Comparison of Instant Messaging Clients - General Information

General Information

Client Author, creator First public release Type Latest stable version License
Adium Adam Iser, Evan Schoenberg 2001-09 Multi-protocol 1.5.4 (OS X) GPLv2
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) AOL 1997-05 Multi-protocol 7.5.14.8 Clickwrap
aMSN The aMSN team 2002-05 Single-protocol 0.98.4 GPL
Ayttm Colin Leroy and Philip Tellis 2003-04 Multi-protocol 0.6.1 (Linux)
0.4.6-17 (Windows)		 GPL
BitlBee Wilmer van der Gaast 2002-08-09 Multi-protocol IRC gateway 3.0.6 GPL
Bombus Eugene Stahov 2005-01-05 Single-protocol 2008 (v0.6) GPL
Centericq Konstantin Klyagin 1999 Multi-protocol 4.21.0 GPL
climm Mattew D. Smith (up to ICQv5); Rüdiger Kuhlmann 1997(?); 2001 Dual-protocol 0.7.1 (March 2010) GPLv2
Coccinella Mats Bengtsson 1999-12-01 Single-protocol 0.96.16 (December 1, 2009; 2 years ago (2009-12-01)) GPLv3
eBuddy Paulo Taylor 2003-03-09 Multi-protocol 2011 Clickwrap
emesene Luis Mariano Guerra 2006-05-24 Multi-protocol 2.12.5 GPL
Empathy GNOME 2007-05 Multi-protocol 3.6.1 GPL
FaceTime Apple Inc. 2010 Single-protocol 2.0 July 25, 2012; 4 months ago (2012-07-25) Proprietary
Fire Eric Peyton 1999-04-01 Multi-protocol 1.5.6 GPL
Firetalk Multitude Communications 1997 -2001 voice/music chat program ? GPL
Gadu-Gadu Lukasz Foltyn 2000-08 Single-protocol 10.5.2 build 13164 (July 9, 2011) Clickwrap
Gajim Yann Le Boulanger 2004-05-21 Single-protocol 0.15.2 GPL
Google Talk Google, Inc. 2005-08-24 Dual-protocol Plugin Mac OS X:

2.5.6.4871

Plugin Windows:
3.7.1.9330

Clickwrap
IBM Lotus Sametime IBM, Ubique 1998 Multi-protocol—proprietary T.120, SIP, XMPP 8.5; December 2009 Clickwrap
iCall iCall, Inc. 2012-05 Multi-protocol 7.1 (524) Clickwrap
iChat Apple Inc. 2002-08 Multi-protocol 6.0.1 (1002) February 1, 2012; 9 months ago (2012-02-01) Clickwrap
ICQ Mirabilis (AOL) 1996-11 Single-protocol 7.6; August 14, 2011 Clickwrap
Instantbird Florian Quèze 2007 Multi-protocol 1.3 GPLv2
IMVU Will Harvey 2001-07 Single-protocol 3.0 Clickwrap
Jitsi Emil Ivov 2003 Multi-protocol v1.0-alpha6 LGPL
Kadu Kadu Team 2001-08 Multi-protocol 0.12 .0 June 25, 2012; 5 months ago (2012-06-25) GPLv2
Kopete Kopete Team 2002-03-03 Multi-protocol 1.2.3 GPL
MCabber Mikael Berthe 2005-06-07 Single-protocol 0.10.1 GPL
Meetro Paul Bragiel & Samuel Stauffer 2005 Multi-protocol 0.96 beta (Windows)
0.53 beta (OS X)		 Clickwrap
Messages (application) Apple Inc. 2012-07-25 Multi-protocol 7.0 July 25, 2012; 4 months ago (2012-07-25) Clickwrap
Miranda IM Miranda IM project 2000-02-06 Multi-protocol 0.10.8 GPL
Microsoft Lync Microsoft Corporation 2005 Single-protocol 2010 November 14, 2010; 2 years ago (2010-11-14) Clickwrap
MySpaceIM MySpace 2006-05-09 Single-protocol 1.0.754.0 (February 7, 2008) Clickwrap
naim Daniel Reed 1998-10-05 Multi-protocol 0.11.8.3.1 (2007-07-09) GPL
Nimbuzz Evert Jaap Lugt and Martin Smink 2006 Multi-protocol Microsoft Windows: 2.4.0 October 23, 2012; 37 days ago (2012-10-23); Blackberry: 1.4.1 October 12, 2012; 48 days ago (2012-10-12); iOS: 2.5.1 August 21, 2012; 3 months ago (2012-08-21); Android: 2.2.2 August 1, 2012; 3 months ago (2012-08-01); Mac OS X: 2.2.1 April 24, 2012; 7 months ago (2012-04-24); Windows Phone: 1.1.1 November 13, 2012; 16 days ago (2012-11-13); Symbian: 3.4.0 August 1, 2012; 3 months ago (2012-08-01) GPL
Palringo Palringo Ltd 2006 Single-protocol Microsoft Windows: 2.7.9 July 4, 2012; 4 months ago (2012-07-04); Windows Mobile: 2.6.6 March 30, 2012; 7 months ago (2012-03-30); iOS: 4.12 August 6, 2012; 3 months ago (2012-08-06); Android: 5.2.8 August 1, 2012; 3 months ago (2012-08-01); Mac OS X: 4.6.4 July 24, 2012; 4 months ago (2012-07-24); Windows Phone: 0.11.0.0 February 14, 2012; 9 months ago (2012-02-14); Clickwrap
Paltalk Jason Katz 1998 Multi-protocol Version 10.2 Build 455 Clickwrap
Pidgin Mark Spencer 1998-11 Multi-protocol 2.10.6 GPL
Psi Justin Karneges 2001 Single-protocol 0.15 GPL
QIP Ilgam Zyulkorneev 2004 Multi-protocol QIP 2012 (Build 7210) Clickwrap
Qnext Qnext Corp. 2010-06 Multi-protocol 4.0.4 Windows, Macintosh, Linux (June, 2010)
1.0.0.61 iOS (June, 2010)
2.0.1.55 Mobile Web (June, 2010)		 Clickwrap
QuteCom QuteCom 2004 Multi-protocol 2.2.1 GPL
Skype Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis 2003 Single-protocol Android
3.0.0.6181

iOS
4.1.2
Linux
4.1.0.20
Microsoft Windows
6.0.0.126 (Desktop app)
1.2 (Windows Store app)
OS X
6.0.0.2946
Symbian
2.1
Windows Phone
2.0

Clickwrap
TerraIM George Vulov 2002-09 Single-protocol 1.2.6 GPL
Tkabber Alexey Shchepin 2002-07-03 Single-protocol 0.11.1 GPL
Trillian Cerulean Studios 2000-07-01 Multi-protocol Windows:

5.2 (build 13)

Mac OS X:
1.3 (build 37)

iOS:
2.0.277

BlackBerry:
1.1.0.45

Android:
1.2.0.11

Web-Based:
2.0.0.618

Clickwrap
Windows Live Messenger Microsoft Corporation 1999-07 Dual-protocol 2012 (Build 16.4.3503.728) (Windows XP/Vista/7/8) August 7, 2012; 3 months ago (2012-08-07) Clickwrap
WhatsApp WhatsApp Inc. ? Single-protocol ? ?
Xfire Xfire Inc. 2004 Dual-protocol 1.149 Clickwrap
Yahoo! Messenger Yahoo! 1999-06-21 Dual-protocol 11.5.0.228 (Windows)
3.0.1 (Mac)
1.0.4 (Unix)		 Clickwrap
Zephyr Project Athena 1987 Single-protocol 2.0 MIT
Client Author, creator First public release date Type Latest stable version License

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