List of 8 Free Instant Messenger Applications

It’s not hard to find a free chat application that will allow you to connect to multiple instant messaging services. I’m sure many of you know at least about Trillian or Pidgin, but there are actually a lot of other choices. There is my newest favorite Digsby, which I recently reviewed, but I want to take a look at some of the alternatives.

Alternatives:

• Pidgin (previously Gaim) is one of the more popular IM clients. Pidgin can connect to AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, and a bunch of other popular instant messaging services. I used Pidgin for a long time until recently. The interface is clean and simple, and it is very easy to navigate. Definitely not a bad choice for an IM client.
• Trillian is probably a little more popular than Pidgin, although I personally can’t stand it. I used it a long time ago before I found out about Pidgin. The one thing that really got on my nerves was that you had to pay for the pro version in order to get Jabber support, which means no using Google Talk on the free version.
• Meebo is an instant messaging service on the web. It would be ideal for when you are at a computer without an instant messaging client installed. You can login to your AIM, Yahoo!, Google Talk, and MSN accounts directly from the home page. They also have support for ICQ and Jabber.
• Digsby, my new favorite, is a very nice IM client. The interface is very clean, and there are multiple skins to choose from. It will connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber. Another nice thing is that it will check your email addresses for new email, and will allow you to compose new email to people in your contact list. It will also connect to your Facebook and MySpace accounts, and will let you know of any updates. It is currently in private beta, so you’ll have to see if you can hunt down an invite.
• Google Talk is an IM client that, with the help of Psi, will connect to other IM services. You can then talk to your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, etc. through Google. I’ve tried it twice, but I didn’t really like it too much. If you are a constant Google Talk user, then you may like it. I’m just going to wait to see if Google Talk will ever support it on their own. If you use the web version of Google Talk, then connecting to AIM is easy, since it is built in.
• Psi, which I just mentioned, will connect to multiple IM accounts through transports. It is actually a very nice program, except I don’t think many people use a Jabber client as their main IM client. Psi is mainly used for Jabber, but Jabber is very versatile.
• Some other alternatives are Miranda IM and Instant Bird. Although I haven’t used these two, they are still out there. Instant Bird is still in the very early stages of development, so don’t expect a lot from it.

Which one is better?
Well, I think you can tell by now which one I think is better, but I want to know which one you think is best. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Digsby turns into in the near future, but I’m sure Pidgin will make some nice updates too. Let me know in the comments what instant messaging client you use.