MSN Messenger (or Windows Live Messenger, as it has now confusingly been renamed) springs into most people's heads when they think of instant messaging. Most people probably know that there are IM protocols other than the Microsoft-run .NET Messenger Service (colloquially known as MSN), including Yahoo!, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, Jabber and Skype. But did you know that whether you use one or more of these protocols, there are clients other than the protocols' official ones available for download, and that many of these offer excellent features not supported by the official clients?

A messenger client is a piece of software which connects to an instant messaging protocol, such as the .NET Messenger Service (MSN), or Jabber. Just as you can log onto your MSN account on any computer with the Windows Live Messenger client, it's also perfectly possible to log onto the .NET Messenger Service via other clients specifically designed to support the .NET network.

What used to be MSN Messenger has gone downhill over the last few years. I remember when it was pretty basic and compact; nowadays, it's covered in advertisements and irritating features that users have to spend a lot of time and effort trying to ignore. The client is particularly frustrating for business users, who may feel that the surfeit of animated emoticons, "nudges" and adverts detract from the serious discussions they may wish to have. Shockingly, while virtually every other IM client on the planet has integrated tabbed chats into its interface (meaning that your IM conversations can be held in one, tabbed window, much like Firefox or IE 7 can support multiple tabs for multiple pages), Windows Live Messenger still doesn't have this feature.

If you're loath to give up the familiarity of Windows Live Messenger, you could try downloading the free plug-in, Messenger Plus! Live. This plug-in adds all sorts of functionality to Windows Live Messenger, including tabbed chats, html chat logging, contacts on the desktop, boss lock, IRC chatroom-style commands such as /nick and /me, and custom sounds, colours, pre-written messages, skins, and formatting.

The plug-in can't help you when it comes to unwanted advertisements and security issues, however. There are some great alternative clients available for MSN, with all sorts of interesting functionality.

aMSN is an MSN Messenger clone for Linux and OS X, and has capabilities such as video, which the OS X version of Microsoft Messenger does support. It also features tabbed chat windows, and virtually all of the functionality of Windows Live Messenger, plus a few extras.

Mercury Messenger is a Java-based MSN client which also features tabbed chats (do you see a pattern emerging?), and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. It is quite complex to set up, but it does support webcam with perseverance, and features some powerful capabilities, including IRC-style commands (which can be especially useful for increased accessibility), RSS feed support, skins, and versatile event notification.

Other MSN clients include KMess for Linux, eMeSeNe and JMSN (Java-based).

However, none of these clients supports protocols other than MSN. Although Windows Live Messenger allows you to add Yahoo! contacts as well as those with a .NET passport, it excludes Google Talk, AOL and other protocols. If, like me, you use a whole host of different IM protocols (I have MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo!, AIM, Skype and Jabber accounts, and am considering adding ICQ to the list), managing all of your accounts in one client probably seems a very attractive proposal.

Luckily, this need has been recognised, and there's a good selection of well-featured IM clients for various platforms which support a whole variety of different IM protocols.

Pidgin (formally Gaim) is a good start for Windows, Linux and other Unix-style operating systems, and supports, among others, AIM, Bonjour, Google Talk, ICQ, IRC and Yahoo!; Adium is the OS X equivalent. Yes, tabbed chats are available, as well as most features of the official IM clients for Yahoo!, MSN and others. Unfortunately, webcam is not supported. These clients are easily customisable with fun features such as sounds, icons and skins.

Miranda-IM is a minimalist, ultra-quick multi-protocol IM client supporting all the major IM protocols and several less well-known ones. Unfortunately, it's Windows only. Many plug-ins are available on the Miranda-IM website, which allow you to customise the look and feel of the client, as well as change advanced settings for chat logging and archiving, event tracking and games.

Spark is an open-source multi-protocol IM client designed for business use in particular. It supports group chat very well, as well as audio messaging and powerful security settings. It also features in-line spell checking, group chatroom bookmarks, and… tabbed conversations.

Trillian is a proprietary IM client – you can download a basic version or pay a fee for a "pro" version which has added features. Trillian Pro 3 is probably the most fully-featured IM client available at the moment, but there are others which have newer features that Trillian doesn't offer. Trillian Basic 3 is perfectly adequate for most people's needs, and very fully-featured.

Meetro is a proprietary IM client whose unique selling point is that it offers location-based services (LBS). Users can input specific locations, and can then see other online users who are nearby. Meetro users can set up a profile which can be viewed by other users. "Profile aggregation" is offered: Meetro can crawl the web to aggregate the user's digital persona into one profile. Local features such as cafés and restaurants can be shown on maps.

Meebo is a multi-protocol in-browser instant messaging program. The project is still under development. The main advantage is that you can use instant messaging services wherever you are, even if IM clients are not installed on the computer: all you need is a web browser. There are various other in-browser "clients" to choose from, including ebuddy.

There are a lot of IM clients to choose from, and you might find that you need two or three if you're to cover all of the features you need. Just don't automatically stick with the official client of your chosen protocol without checking out the alternatives; you could be missing out on some really great features.

By Brian Jackson

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