Multitasking: these days, it's a necessary part of any job and of daily life. So the ability to have a phone conversation while sending several instant messages simultaneously can sometimes make or break a business deal -- or your date for Friday night. Instant messaging is fast, convenient, and -- dare we say -- entertaining, whether you use it at work, at home, at school, on the go, or even on your mobile phone.
We looked at four leading instant messenger (IM) apps: AOL AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger, our Editors' Choice. All are free, although AOL and MSN offer additional features for a price. All are primarily geared toward casual Internet use (AOL AIM offers several business-related features as add-ons) but work acceptably in an office environment as well. In our reviews, we examined these apps' strengths and weaknesses with regard to setup and interface, feature set, and customer service.
Unfortunately, none of these chat apps allows you to talk to friends registered with other services. In other words, your AIM account can't talk to you best friend's Yahoo account -- that is, unless you use another piece of software, such as Trillian. Trillian breaks the chat app monopolies by supporting all four major IMs: AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo, aggregating your accounts on each into one interface.
If you're concerned about security risks with instant messaging, specifically about buffer-overflow attacks (a common means of penetrating PC defenses) and spim (IM spam), you could try IMsecure, a security product from the people who make the ZoneAlarm firewall. It's the only product of its kind, and it works with AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo chat apps.
Use our handy chart to compare the features and setup requirements of the Big Four chat apps.
| AOL AIM 5.5 | Yahoo Messenger 6.0 | MSN Messenger 6.2 | ICQ 4.1 | |
| Editors' rating | 7.6 | 8.0 | 7.3 | 8.0 |
| Registration information | Asks somewhat intrusive questions | Asks less-intrusive questions | Asks extremely intrusive questions | Asks personal information that is optional |
| What you can customise | Backgrounds | Backgrounds, skins | Backgrounds | Skins, backgrounds, keyboard shortcuts |
| Business features | Lightbridge Web-based conference calling ($); WebEx Web-based video- conferencing ($) | Video and voice | Video, voice, and whiteboard ($) | Voice and video |
| Works with mobile phone | Yes, 2-way | Yes, 2-way | Yes, 2-way | Yes, 2-way |
| Technical support | E-mail (24-hour response), FAQ | FAQs only | Forum, e-mail, FAQ | E-mail (24-hour response), FAQ |
Note: $ denotes services that require additional fees.
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AOL AI M 5.5
Despite several business-oriented add-ons, AIM 5.5 is a free and versatile instant messenger that's best suited for AOL home users. That said, we like Yahoo and ICQ even better.
Full review |
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ICQ 4.1
The free, legendary chat client just keeps getting better; ICQ is the best pick, along with Yahoo Messenger, for features and versatility.
Full review |
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MSN Messenger 6.2
Relentless offers for premium (fee-based) services turn MSN Messenger into a big advertisement rather than a useful communication tool. For the most free features, use Yahoo or ICQ instead.
Full review |
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Yahoo Messenger 6.0
The most versatile and best free IM client we reviewed, if you can do without e-mail tech support.
Full review |
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Jak
30/08/2004 10:50 AM
As you mention, Trillian combines all four (plus IRC) into the one interface - I find Trillian the most useful IM tool around. Jak.
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dabe
31/08/2004 12:46 PM
Trillian excretes all over the above mentioned IM programs. No ads or popups, simple interface and the feature of connecting to and using multiple IM services at once warrants the simple yet compelling words of arguement "TRILLIAN ROCKS!"
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sangamesh
29/03/2007 12:01 AM
nice
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jt
23/08/2007 02:06 PM
is Trillian really better than Pidgin or Meebo
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