What are you looking for in an instant messenger?

Cipher3D

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26 Aug 2005
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Because Google Talk just came out, I was left wondering about what people are really looking for an instant messenger. As I was using Google Talk, it kinda felt like a mac application because I couldn't really...DO anything with it. Except talk. And voice chat. But even talk is limited, without capability for fonts, smileys, and what not. While I do understand that Google is striving for that popular "clean", white uncluttered look that dominates all their applications, do you think that Google Talk works well with that?

What do you guys think of it? What do you wish instant messengers had? I personally believe it's unfortunate that the most popular Instant Messenger happens to be the worst one (AIM).

I know one of the most vaunted for feature is Interoperability; do you see MSN, Yahoo and AOL ever interoperating with each other?

Also, which is better - to have lots of unique features like Voice Chat, Video Chat, Games, Internet Radio (Yahoo), or just have a spartan interface like Google Talk?
 
I use trillian on windows and gaim on freebsd/linux. I don't look for anything, simple instant messaging is fine.
 
Hm...I'm not that well versed in the capabilities of instant messengers of linux, but do any of them have video and audio chat capabilities? Or is simply the majority of the users of *nix not interested in these features?
 
i just wish that AIM would get the one feature that Yahoo messenger has had for as long as i can remember. and that is..... Offline Messages. how hard would it be for them to do something like that?
 
Personally, I use trillian for 3 main reasons:

- Able to use Multi-protocols
- NO ADS
- You CAN EASILY CUSTOMIZE NAMES IN THE CONTACT LIST. (quite often people use different nicks than what I know them as)
 
Cipher3D said:
...As I was using Google Talk, it kinda felt like a mac application because I couldn't really...DO anything with it.
I'm sorry, but how exactly does that qualify it to feel like a Mac application ? :rolleyes:


My requirements for an IM, I type, the other person sees it. Job done. That's what IM is after-all.
 
I just use Netmeeting which has everything you need except games and pretty emoticons which I could care less about.

Plus I like the old time "telephone ring" when someone wants to connect with you. :)
 
Kr0m said:
Personally, I use trillian for 3 main reasons:

- Able to use Multi-protocols
- NO ADS
- You CAN EASILY CUSTOMIZE NAMES IN THE CONTACT LIST. (quite often people use different nicks than what I know them as)
AMEN! I wish MSN would add the renaming feature. I kno MSN plus adds it but MSN should still add it.

I hate it when ppl have a freakin novel as a screen name, Trillian or MSN Plus allows me to trim it down as well as make it wasier to remember whose who when they changes names.
 
I use proteus on my mac, this lets me do useful things like set the names of contacts and also merge people with more than one contact address. I dont care which address they are using, only that I can talk to them.
 
voice, text. that will do me. I don't mind other features, but I wouldn't miss them much
 
I haven't touched MsgPlus! since shortly after the author decided to bundle 'optional' spyware (yeah I know it's adware but to me it's spyware.) with it. The mess.be patch seems to be better but still lacks the ability to customize names in the contact list plus it's sort of a pain in the butt to have to run it for each user account.
 
Windows Messenger 4.7

With better Audio/Video and none of the rest of the crap 7.5 has
 
what i hate is these new messenger plus things that you type in a certain word or combination of letters and it changes it into a fancy graphic or whatever, i just wish msn would include an option that i could disable it from my end so i wouldnt spend two or three seconds waiting for the graphic to come up, and then trying to figure out wat it means!
 
I'd also like to add another option to my wish list...

- Enable/Disable clickable URLs. (Daughter has 2 friends in her contact list that are infected with worms that randomly send links).
 
Admiral Michael said:
I hate it when ppl have a freakin novel as a screen name

Me too, I wish I could reach my hand into my monitor and slap them. Whats so wrong with just having a simple name?


almost forgot, I use trillian too ;)
 
Clean interface.
Great Video/Audio capabilities.
No bloat.
Offline Messaging.
 
there is one thing that I cannot stand about MSN Messenger... I like being alerted when my contacts come online, but I dont care to be alerted for every contact. I think the options of Block and Delete are far too.. harsh. nowadays with all those delete checker sites like msngeeks.com... (sidenote - i was in our faculty's computer lab once, and i mentionned msngeeks.com...all of my buds logged in to see who had deleted them, and a war started... why did you delete me, blah blah.. it was pretty funny..

all i really want to do is ignore a particular contact. ICQ had this feature and I believe it was its best feature. Now that I think of it, there were apps to check who was ignoring you wasnt there...

MSN is great it just needs a few more functional features... i could care less about backgrounds and nudges, etc. Id like to see:
-an ignore feature
-message alerts

By message alerts, I mean ... how many times do you login and see some guys name as... 'John - Hey Joe, call me when you see this message'. I hate that. Why cant a user setup an answering machine type notice for another user to receive when they login. it would be the same as the PSM feature, only more direct.

What else.. oh yes, I have a Dlink router with UPnP support. I have read so much about how bad MSN is UPnP. I have had to disconnect my router because every internet user in the house constantly gets booted off msn. its the biggest pain in the ass.
and thats about it... nice thread
 
secure encrypted messaging..

currently use simplite and msn
 
Psyborg said:
what i hate is these new messenger plus things that you type in a certain word or combination of letters and it changes it into a fancy graphic or whatever, i just wish msn would include an option that i could disable it from my end so i wouldnt spend two or three seconds waiting for the graphic to come up, and then trying to figure out wat it means!

msn does,

click on the user with the annoying graphic emoticons and animated text.

go to the tools menu and uncheck "show emoticons"

now you can read what the heck they are trying to say to you.

i hate the dancing "Y" and the goofy "no"
 

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Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
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Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
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