Talk (Gmail) No
iChat
ICQ
IM2
IMVU
Instan-t
Interaction Chat
imeem
JMSN
Kadu
Kopete No
Licq
MECA Messenger
meebo
Meetro
Mercury Messenger Yes
mICQ —
Miranda IM Yes
Microsoft Messenger for Mac
MindSpring
MySpaceIM
Naim No
OpenWengo
Pandion
Paltalk
Pidgin No
pork
Proteus
Psi
psyced No
QIP Yes
Qnext
QQ
SAPO Messenger No
SIM
Skype No
talk
Tkabber
Trillian Yes
Trillian Pro Yes
Trillian Astra Yes
Windows Live Messenger Yes
Windows Messenger
Yahoo! Messenger
YSM
Zephyr
Handwriting mode

See also

  1. ^ a b c d "Release Notes for Skype for Windows, Mac and Linux". Skype Support. Retrieved 2024-11-13.
  2. ^ a b c "Get Skype". Skype. Retrieved 2024-11-13.
  3. ^ "Skype". Microsoft Apps. Retrieved 2024-11-13.
  4. ^ "Install Skype on Linux". Snap Store. Retrieved 2024-11-13.
  5. ^ a b "Release Notes for Skype on Mobile". Skype Support. Retrieved 2024-11-13.
  6. ^ "Skype". Google Play. Retrieved 2024-11-13.
  7. ^ "Skype 8.132.0.201". APKMirror. 2024-11-13. Retrieved 2024-11-13.
  8. ^ "Skype". App Store. Retrieved 2024-11-13.
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