Multiprotocol instant messaging application

A multiprotocol instant messaging application is client software composed of an IM application which may connect to multiple IM networks. The networks supported include: AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, XMPP (including Google Talk, Gizmo5, and other XMPP-based networks), MSN Messenger, QQ, Yahoo! Messenger, as well as specialized networks such as Novell GroupWise and Zephyr. Some provide an IM interface to IRC.

The major ad-supported IM networks have at times moved to block multi-protocol clients through rapid small changes to their protocols. At one stage, the Trillian developers made new releases every few days to restore access, as AOL attempted to discourage use of the third-party clients. As of June 2006, there have been no publicized attempts to block multi-protocol clients for over two years.

XMPP itself provides an alternative to directly managing each IM account through the multi-protocol client: IM gateways, or transports. Using transports, connections to the closed IM networks are handled by a gateway on the users XMPP server, while XMPP users talk to each other directly. This seems to function well for users running a private XMPP server, but large public XMPP servers sometimes become the subject of IP blocks from the large networks, or are not able to handle the high load. On the other hand, using a XMPP transport brings several advantages, both for the end user and the programmer of the client: less complexity on the client level, possibility to log in with multiple clients (e.g. mobile phone and computer) to the same account, lower chance for security and privacy risks for the end user thanks to the use of only one connection that can be secured to the Internet and thanks to the fact that people will not know your IP, possibility to archive messages on the XMPP server (as easy as normal XMPP messages) to comply with regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, amongst others.

Examples

• Adium, Fire and iChat (for Mac)
• Miranda IM and Trillian (for Windows)
• Kopete (for Linux and other operating systems running KDE)
• Empathy (for Linux and other operating systems running GNOME)
• Pidgin, Qnext

Protocol support

Single protocol clients

• aMSN - MSNP
• Brosix
• emesene - MSNP
• Google Talk
• Kadu (instant messenger) - GG
• Microsoft Messenger for Mac - MSNP
• NateOn
• Skype
• Tencent QQ
• TerraIM
• Zephyr

Many IRC-only clients are listed at Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients

XMPP Clients without any multi-protocol transports

• MindSpring

XMPP Clients using server-side multi-protocol transports

• Coccinella
• Gajim
• Google Talk
• iChat
• MCabber
• Pandion
• Psi
• Nimbuzz

Multiprotocol clients

Main article: Comparison of instant messaging clients

Information on the instant messaging protocols that each client supports.

See also

• Comparison of instant messaging clients