I use MSN Messenger and ICQ at my work. My brother is on Yahoo Messenger. My friends are on AIM and Google Talk. It is pain to install all these software and keep it running at the same time, as they may takeup some system resources. Probably most of you can relate to this situation.
The best solution is to use All-In-One Instant Messenger that can chat with different IM clients such as — MSN Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messenger, ICQ etc.,
In this article, let us review the top 5 best free All In One Instant Messengers.
1. Pidgin
Pidgin has a very simple, functional and intuitive user interface. Do not get fooled by it’s simplicity. It’s very stable and highly dependable. This is also open source, which makes it completely trust-worthy. You can use this to talk with your buddies on AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, IRC, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger among many other supported IM networks.- Our Rating:
- Download Pidgin
- Home Page
- Clean UI, Stable and Multi-platform support.
- OS: 95/98/NT/2000/ME/2003/XP/Vista/Linux/Mac OSX
- Open Source
- Portable version available at Portableapps
2. Instantbird
Instantbird is an excellent All-In-One IM. If I’ve not been using Pidgin for such a long time, this would’ve taken the top spot easily. Like Pidgin, this is also open source, with clean UI and multi-platform. If you’ve not used an All-in-One IM before, my recommendation is that you try both Pidgin and Instantbird and choose the one that clicks with you. Both are highly recommended.- Our Rating:
- Download Instantbird
- Home Page
- Clean UI, Stable and Multi-platform support.
- OS: Windows, Mac OS X and Linux platforms
- Open Source
3. Trillian
If you are the type who like fancy UI, you should check-out Trillian. You also need to create an account in trillian to use this IM.- Our Rating:
- Download Trillian
- Home Page
- Fancy UI (doesn’t suite my taste. But some may like it.)
- Heavy on system resources. Plugins available for Trillian Pro version only, which is the paid version
- OS: 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP
4. Miranda
Miranda is for power users who want more features and don’t mind playing around with plugins. Miranda is an open source, light weight, highly extensible using the plug-ins. There are more than 350 plugins available for Miranda.- Our Rating:
- Download Miranda
- Home Page
- Light footprint. Extensible using plugin based framework.
- Open Source
- OS: 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP/Vista
5. Digsby
Apart from the standard IM clients, it also offers in-built support for social networking such as Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. This is a resource intensive application. While installing you have to be careful to deselect all the adware related components that are enabled by default.- Our Rating:
- Download Digsby
- Home Page
- Support social networks such as twitter.
- Uses heavy system resource. Adwares enabled by default during installation.
- OS: 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP/Vista/MacOSX/Linux
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