Instant messenger for Mac recommendations?

11. Oct 2005.

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So far, I never had a need to chat via Mac, since the Skype covers it both – Win and Mac systems alike. What would be your Mac messenger of choice and why? Do Mac people generally practice instant messaging, or are they more the e-mail type?

Marko Dugonjić is a designer specialized in user experience design, web typography and web standards. He runs a nanoscale user interface studio Creative Nights and organizes FFWD.PRO, a micro-conference and workshops for web professionals.

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9 shouts to “Instant messenger for Mac recommendations?”

Nooon
001—2005.10.11.11:28

AdiumX is the only IM worth using on Mac. It’s highly customizable and supports more protocols than you can shake a stick at.
Jeff Croft
002—2005.10.11.15:23

If you’re looking for an all-in-one type of client, then AdiumX is the way to go. Fire and Proteus are alternatives, but they both pale in comparison.

If you only use one network, all of the biggies (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN) have stand-alone clients for Mac, just as they do one Windows. They are generally not as robust as their Windows counterparts, but the do work just fine for basic IM’ing.
marko
003—2005.10.11.17:26

I’ve tried Adium and so far I’m pretty satisfied. With it, I can use my old account/contacts from ICQ, I already have on PC. Thanks to both for your comments!

One additional question: Is it possible to create accounts from inside the Adium?
Jesse J. Anderson
004—2005.10.11.19:22

Adium is frickin awesome!

Tabbed chatting – nothing better for chatting at work (when the boss comes around it’s nicer to see just one chat window as opposed to the 10 for all the people you’re chatting with).

I loved Adium so much that I switched to using my Mac Mini for chatting at home, never the PC anymore.
jyoseph
005—2005.10.11.23:40

I’m a mac newbie so take everything I say with a (full) spoon of salt.

I really like the native iChat program. (of course I’m a recent convert, so everything on my Mac is cool.)
marko
006—2005.10.12.07:42

I found iChat adequate if you communicate with Mac users only, which is rarely the case.
Jason Beaird
007—2005.10.12.15:26

I live in South Carolina and the company I work for is in Arizona, so chat is an essential part of work for me. I’ve given Proteus, Fire, Adium, and iChat their fair share of testing, but I keep going back to iChat and Adium.

I love Adium for it’s customization/skins, ability to use my ICQ/Jabber/AIM accounts in one program, and the tabbed chat thing is pretty cool too.

I switch over to iChat when I need to send a file, audio chat, or video chat. One thing that REALLY annoys me with iChat is it’s lack of chat logging. Adium does an excellent job of archiving chat logs. There is a program called Logorrhea that makes it easier to browse iChat logs, but if you need to find a conversation fast without opening ANOTHER app, Adium is the way to go.
Teddy
008—2005.10.19.15:53

Adium is _the_ IM for Mac OS. There isn’t anything else worth saying.
Alex Head
009—2005.12.29.04:43

Ryan- how do you set up ichat to check Yahoo, MSN, etc using jabber?

Instant messenger for Mac recommendations?

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