Comparison of instant messaging clients

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
 Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.

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.

Contents

[edit] 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 0.89.1  (April 10, 2006) Free GPL v2
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) AOL May, 1997 Single protocol 5.9.6089 (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 1.7.1 Free Proprietary
BitlBee Wilmer van der Gaast August 9, 2002 IRC Gateway, Multi-protocol 1.0.3 Free GPL
Centericq Konstantin Klyagin  ? Multi-protocol 4.21.0 Free GPL
Coccinella Mats Bengtsson December 1, 1999 Single protocol 0.95.15 Free GPL
eMeSeNe Luis Mariano Guerra 24 May 2006 Single protocol 0.2.2 Free GPL
Exodus Peter Millard 2002 Jabber, Jabber Gateways 0.9.1.0 Free GPL
Fire Eric Peyton April 1, 1999 Multi-protocol 1.5.6  (February 15th, 2006) Free GPL
Gaim Mark Spencer November, 1998 Multi-protocol 1.5.0  (August 12, 2005) Free GPL
Gajim Yann Le Boulanger May 21, 2004 Single protocol 0.10.1 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 1.0.0.100  (October 24, 2006) Free Proprietary
iChat Apple Computer August, 2002 Multi-protocol 3.1.5 (436) Free Proprietary
ICQ Mirabilis November, 1996 Single protocol 5.1 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
IMVITE IMVITE Inc. August, 2005 Multi-protocol 1.3 Free
Adware		 Proprietary
IMVU  ? 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
JMSN sediah, xrath 2002 Single protocol 0.9.9b2 Free BSD
Kadu Kadu Team August, 2001 Single protocol 0.4.2 Free GPL v2
Kopete Kopete Team March 3, 2002 Multi-protocol 0.12.2 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 0.5.1 Free GPL
Microsoft Messenger for Mac Microsoft  ??? Single protocol 6.0.1 Free Proprietary
MySpaceIM MySpace May 09, 2006 Single protocol 1.0.529.0  (2006-11-16) (beta) Free
Adware		 Proprietary
Naim Daniel Reed Oct 05, 1998 Multi-protocol http://naim.n.ml.org/download Free GPL
p3t-phone Anon Users Nov 2006 Single protocol 1.0 Free Proprietary
OpenWengo Wengo 2004 Single protocol 0.99 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, Jabber Gateways 0.10 Free GPL
psyced psyced.org Project 1997 IRC Gateway, Multi-protocol 0.99 Free GPL
Qnext June 28, 2004 Multi-protocol 2.3.0.74 Free Proprietary
QQ Tencent February, 1999 Single protocol 2006 Beta1 Free
Adware		 Proprietary
SIM SIM project  ? Multi-protocol 0.9.4.1 Free GPL
Skype Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis / eBay 2003 Single protocol 3.0.0.190 (Windows),
1.3.0.53 (Linux),
2.0.0.6 (Mac OS X),
2.1.0.65 (Pocket PC)
  (December 13, 2006)		 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
Windows Live Messenger Microsoft July, 1999 Dual protocol 8.0.812 (Windows XP/Vista) Free
Adware		 Proprietary
Windows Messenger Microsoft  ?  ? 5.1.0701 (Windows XP SP2) Free Proprietary
Winpopup LAN Messenger 2002 Dual protocol 4.8 $14.95 Proprietary
Xfire Xfire.inc 2004 Single protocol 1.38 Free
Adware		 Proprietary
Yahoo! Messenger Yahoo! June 21, 1999 Dual 8.1.0.195 (Win)
2.5.3 (Mac)		 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

[edit] Operating system support

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

Windows Mac OS X Linux BSD Unix BlackBerry
Adium No Yes No No No
AIM Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
aMSN Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
BitlBee Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
BitWise IM Yes Yes Yes No No
Centericq Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Coccinella Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Exodus Yes No No No No
Fire No Yes No No No
Gaim Yes Yes 1 Yes Yes Yes
Gajim Yes Yes 1 Yes Yes Yes
GCN Yes No No No No
GOIM Yes Yes Yes No No
Goofey7 No Yes8 Yes Yes Yes No
Google Talk Yes (2000/XP/2003 only) Yes6 Yes6 Yes6 Yes6 Yes
iChat No Yes No No No
ICQ Yes Yes No No No
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 No 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 Yes 2 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Miranda IM Yes No No No No
Microsoft Messenger for Mac No 3 Yes No 3 No 3 No 3 No
MindSpring Yes No No No No
MySpaceIM Yes No No No No
Naim Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
OpenWengo Yes Yes 5 Yes Yes Yes
p3t-phone Yes No No No No
pork No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Proteus No Yes No No No
Psi Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
psyced Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Qnext Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
QQ Yes No No No No
SIM Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Skype Yes Yes Yes No No
talk Yes 4 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Tkabber Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Trillian Yes No No No No
Trillian Pro Yes No No No No
Windows Live Messenger Yes No No No No
Windows Messenger Yes No No No No
Winpopup LAN Messenger Yes No No No No No
Y!M 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

Note 1: The Mac OS X version must be self compiled, and will only run with an X server and GTK+ installed.

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: When accessed via the Gmail web based interface and/or through specified clients on the Google Talk webpage with Jabber support.

Note 7: Generally only available as source, not as a ready-to-install binary.

Note 8: Client will only work on OS X within a Unix terminal session (Terminal.app, Xterm, iTerm, or similar.)

[edit] 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 No Yahoo! Japan, .Mac, Zephyr
AIM Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
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 ? ? Yes No No ?
Coccinella Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Yes No No No Partial 3 No No No
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
gaim Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? 10 Yes With plugin 1 Yes No With plugin 7 SILC, Zephyr, XFire, OTR (with plugin)
Gajim Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Yes No 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 No No No Yes Yes ? ? No 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 ?
IMVITE Yes 8 Yes 8 Yes Yes No No 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 ?
Licq No Yes No 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 Partial Yes No No No Partial 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 With plugin 2, 10 No With plugin 2 Yes Partial 4 With plugin 2 Tlen, LAN 5, Chat 5
Microsoft Messenger for Mac No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No
p3t-phone No No No No No No No No No No No No
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 Template:Yahoo! Japan
psyced Disabled Disabled No No Yes Yes No No No No No No PSYC, TELNET, SMTP, HTTP, WAP
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 1 With plugin 1 No
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
Winpopup LAN Messenger No No No No No No No No No No No No server-less, client-server
Y!M No No Yes Yes No No No No No 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 Skype to be installed.

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.

[edit] 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 Webcam Support Offline Messaging
Adium Cocoa Yes 11 Partial Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No ?
AIM W32 Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes
aMSN Tcl/Tk ? Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Partial
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 ? ?
Centericq ncurses Partial 9 Partial No ? No Yes No ? ? ? ? No ?
Coccinella Tcl/Tk Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No Yes Yes No Yes
Exodus W32 No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No ? ? ? No Yes
Fire Cocoa Yes 12 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
Gaim GTK2 With plugin 8 Partial Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No No Partial
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 Yes
Google Talk W32 No Yes Partial Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes
iChat Cocoa Yes Yes Yes ? No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
ICQ W32 No Yes Yes ? Yes Yes No 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 ? ? ? ? ?
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 No No No ? ? ? ? ?
Mercury Messenger Swing Yes 4 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes ? ? ?
mICQ line based Yes 5 Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes No No Yes
Miranda IM W32 Yes 10 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial 15 Partial15 Yes
Microsoft Messenger for Mac Carbon No Yes Yes ? No No No No No Yes ? ? ?
OpenWengo Qt No No Yes Yes No Yes No No ? ? ? ? ?
p3t-phone OpenSSL, Speex Yes 16 Yes No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No
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 ?
Qnext Swing Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes ?
QQ W32 No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes ? 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 No 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
Windows Live Messenger

formerly MSN Messenger

 W32 No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Windows Messenger W32 No Yes Yes Yes No No Partial No ? No Yes Yes ?
Winpopup LAN Messenger W32 Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No Yes No No Yes
Y!M W32, Cocoa, GTK ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No ? ? 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 addons 2 Scripting Message Logging Voice Messaging Webcam Support Offline Messaging

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" (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 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. 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 12: GPG-encypted on a per-message basis. Requires GPG to be installed.

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.

[edit] See also

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../c/o/m/Comparison_of_instant_messaging_clients.html"