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Comparison of cross-platform instant messaging clients

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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.

General information

Basic general information about the instant messengers: creator/company, license/price etc.

Author / Creator First public release date Type Latest stable version Cost (USD) Software license
Adium Adam Iser, Evan Schoenberg September, 2001 Multi-protocol 0.88 Free GPL v2
AIM AOL May, 1997 Single protocol 5.9.3797 (Windows)
4.7.1333 (Mac OS X)
1.5.286 (Linux) 		Free
Adware 		Proprietary
aMSN Alvaro J. Iradier Muro May, 2002 Single protocol 0.95 Free GPL
BeeNut Total Achieve International Ltd April, 2005 Multi-protocol 2.016 Free Proprietary
BitWise IM BitWise Communications, LLC March 17, 2002 Single protocol 1.0.5 Free Proprietary
BitlBee Wilmer van der Gaast August 9, 2002 IRC Gateway, Multi-protocol 0.92 Free GPL
Centericq Konstantin Klyagin ? Multi-protocol 4.21.0 Free GPL
eMessenger Paulo Taylor 2004 MSN/Yahoo!/AOL, Web-based ? Free Proprietary
Exodus Peter Millard 2002 Jabber 0.9.1.0 Free GPL
Fire Eric Peyton ? Multi-protocol Template:Latest stable release/Fire 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 0.9.1 Free GPL
GCN Jason K. Resch November 18, 2000 Single protocol 2.9.1 Free
Adware 		Proprietary
Google Talk Google, Inc. August 24, 2005 Single protocol 1.0.0.86 Free Proprietary
iChat Apple Computer August, 2002 Multi-protocol 3.1 Free Proprietary
ICQ Mirabilis November, 1996 Single protocol 5 Free
Adware 		Proprietary
IM2 IM2 Limited April, 2003 Multi-protocol 1.5 Free Proprietary
Instan-t Interactive Networks Inc. March, 2001 Multi-protocol 4.5 Free Proprietary
JAJC Mikel Ivanov 2002 Single protocol 0.0.8.113 Free Proprietary
Kadu Kadu Team August, 2001 Single protocol 0.4.2 Free GPL v2
Kopete Kopete Team March 3, 2002 Multi-protocol 0.11 Free GPL
Licq Graham Roff (up to v1.0); Jon Keating ? Multi-protocol 1.3.2 Free GPL
meebo Seth, Elaine, & Sandy 2005 Multi-protocol, Web-based alpha v8 Free ?
Meetro Paul Bragiel & Wendell Davis 2005 Multi-protocol ? Free ?
Mercury Messenger Mercury Messenger 2003 Multi-protocol 1710 Free Proprietary
mICQ Mattew D. Smith (up to ICQv5); Rüdiger Kuhlmann 1997(?); 2001 Single protocol 0.5.1 Free GPL v2
Miranda IM Miranda IM project February 6, 2000 Multi-protocol 0.4.0.2 Free GPL
Microsoft Messenger for Mac Microsoft ??? Single protocol 5.0 Free Proprietary
MSN Messenger Microsoft July, 1999 Single protocol 7.5.0311 (Windows XP)
7.0 (Windows 98,Me,2000) 		Free
Adware 		Proprietary
OpenWengo Wengo 2004 Single protocol 0.99 Free
 GPL
Proteus Justin Wood ? Multi-protocol 4.09 $15 Proprietary
Psi Justin Karneges 2001 Single protocol 0.10 Free GPL
Qnext Qnext Corp. June 28, 2004 Multi-protocol 2.3.0.74 Free Proprietary
QQ Tencent February, 1999 Single protocol 2005 SP1 Free Proprietary
Rediff BOL Rediff.com [1] circa 1999 Single protocol 7.0 Free Proprietary
SIM SIM project [2] ? Multi-protocol 0.9.3 Free GPL
Skype Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis / eBay 2003 Single protocol
Windows, UWP15.119.201.0 / 6 May 2024; 2 months ago (2024-05-06)[1]
Windows, desktop8.119.0.201 / 6 May 2024; 2 months ago (2024-05-06)[1]
macOS8.119.0.201 / 6 May 2024; 2 months ago (2024-05-06)[1]
Linux8.119.0.201 / 6 May 2024; 2 months ago (2024-05-06)[1]
Android8.119.0.202 / 6 May 2024; 2 months ago (2024-05-06)[2]
iOS8.119.0.201 / 6 May 2024; 2 months ago (2024-05-06)[3] (iPhone and iPad)
 Free Proprietary
Softros LAN Messenger Softros Systems January, 2004 Single protocol 3.6 $10.95 Proprietary
talk Kipp Hickman 1982 Single protocol 1.7 (BSD version) Free BSD
Tkabber Alexey Shchepin 2003 Single protocol 0.9.8 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
Yahoo! Messenger Yahoo! June 21, 1999 Single protocol 7.0.0.426 (Win)
2.5.3 (Mac) 		Free Proprietary
YSM rad2k 2001 Single protocol 2.9.6 Free GPL
Zephyr Project Athena 1987 Single protocol 2.0 Free MIT
Zoep Voipster January 25, 2006 Single protocol 0.8.5 Free GPL
Author / Creator First public release date Type Latest stable version Cost (USD) Software license

Operating system support

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

Windows Mac OS X Linux BSD Unix
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
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
Google Talk Yes (2000/XP/2003 only) No No No No
iChat No Yes No No No
ICQ Yes Yes No No No
IM2 Yes No No No No
Instan-t Yes No No No No
imeem Yes No No No No
JAJC Yes No No No No
Kadu No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Kopete No No Yes Yes Yes
Licq No No Yes Yes Yes
meebo Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Meetro Yes No 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
MSN Yes No 3 No 3 No 3 No 3
OpenWengo Yes Yes 5 Yes Yes Yes
Proteus No Yes No No No
Psi Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Qnext Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
QQ Yes No No No No
Rediff BOL Yes No No No No
SIM Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Skype Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Softros LAN Messenger Yes No No 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
Y!M Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
YSM Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Zephyr Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Zoep Yes No No No No
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.

Protocol support

Information on the instant messaging protocols that each client supports.

AIM ICQ MSN Messenger Yahoo! IRC Jabber Apple Bonjour
(Formerly Rendezvous) 		Novell GroupWise Messenger Lotus Sametime Gadu-Gadu Skype QQ Others
Adium Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yahoo! Japan, .Mac, Zephyr
AIM Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No (none)
aMSN No No Yes 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 ? ? No No ? ?
Exodus No No No No No Yes No No No No No No (none)
Fire Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
gaim Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 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 ? ?
GCN Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Yes No No No Partial 3 No No GCN
Google Talk No No No No No Yes No No No No No No (none)
iChat Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes ? ? No No ? ?
ICQ No Yes No No No No No No No No No No (none)
IM2 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No ? ?
Instan-t Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No Instan-t network
JAJC Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Yes No No No Partial 3 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 ? ?
Licq No Yes No No No No No No No No No ? ?
meebo Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No No No No No ? ?
Mercury Messenger No No Yes No No Yes No No No No No
Meetro Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No
mICQ No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
Miranda IM Partial 6 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes With plugin 2 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 (none)
MSN No No Yes No No No No No No No No No (none)
OpenWengo No No No No No No No No No No No No SIP
Psi Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Partial 3 Yes No No No Partial 3 No ? ?
Proteus Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes No ? ?
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 (none)
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 ?
Softros LAN Messenger No No No No No No No No No No No No softros sec-mp v1.2
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 ?
Trillian Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No ? (none)
Trillian Pro Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Partial 4 ? (none)
Y!M No No No Yes No No No No No No No No (none)
YSM No Yes No No No No No No No No No ? ?
Zephyr No No No No No No No No No No No No Zephyr
Zoep No No No No No Yes No No No No No No (none)
AIM ICQ MSN Messenger Yahoo! IRC Jabber Apple Bonjour
(Formerly Rendezvous) 		Novell GroupWise Messenger Lotus Sametime Gadu-Gadu Skype QQ Others

Note 1: Plugin available [3]

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 [4]

Features

Information on what features each of the clients support.

Toolkit Encryption File transfer Graphical smileys Unicode (UTF-8) Built-in games Themes/skins Plugin system 1 Third-party add-ons 2 Scripting
Adium Cocoa Yes 11 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
AIM W32 No Yes Yes ? Partial Yes No Yes
aMSN Tcl/Tk ? Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
BeeNut W32 Yes Partial Yes ? No No No No
BitlBee n/a 13 No No No 13 ? No No 13 No No
BitWise IM W32; GTK2; Carbon Yes 7 Yes No ? Yes Yes No No
Centericq ncurses Partial 9 Partial No ? No Yes No ?
Exodus W32 No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No
Fire Cocoa Yes 12 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
gaim GTK2 No 8 Partial Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Gajim GTK2 Yes 9 Yes Yes ? No Yes No No
GCN W32 Yes 4 Yes Yes ? Yes Partial No Yes
Google Talk W32 No No No Yes No No No No
iChat Cocoa Yes 15 Yes Yes ? No No No Yes
ICQ W32 No Yes Yes ? Yes Yes No Yes
IM2 W32 Yes 4 Partial Yes ? No Yes No No
Instan-t W32 Yes Yes Yes ? No Yes Yes No
JAJC W32 Yes 9 Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes No
Kadu Qt Yes Yes Yes ? No Partial Yes Yes
Kopete KDE/Qt Yes 9 Partial Yes Partial 17 No Yes Yes Yes
Licq Qt Yes 5 Yes Yes ? No Yes Yes Yes
Meetro ? ? Yes ? ? No No No No
Mercury Messenger Swing Yes 4 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
mICQ line based Yes 5 Yes No Yes! No Yes No No Yes 18
Miranda IM W32 Yes 10 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Microsoft Messenger for Mac Carbon No Yes Yes ? No No No No
MSN W32 No Yes 14 Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
OpenWengo Qt 16 No No Yes Yes No Yes No No
Proteus Cocoa ? Partial Yes ? No Yes Yes Yes
Psi Qt/KDE Yes 9 Yes Yes Yes No No No No
Qnext Swing Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
QQ W32 No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes
SIM Qt/KDE Yes 5 6 Yes Yes ? No No Yes No
Skype Qt/KDE,W32 Yes (Skype-to-Skype) Yes Yes ? No No Yes Yes
Softros LAN Messenger W32 Yes Yes No No No No No No
talk curses No No No No No No No No
Tkabber Tcl/Tk Yes 9 Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes
Trillian Basic 3.0 W32 Yes 4 Yes Yes Partial 17 No Yes No Yes
Trillian Pro 3.0 W32 Yes 4 Yes Yes Partial 17 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Y!M W32;Cocoa;Gtk ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
YSM line based Yes 7 No ? ? ? No No No
Zoep W32 No No No Yes No No No No
Toolkit Encryption File transfer Graphical smileys Unicode (UTF-8) Built-in games Themes/skins Plugin system 1 Third-party addons 2 Scripting

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://gaim-encryption.sf.net. Compatible only to other gaim clients with the same plugin. Also available as another plugin at http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/.

Note 9: Compatible with all Jabber clients implementing JEP-0027 (standard Jabber encryption).

Note 10: SecureIM plugin provides 192 bits AES Encryption, compatible only to itself.

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: Because BitlBee depends on an IRC client, features such as toolkits, skinning and smileys are independant of BitlBee itself.

Note 14: Does not permit transfer of executables (filenames ending in .EXE); implicit security feature.

Note 15: Version 3.1 introduced encryption for text-only chat, as well as encrypted audio and/or video, but only for paid subscribers of the .mac service.

Note 16: Upcoming NG version will be toolkit independent.

Note 17: Broken on reception of acknowledged ICQ messages in at least some versions.

Note 18: Scripting via Tcl and via script & socket.

Advanced conferencing

Information on what advanced conferencing features each of the clients support.

Audio chat Multi-person audio chat Video chat Multi-person video chat Whiteboard sharing SMS (mobile) messaging
Adium No No No No No Yes 3
AIM Yes ? Yes ? ? Yes
aMSN No No Yes No ? Yes
BitWise IM Yes No No No Yes No
BitlBee No No No No No No
Centericq No No No No No Yes
Fire No No No No No No
gaim No 2 ? No 2 ? Yes 5 Yes
Gajim No No No No No ?
GCN Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No
Google Talk Yes No No No No No
iChat Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes 3
ICQ Yes ? Yes ? ? Yes
IM2 Yes ? Yes ? ? ?
Instan-t Yes ? Yes ? No No
JAJC No No No No ? ?
Kadu Yes No No No Yes 6 Yes
Kopete No No Yes No ? Yes
Licq No No No No ? Yes
Meetro No No No No ? No
mICQ No No No No No Yes
Miranda IM No 1 No No No No Yes
Microsoft Messenger for Mac No No No No No Yes
MSN Yes No Yes No Yes Yes
OpenWengo Yes No 7 Yes No 7 No 7 Yes
Proteus No No No No ? ?
Psi No No No No No Partial
Qnext Yes No Yes No No No
QQ Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes
SIM No No No No ? Yes
Skype Yes Yes Yes 8 No 4 No ?
Softros LAN Messenger No No No No No No
Tkabber No No No No ? ?
Trillian Yes Yes No ? ? ?
Trillian Pro Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes
Y!M Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
YSM No ? No ? ? ?
Audio chat Multi-person audio chat Video chat Multi-person video chat Whiteboard sharing SMS (mobile) messaging

Note 1: MirandaComm plugin allows voice communcation between two Miranda users who have the plugin installed. Only tested with users of ICQ protocol.

Note 2: There is a project called gaim-vv aimed at adding voice and video functionality. At the moment, it's being backported to the main Gaim source tree, and will be an official part of Gaim on version 2.0. [5]

Note 3: Only over AIM for NANP phone numbers (+1 country code)

Note 4: Available (Microsoft Windows only) through the beta Festoon plug-in. [6]

Note 5: Google paid for gaim whiteboard sharing

Note 6: as an external plugin (tcl_scripting)

Note 7: Coming soon...

Note 8: Available on Microsoft Windows only at the moment.

References

  • "HelpBytes". Yahoo! Messenger 6.0. May 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)

See also

  1. ^ a b c d "Release Notes for Skype for Windows, Mac and Linux". Skype Support.
  2. ^ "Release Notes for Skype on Mobile". Skype Support.
  3. ^ "Skype for iPhone". App Store. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
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