Currently I am using Trillian. I find this client to just be much easier to manage than running three different messengers. (I use MSN, AIM, and Yahoo!) It also supports must of the features offered by the other clients. It supports file transfer, audio chat and many of the other popular features offered by the different clients.

I have used AIM, and just find it to be to intrusive, and I just can't stand the Yahoo! client. The MSN or windows messenger is the only one that I really liked. It had features like whiteboard, and supports remote desktop connection. It would also integrate with Outlook Express to check your mail account tied with your account.

Trillian will also check your mail for you, and will automatically retrieve your old buddy lists! It does not matter if your friends are using AIM and your using Trillian. They won't even be able to tell the difference. Trillian also supports multiple users so your whole family can use Trillian. This is done with a system called Identities. You set up your own personal Identity, choose your user icon (like the user pic for your Windows XP user account.), set your password, and then set up the connections for the different IM networkd.

Trillian also allows you to connect to more than one account on the same IM systems. For example, two different AIM accounts. It also has many options to customize it to perform how you like it. Talking to 10 friends at the same time? Organize them in tab based conatiners! One window for 10 different conversations spanning across multiple IM networks.

It comes complete with it's own sounds, but the only thing you might miss is hearing the door slam closed when they logoff! There are also options to logg all your conversations just in case you always wanted your very own personal stenographer.

If your not using Trillian I would suggest at least trying it out. I would like to here your suggestions for other IM clients.

i only use Msn so i stick to msn messenger. The problem with multiclients is that you use some features, like loosing the ability to use winks or nudges.

Question: Can you enter a voice conversation with Trillian?

although i do not believe it has a nudge option, it does still use the same winks, smilies, eetc as your client (ICQ, yahoo, AIM, MSN, whatever you use that trillian suppoerts).

as for voice, yes they do work -- even cross-client, which is really nice. so say, for instance, that you use AIM ... you can do a voice convo with someone using ICQ, or MSN, or Yahoo!

it also does video, with the same cross-client options

i too use trillian ( the pro veresion ,although the free has most of the same features) and absolultey love it!

I use Gaim for my instant messaging. It supports alot of different clients (MSN and Yahoo are what I use it for). It works well for what I need. It doesn't support voice or video, but I don't use either of those so it doesn't bother me. I like Gaim because it is open source, so it is completely free, and it works under Linux. I don't know much about Trillian, but it is Windows-only isn't it? I've never used Trillian so I can't say which is better but Gaim is another one to try if you are tired of using multiple clients.

Trillian looks good because of the added security due the fact that it is monitored by avast. But I am looking for something with whiteboard capabilities and that only works on Windows Messengers if all parties have windows xp (and perhaps Windows 2000). So I am trying Bitwise Messenger.

If anyone has suggestions about a messenger with whiteboard let me know.

Personally, I've used all three.
Yahoo! Messenger is impossible! It's unpredictable. It's slow! I HATE IT! Enough said 'bout Yahoo!.
AOL Instant Messenger is great. It allows me to do just about everything I need. All of my American friends use AIM. It is a bit intrusive and doesn't have some of the cool features that MSN has.
MSN Messenger is the best thing I've found. It's quick. It's easy. It has that awesome Handwriting feature! I love that! And winks and nudges are awesome as well. Most of my European friends use this one. It doesn't seem to be catching on with my American buddies. I don't know why...
But I digress, and conclude: MSN is awesome.

I've never tried Trillian. Where can I download it?

I've used Trillian, but it's a little bloated and kind of slow, with a bunch of features I don't need or want. I currently use AIM with AIM Ad Hack, and it's not bad. I don't use it that much, so it doesn't bother me.

You can download Trillian at http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/. Cerulean Studios are the creators of Trillian. It can be a little bloated if you don't customize it correctly!

People who have Netscape, have a AIM name, because of some reason i can't quite understand. Stupid marketing thing!!!! But Hotmail alows you to have a simple email or have email and messenger together, contacts are added automatically and with iIE you can start conversations with your contacts if you are logged in with msn

another good feature msn has to offer is its webmessenger. a http format of its clients, it can not do everything the program can do, but it is great if you are in the office or at school (since most school's block the msn port...)
you can find it here: http://webmessenger.msn.com

P.S. the new email address and passwort encryption tool is also quite cool

No one's mentioned this little open source gem so I'd love to be the first to do so. I'm talking about Miranda IM. Essentially it can be called the semi-geek's IM

First a little background info - you ought to be decently proficient in using your PC. Also prettiness and skins musn't be one of your priorities. This is one of the lightest yet feature-filled multi-IMs that are floating around. It's open-source with an active community and most importantly - it has plugins galore for protocols / conversation windows / Meta Contacts (one person who has many nicknames over different protocols) etc.

One of the downsides though is that off-the-shelf, Miranda doesn't come as loaded as others. One needs to build it up according to their taste and requirements.

There is however an alternative - AuSpLaYa's site has a ready to go Miranda package with some of the more popular and functional plugins pre-loaded.

I have downloaded Trillian and agree with the post calling it "bloated." For me, it seemed all over the place. I played for a few hours trying to format it and whatnot. Can't quite get things settled down. And I miss some of the features in MSN. I'd just say, download AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! (maybe not Yahoo!) seprately and use them at the same time. True, it'll kill your RAM (on a laptop, at least), but I get my DOODADS BACK!!!

I've used trillian like at 3 seperate times. Each time I'd use it for a few days, get annoyed by how it just didn't 'feel right' and went back to using whatever clients I felt like at the time. I havn't tried a version lately but I'll likely just stick to having the multiple clients...I hate losing features that I know exist on the true client software (when I'm running in linux and have to use the other messenger programs its always a bit of a nuisance) As far as ram is concerned...well I dont leave my IM's all on when I'm doing anything ram intensive (...gaming...) so its all good as far as I'm concerned (plus I guess I just up'd my ram to 1.5 gigs so again...not an issue for me)

What's all this about Trillian ? I love this program, but do agree that it's bloated and can use up quite a bit of resources also.

The only reason I'm using Trillian is because I have buddies using all kinds of IM's LOL. I think they have the whole package except for ICQ. I even have to use IRC now Having four separate programs up may not be the most convenient way for me to get things done. Actually having those 4 programs up (AIM, Yahoo, MSN, IRC) might take as much resources, if not more, as Trillian.

Like the initial poster said, it's good since you can have tabs opened and it tells you when you get new emails. I don't need all the features for the individual programs. All I want is to chat and maybe some simple smilies

I actually gave GAIM a try (a year ago though) since I heard it's open-source. Didn't like it that much. I forgot what happened but something was causing problems. So I'm sticking with Trillian.

That's strange VJgamer. Now that you mention about connecting more than one account to the same IM system, it brought up my problem. I remember having AOL IM SYSTEMS telling me that I'm logged into another machine. It asks me if I want to sign out of that one so that I can use the one in Trillian. I said yes, and all is well. So maybe it can't allow the same account to login multiple times?

Personally i just stick to msn messenger, its easy to use and to be honest i only use msn, therefore it would be pointless using trillian for a single messenger client.

dont know why but me to prefer trillian..! Although features are a bit less as the smileys from yahoo,msn, etc wont fit in trillian..! but multiple account login is the best feature of trillian,But im alwayz having a problem..! that im not able to login as invisible,!

Have looked up all options but cannot find one.! So you can say trillian isnt that user friendly as compared to yahoo.! Anywayz Trillian ranks in my list !

Lol, why would you want to login as invisible ? I think MSN Messenger is the best Instant Messaging program, it's just so, me! Lol! Nah, I just think it's pretty cool, the new MSNM 7 "look" is nice, and it has lots of cool features: smilies, nudges, backgrounds, etc.

Is it true that an MSN object injection can fiddle with your sound card? It's just that someone said they would do that to me if I didn't stop nudging them, lol!

I use both MSN and yahoo, but not trillian... coz I have no reason to. Let me explain... All of my friends and everyone I know use MSN. I dont really know ONE person who uses yahoo as a messenger. Understandably, of course... it's crap. So i got a 'passport' for msn and use that as my messenger. The reason I use yahoo messenger is merely coz msn wont alert me when I get new mail. That's the ONLY reason I use yahoo messenger.

I just run the two at the same time. I have no contacts in yahoo messenger, so it'd be pointless to use trillian when I really only use MSN... i LOVE msn it has everything I could ever want. Running yahoo at the same time doesnt really take up alot of space/speed, so I think it's better off this way. Plus I can listen to launch on yahoo if I'm in the mood, without as much ads or the lauch website up. It's a little trick I learnt from someone here at astahost. Yeah.

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