Google announced a unified messaging system,
Hangouts. Hangouts is available for
Android, iOS and the web via the Chrome extension, allowing you to stay connected
with your friends regardless of what device you are using it on. But what if
you don’t want to be on Hangouts? We round up three instant messaging clients with
comparable features.
1) Adium
Adium is a free and open source instant
messaging application developed for MAC OS X. It supports an extensive list of
instant messaging services such as Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
and Facebook Chat. One of its key features is tabbed messaging, where you are offered
the flexibility of fitting all your conversations into one window. This
maximizes efficiency and screen real estate. Another feature of Adium is its
ability to merge multiple contacts into one entity on the contact list. This is
extremely practical as many of us have different user names for different
services. By combining them into a single entry, it makes the contact list
leaner and easier to manage.
2) Trillian
Trillian is another powerful instant messaging
application that is available on Windows, Mac, Android, BlackBerry, iPhone,
iPad and the web browser. Besides keeping you connected to a wide range of
messaging clients and social networks, Trillian comes with POP3, IMAP and native
IM mail integration. This means that you will be alerted to new mails. A small
tab appears where you can decide whether to open the mail, mark it as read or
spam, or archive it. The desktop version of Trillian helps to keep a record of your
chat history. You can choose what to record contacts, conferences, connections,
text conversations and images.
3) Digsby
If you combine the best of Adium and Trillian,
you get Digsby. It is an instant messaging application for Windows with email
and social network integration. Not only does Digsby support tabbed
conversation windows, it also enables you to drag out individual tabs into
their own windows for important conversations. Another nifty feature is the
popup notification window. Even if Digsby is minimized, the popup window allows
you to reply and then get back to what you are doing. You can personalize many
aspects of Digsby from the look of the conversation window to the layout of the
contact list. You also can customize what events or updates to be notified on,
as well as how.
