When Adium disappeared during development, a number of users were quite disappointed. Those users need worry no longer, as their development team recently released this version of this multiple-protocol, instant messaging client. Visitors can insert their existing addresses into the client and they will also appreciate the very sleek and elegant design of this particular iteration. This version is...

BitlBee is an IRC to Instant Messaging gateway that allows users to access a variety of IM services from inside their IRC client. Currently, BitlBee includes built-in support for XMPP/Jabber (including Google Talk and Hipchat), ICQ, and Twitter. Plugins are available to add support for Facebook, Steam, Discord, and Mastodon. Users may opt to run BitlBee on their own computer or may use one of the...

Franz is a multi-protocol, unified messaging solution that allows users to access all their chat and messaging services with a single application. It currently supports Slack, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, Skype, and numerous other services. Within each individual service, Franz supports an unlimited number of separate accounts. Per their website: "you could even use five...

Gitter is a real-time chat system similar to Slack or IRC, but with an emphasis on ease of use for open-source communities, especially those using GitHub. For example, Gitter provides a "badge" that can be placed in a GitHub project's README file that allows users to join a Gitter chat with a single click. Rather than creating a dedicated Gitter account, users can sign in using either their Github...

IRCCloud provides a web-based and mobile IRC client with features similar to newer services like Slack, Tribe, Gitter, or Zulip. For example, it provides file uploads and embedded images, videos, tweets, code snippets, and more. But unlike those services that invent a new and often proprietary messaging protocol, IRCCloud leverages the open and established Internet Relay Chat (IRC) protocol. As a...

Very few of our activities on the Internet are, strictly speaking, private. Nearly everything we do is logged somewhere, and our instant messaging is no exception. This is where Off-the-Record (OTR) Messaging can help. For those who are chatting about confidential matters (e.g., medical histories) or those who simply want their privacy, OTR can help keep instant messaging secure. OTR uses standard...

With a logo that resembles a purple version of a certain urban-dwelling bird, the Pidgin messaging client is a great find amidst all of the sometimes bland options in this area. Pidgin allows visitors the ability to streamline different messaging services into one device, and it works with services offered by Yahoo!, MSN, and Google Talk (among others). As with most other programs, visitors can...

Quassel is a cross-platform, graphical Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client. Users can opt to run the core of the application as a standalone server on an always-on machine, which they then connect to with the Quassel client. In this client/server mode, Quassel functions similarly to Irssi or WeeChat inside GNU Screen or tmux; users maintain a persistent connection to their IRC networks that they can...

Smuxi is a cross-platform multi-protocol messaging program. While it was initially written for IRC, it now also supports Twitter, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, Jabber/XMPP, and Campfire as well. In addition to a traditional single-application mode, Smuxi also supports running a back-end engine separately from the front-end user interface. The front-end and back-end need not be run on the same...