Talk:Comparison of cross-platform instant messaging clients/Archive 1

Archive 1

VFD - Comparison of instant messengers

This article WAS listed for VFD... but saved by a group of brave supporters to KEEP this article. See: Wikipedia:Votes_for_deletion/Comparison_of_instant_messengers. Because of this I've removed the VFD message from the article.

asynchronous message relaying (on client offline)

a subject that is rarly covered on instant messangers as there are emails for real async communication. but imho its important for conveniance as one might not check email that often ..

in my experiance only yabber, icq, and irc (with memoserv) support this feature where aim, msn, yahoo fall short ..

thought of this eventually as another feature line!! ..

Unicode Support?

Would like to see if Unicode support (Multiple languages, e.g. Japanese, English, Korean, support without changing locale.) mentioned, thanks!

Hello?

Hi everyone.

I use a Mac, so I have not tried Google's "Hello" program. That program which they bundle with Picasa 2 for easy photo sharing/discussion etc.

Does Hello use it's own IM protocol, or does it piggy back one of the other major protocols? From the www.hello.com site, it seems to use it's own. Would that mean that it deserves an entry in this page?

Looking through this page, I wonder if the entries look oddly classified.

Userbase?

Any ideas what the estimated or know usersbases for each of these networks/protocols/programs are?

I second that. A really important piece of information for a good comparison is how many users each network supports.
Here's what I was able to find by poking around on wikipedia's various pages for some of the chat clients.
AIM: 195 million
Skype: 70 million
QQ: 150 million
Coversant's SoapBox: 2 million

AIM/TOC differences

I would like to point out that most of the AIM clients written actually go through the TOC network, which is compatible, but more limited than Oscar. (can't view an oscar user's away message, etc.) For example, the official AIM client and gaim use Oscar, but CenterICQ and naim use TOC. Does anyone want to look into the rest of the clients?

GPLv2?

Why does mICQ's license listed as GPL v2 versus simply GPL (simply GPL implys GPL version 2)? I am removing it. If the person who put that there wants it back, please explain here. — SirNuke (talk)

first, please sign your messages. second, there are earlier versions of GPL, so "GPL" by itself does not imply GPL version 2. I shall go put that back now, and also add it for Adium (which is also GPL version 2). — boredzo (✍) July 7, 2005 07:26 (UTC)

Scripting Languages

Another column on the Features table that would be useful information would be which scripting languages are supported by each client (though I suspect "None" would be the answer for most of them).

Edit - A quick homepage search of each client shows only the following ones with scripting languages:

Adium: AppleScript

Gaim: Perl

mICQ: TCL

Miranda - PHP via plugin

Tkabber - TCL

Pandion: JavaScript

All Jabber Clients get SMS support via SMS transport

so I guess Partial with note is needed in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_instant_messengers#Advanced_conferencing as done above for AIM/MSN/ICQ support for Jabber clients etc

Jabber clients can also connect to xfire and Sametime

There are Jabber transports for xfire and Sametime, so you can connect to these networks also using any Jabber client.

Spam

The appkadomain thing looks like disguised spam. It should be removed.

Yahoo! Messenger release date

Surely Yahoo! Messenger was released prior to June of 1999? I believe I used it as early as December of 1998.

google talk has webcam support with festoon support atleast last time i checked.

http://www.festooninc.com/

MSN Messenger - Windows Live Messenger

Under the 'Operating system support' sub of this article, MSN Messenger is not acknowledged as an IM program as it has in the previous sub, with this being mentioned, Windows Live Messenger also has not been acknowledged as MSN Messenger's new brand name. In all instances of the mention of MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger, it needs to be mentioned that MSN Messenger is now Windows Live Messenger and that Widnows Live Messenger was MSN Messenger.

P4R4D0x 02:41, 10 September 2007 (UTC)P4R4D0x

Missing clients

• FWD Communicator (former Pulver Communicator) --Vasilescu 01:58, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
• Windows Messenger -- Bact 6 July 2005 23:48 (UTC)
• QIP: http://www.qip.ru
• Spark http://jivesoftware.org/spark
• Chikka - very popular in the Philippines
• BuddySpace (Jabber w geolocation): http://www.buddyspace.org
• irssi http://irssi.org/
• Xfire http://www.xfire.com/
• Slick http://www.lonelycatgames.com/?app=slick
• IM+ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.241.148.4 (talk) 16:17, 7 February 2008 (UTC)
• many other IRC clients

Web based

• meebo
• eBuddy
• AirAIM -- Scott Dial 16:53, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

X-im: http://www.x-im.net/ free encrypted end-to-end instant messaging

Addons

OK, there are a few things to work out, and maybe I should wait till this gets through VfD before I put too much work into it (one of the slightly slef-fulfilling things about VfD, that); but the one that most confuses me right now is what was intended by the word "addons" as a feature. Currently, IRC is listed as "maybe" and Jabber as "no"; does this mean extra plugins for the client that create new behaviour both sides? In which case, I'd say both are "yes" - examples include secure conversations over Jabber, and whiteboards that share vector graphic information via IRC.

Perhaps it would be more useful to actually list some of the addons available for each client / protocol (that's the other big niggle: we need to decide whether we're talking about protocols or clients, here; perhaps the multi-protocol client-only programs like Trillian et al should be moved out to a seperate table, to avoid a proliferation of "N/A"s) -

IMSoP 16:57, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I'm thinking of fixing it... :-) squash 22:18, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC)

Clients versus protocols

I still think this table would make more sense if it were restricted to protocols, rather than having apples-and-oranges comparisons with things like GAIM and Trillian. We could easily fill up a whole table with those, with more relevant questions, but concentrating on protocols here would allow us to fudge fewer rows, and give us room to add other protocols we haven't listed yet, such as Gadu-Gadu, and maybe Lotus Sametime... - IMSoP 17:58, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I've seperated it squash 03:17, Oct 2, 2004 (UTC)

Multi-platform portable IM without installation/registry editing?

does anyone know of a multi-platform IM client/program that doesn't need to be installed and doesn't edit the registry? this should be added to the information (ie portable? yes/no box). does not have to work on Linux but it would be nice. 207.10.232.238 (talk) 06:42, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

AIM and ICQ

Last time I checked, AIM is fully compatible with ICQ (since version 5.2, I think it was), and the latest versions of ICQ are skinnable...but correct me if I'm wrong. --Evice 23:15, Nov 26, 2004 (UTC)

Last time I've checked, AIM 5.5 for Mac is a Mac OS 9 application. There is no Mac OS X application for AIM at the moment, which is - in my sense - important to notice. -- Yannick G., 11 Fev 2005

The latest few windows versions of AIM are all Dockable, since 5.9, only Triton isn't.

Specialist program?

What's the meaning of "specialist program" vs "non-specialist program"?

From context, I gather it meant they only supported a single protocol - I've changed the article to make this clearer (or, I hope that's clearer...). - IMSoP 17:36, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)

More protocols

Adium (and probably other LibGaim based programs) support more protocols than on the chart.

Gadu-Gadu, Yahoo Japan, Zephyr, Napster

There are lots of protocols out there, but most of them are rarely used. I ran across this page that shows the estimated market penetration of the different chat networks (scroll down about half way)

Perhaps we should agree on a cut-off point here... if a network is under 2% or 5% market penetration, then it wouldn't be popular enough to be added into the table, and the specific information could be placed on the specific wiki page describing that IM network... and under the tables, there could be something akin to "Less common networks: " and the putting links to those wikipages.

thoughts? Lockle 09:15, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I think we should keep just AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! and Jabber. Other protocols are just too minor, and IRC is not an IM protocol. IRC should be compared in "comparison of IRC clients". --minghong 15:36, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I think we should move "Retroshare", "GroupWise", "Sametime", "Skype " and "QQ" to others or to the bottom --Phobie 10:15, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

what about YSM

ok its not so widespread but as a ascii text based client it seemes the best available.Lichtkind 01:04, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• certainly not the best line based ICQ client - that's mICQ.
• If you feel a change is needed, feel free to make it yourself! Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone — including you — can edit any article by clicking the edit this page tab at the top of the page. You don't even need to log in, although there are several reasons why you might want to. Wikipedia convention is to be bold and not be afraid of making mistakes. If you're not sure how editing works, have a look at How to edit a page, or try out the Sandbox to test your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. - Fennec (はさばくのきつね) 04:19, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I can't find anything that suggests that YSM can do video or audio, yet it is listed as doing them. I haven't used it, so I could be wrong... but I can't find any mention of it having these features on the website. I'm changing the article. If you believe I'm wrong, please check and then correct the article. James Foster 15:07, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

skype-support

See Comparison of instant messengers#Network_support

According to the list, Miranda can support Skype with a plugin. But it only works when Skype (the real one) is installed and running on your computer.[1] I do not call that support for Skype. --Walter 00:25, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I have removed the listing of support for skype --Walter 16:12, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

-- Skype/MYspace IM interoperability?

Im not very good at editing wikis, could someone please update the MySpace IM can now talk to Skype users?

Nice effort, but horrible comparison

First, the terminologies is wrong/inconsistent. The first table says "multi-protocol"/"single-protocol". But in the comparison of protocol, the title is "network support". The current table of "protocol" (at the end of page) should be itself an article, e.g. comparison of IM protocols. That table shouldn't be added here in the first place. --Minghong 11:11, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)

"direct connect" under features?

gaim never works.  :-) - Omegatron 01:07, Mar 16, 2005 (UTC)

encryption?

no mention of this in the comparison, yet it is a major issue. I hear trillian has some form of encryption, and adium is adopting the otr (off the record) protocol for its .8 release, would be a nice area to cover here.

I agree that talking about encryption would be a good thing to add, but it might take some brainstorming before it's integrated into the table. Lots of IM clients offer encryption, but they typically do not work with OTHER clients. Would there be a way to show that fact?

Maybe instead of just having the column say "encryption", title it "encryption with" and the cells would say what IM programs it supported encryption with. if it is a propriatery, the the programs own name would be the only entry in the cell.

Just one idea I'm tossing out there. Anyone know of another way to put this level of information into the tables without overwhelming the readers?

Lockle 09:09, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Toolkit?

As long as the IM is available to a platform, I don't think the implementation detail is important (except GNOME vs KDE), e.g. as long as it works in Windows, I don't care if it use Qt, GTK+ or MFC... --minghong 20:26, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
My understanding is that this is software development or scripting toolkits. I think these should include the platform, language, and area that they extend.
Jason Frankel - Coversant, Inc.

Features: Encryption, Toolkit issues

Some inconsistencies and issues I noticed on the Features table:

• Themes/Skins: Both Gaim and Kopete say 'Yes' for this, but Psi and Skype do not. AFAIK the only theme facilities in Gaim and Kopete are those provided by the GTK+ or Qt toolkits, which can also be used with Psi and Skype (on Linux). Either all GTK+- or Qt-based clients should say 'Yes' or all should say 'No' with exceptions being programs that have their own theme system separate from/extending that of the toolkit.
• BitlBee's toolkit is 'IRC'. This shopuld probably be 'N/A' or something, since it is a server and doesn't use any toolkit.
• Gaim/OTR encryption: Adium incudes a footnote about OTR encryption; Gaim should also have a not about the OTR plugin.
• Qt/KDE toolkit: all Qt-based clients have the toolkit listed as 'Qt/KDE' or 'KDE/Qt'. The reference to KDE should be removed since KDE is NOT a toolkit.
• Skype toolkit: Does skype use Qt on all platforms, or just Linux? I've never used the Windows version myself, but there are some small GUI features that are missing from the Linux version that look like they would be easy to port if the Windows version also used Qt, which suggests that the windows version uses the native Win32 toolkit.

==>Features: Third Party Add Ons
FIY: The Gaim row's last cell, Third Party Add On's is Green but has "No" in it. Looks like a mistake to me!
--tathra 01:42, 14 August 2005 (UTC)

Important features are missing from the comparison table. These include Whiteboard (multi-user drawing surface) which is very useful for collaboration. Also missing are remote support, remote control, remote desktop, and application sharing. These are important to many for training, troubleshooting and support. 65.170.92.1 14:44, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Some of those features such as whiteboard and sharing were posted in an earlier version of the table. Somebody took those columns off. 65.170.92.1 17:20, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

GAIM and win98

I noticed that GAIM is listed as working on windows without any exceptions. It might be worth noting that GAIM does not currently function on win98 systems due to a bug in the current version of GTK. --Randolph 06:59, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Sorry about the Microsoft being changed to MicroSuck thing, btw. I'm running Privoxy on 'adventurous mode' and its replacing the text when I edit. I've fixed the configuration on the text replacements to not use this filter on wikipedia now. --Randolph 02:12, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

NETMEETING

whats is msn netmeeting??? WiseSabre 21:04, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

Netmeeting is Microsoft's free conferencing program. It's built into Windows (or a free download for older versions of Windows). 65.170.92.1 14:45, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

References

This one may be useful: http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-9237_7-6243313.html --minghong 09:14, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

Limitations

Could someone add something on the limitations imposed by each client? For example, I believe the Yahoo client limits the number of contacts to 300. AlistairMcMillan 14:47, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

Dockability

what do you think about putting dockabilty into the Features table, it's a decisive feature for me in the choice of a messenger, i don't like MSN because it's not dockable, same for gaim, IM2... i've tried'em to get away from trillian, but I can't use a messenger tha isn't docked in my screen. --TigerTjäder 23:15, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

No one has objected so I'll add a column. 132.231.54.1 16:17, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Memory Footprint

Test: Contact list has loaded, 4 IM windows open. Two outgoing messages per window. I'm only testing cross-protocol IM clients. You may wish to add more data. MPowered 09:51, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

ClientName	Version	Footprint Range	Notes
trillian	Basic 3.1 build 121	3,000K - 7,304 - 15,000K	Basic has small round buddy icons (no individual pictures). Garbage collection appears to occurs with IM windows closes and other events.
trillian	Pro 3.1 build 121	5,664 - 34,000K	34MB was with "show picture icons" on. Smaller 5MB-17MB readings were with pictures
gaim	1.5 stable	17,000 - 20,224	2 of 4 accounts would not sign on. ICQ and AIM logged in, but MSN and Yahoo failed. GAIM displays a generic or status icon, plus an individual picture. Reductions in Mem Usage below 20,000 did not occur over over 15 minutes of testing, despite window closes and other events.

On Gaim: That reduction in memory usage below 20,000 does not occur, is probably because it loads gtk+ into memory (assuming it was run on Windows, but this may apply to other operating systems) and it's very much static, IMO.

-Mardus 00:39, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup needed

This article is in severe need of cleanup. The tables lack encyclopedic context — what encyclopedic information does this article provide? Is it a subpage of instant messenger? If so, consider adding {{main}} or {{details}} to provide appropriate tone.

The information may or may not be up to date, and some of it seems more like advertising than encyclopedia. How is the presence of working features in specific clients being verified, and the lack of certain features from specific clients? Is the latest stable version number really important in the big scheme of things? And, most importantly, does the price belong in an encyclopedia, given that prices are subject to change? —donhalcon^╤ 19:50, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

As I replied on another talk page, none of the Category:Software comparison articles are really sub-pages. They have been treated as encyclopedic as stand-alone entities. However, this aricle could benefit from a rewrite of the short introductory paragraph.

Most of the info seems up-to-date, but perhaps you can offer suggestions for insuring it is kept updated? Perhaps a release data on the version which is listed in the comparison? I don't think this seems like advertising & the lack of external links reenforces that. The presence or absence of features may easily be determined from the product documentation. The version number IS important, in the context of how up-to-date a row might be. The price, like any other feature, is a notable point of comparison & can easily be verified/updated if they do change. --Karnesky 20:17, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

The lack of external links does help; product documentation is very useful in regard to features, but it's not referenced here which makes facts very difficult to check, and product documentation isn't as reliable as we'd like it to be. For example, Gaim has claimed to have file transfer for years, but in my experience it almost never works; some 3rd-party verification would be good. As for version numbers, I can understand how a version number can be an indication of how current the row is, but it seems useful for less-common clients only if it has a date. —donhalcon^╤ 20:43, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

There is such a thing as "too much citation" & we should avoid that for comparison pages. Gaim's file xfer works fine (and we should take documentation at face value, unless there is evidence to the contrary (though your or my evidence of it not working or working is not sufficient & would constitute OR). To maximize verifiability and minimize advertising, I think we should have as many blue links (and as few red or external links) as possible & the relevant external links can then be in the pages for each individual product. In other words, instant messenger isn't really the main article, but all of the individual instant messengers serve collectively as a sort of main article for this "comparative summary." --Karnesky 21:24, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

That makes sense, as long as the documentation is linked somewhere; it needs to be added for the red-linked entries, though. —donhalcon^╤ 21:45, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

New Version of Gaim

I've noticed from their website that Gaim have just released version 3.0.0, How do I go about changing this in the table? I ve looked at the source, but it only says " 1.5.0 (August 12, 2005) [±]". Lucas42 00:46, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Their website shows that the stable release is 1.5, while their new beta of version 2.0.0 is at beta 3. They might have a 3.0.0 branch (which is probably in early development), but this is an assumption, because I don't know of anything related to their possible 3.0.0 version, while 2.0.0 is still in beta.

-Mardus 00:50, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Splitting this comparison

What about splitting this big page into Comparison of IRC clients (already existing), Comparison of MSN compatible clients, Comparison of ICQ compatible clients, Comparison of Yahoo! compatible clients, Comparison of multi-protocol chat clients, and so forth...otherwise I predict that this page will grow to more than 100kb (most Jabber clients are not yet compared, for example, this may be more than 20 additional clients to compare...). Other reason: you cannot really compare chat clients that use different protocols. It is a bit like comparing apples with oranges. There also can be a page Comparison of instant messaging protocols. NaturalBornKiller 00:31, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

Some clients, such as gaim, support several different protocols- its easier to compare them if they're all togther. Lucas42 12:34, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

What about MS Office Excel? There is only a spreadsheet for openoffice 1

What about making the spreadsheet at the top MS Office Excel instead? Then everybody can read it. Isn't open office compatible with MS Office, but not the other way around? I will convert it if you want. --NatovR 07:16, 27 May 2006 (UTC) Please reply on my talk page if possible.

Spreadsheet should be legible to all, & what about portability?

I agree that spreadsheets should be posted in a format anyone can read, but

  what about portability?  Should indicate whether IM portable on USB Flash Drive.  U3?

Why not do it as comma-separated variables? CSV formats can be read by every spreadsheet I've ever seen... J-Deeks 17:19, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

I made a CSV file, how do I upload it? ModusOperandi 05:19, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Xfire?

Should we include Xfire in the table? It's an IM client like any other. ModusOperandi 05:20, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

What is whiteboard sharing? What about multi-user text chat?

Is this term refering to multi-user chat? If so, it should be explained somewhere, people will get confused as i did. I came on this page to see which IMs support multi user chatting and couldnt find it. Maybe making a short wikipedia page on explaining what does "Whiteboard sharing" mean would solve the thing.

I believe that whiteboard sharing would more likely mean having a collabortaive drawing/charting tool. I think that this comparison should include a column for mulit-user text chat. Dharris 16:13, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

features

The features part is missing many key items, like tabbed IM windows and the ability to view AIM profiles and away messages in their original form (with Oscar). I agree that this page would be much less unwieldy if their was a list of clients for each major messaging service, and then another page for all of the smaller ones.

Other important features that are missing from the comparison table are remote control/ remote desktop/ remote application features, or similar remote support options. Also missing is a Whiteboard column. 65.170.92.1 14:48, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

I find the metacontact feature in Trillian Pro an important feature. It allows you to group multiple contacts (either on different messengers or the same messenger) into one person, which stops you having to look at duplicate contacts (i.e. if you had the same person on MSN and AIM). Adium also has this feature (group contacts together or something similar). If this could be added to the features table, since I don't know much about which messengers allow this and which don't (Gaim doesn't, Trillian Basic doesn't, Trillian Pro does, Adium does), it would be much appreciated. krebbe 16:30, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Notability

Some of the other technology lists limit entries to those that have their own article. This ensures notability, of the client in this case, and eliminates the temptation of link spammers to add a URL just to increase their google ranking. Another advantage is that the discussion of notability happens at the article level, not here. Does any other editor have a problem if we start elminating entries that don't have an article (blue link) associated with them? JonHarder 02:18, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

With absence of opposing viewpoints, we can start cleaning this article by removing entries with no internal article. Clients that are unlinked, redlinked or externally linked will be removed from the tables. New entries will be accepted only if an article for it already exists. JonHarder 17:56, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Features: Offline Messaging

Shouldn't the Offline Messaging feature be seen as a server feature instead of a client feature? At least all Jabber/XMPP clients support this feature whithout the need for any additional line of code.

Skype now has offline messaging I believe. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.204.76.134 (talk) 12:20, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Blackberry support

Is the column for blackberry support really needed considering the all of 3-4 clients that support it? Wengero 05:43, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Handwriting mode

What is this "Handwriting mode"? And is it interesting enough to mention? NaturalBornKiller 14:56, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Handwriting mode is where you can use a mouse/stylus to create handwritten messages from within the client, which sends them as a picture. Kingturkey 06:24, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

So, actually a whiteboard? If so, both Coccinella and Tkabber should have yes in this column as both have whiteboards in which you can draw things including handwritten messages. NaturalBornKiller 00:21, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Can we link "Handwriting mode" to a page that explains whiteboards? --lynX

Handwriting is not the same as whiteboard. Both should be listed in the features table. Also missing from features are remote control type features, to share desktop or applications, or provide remote assistance. 65.170.92.1 14:50, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

I have still no idea what means Handwriting without Whiteboard, someone have any screenshots? If Handwriting implements Whithboard and/or vice versa the two collumns are confusing. --Lastwebpage (talk) 13:09, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Webcam in Microsoft Messenger for Mac

In the webcam column in features it lists Microsoft Messenger for Mac as a yes, but according to Microsoft Messenger for Mac, "the lack of audio/video functionality for Microsoft Messenger users is a sore point." I believe that it can display other contact's webcam, but it can't send webcam, so it hardly seems reasonable to claim that it has webcam support. Kingturkey 06:23, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

MECA compatible with G-Talk?

Is it comaptible? The site doesn't claim it anywhere I could find, nor Google Talk page... And I tried to and couldn't... 189.5.149.178 17:25, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Adium and QQ

Adium now supports the QQ protocol, as of version 1.0, which was released February 2nd, 2007 according to its homepage [2].

The grid which displays which protocols are supported by which clients should be updated to include this. In fact, it should probably be updated altogether, because I'm sure there are other updates not included in it.

141.210.103.169 23:23, 10 March 2007 (UTC)htmlgecko

Kadu

I am reverting the removal of Kadu entry. I found its website - http://www.kadu.net and the client appears to be both popular and under an active development (see http://www.kadu.net/forum). I don't see any reason for removing its entry from this page. Alex Pankratov 18:30, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

The reason why Kadu was removed, as stated on the top of this page in the orange note box, is that it has no corresponding Wikipedia article. I am going to remove it again until it does have a corresponding wikipedia article. Wengero 07:46, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

I am copying the note I left on Wengero's talk page here -

<quote>

I am going to revert your removal of Kadu entry on Comparison of instant messaging clients page. The reason is that ultimately you have removed valuable and notable information from Wikipedia. This ultimately reduced the quality of WP article. Removing any information from WP should be the action of absolutely last resort. Regardless of whether the "the orange note box" entices editors to do that. Besides - if you want to be formal - the box deals with adding new clients to the list. Kadu has been on it for few months, it's kind of late to remove it now; especially given that it IS a notable entry. See my discussion with JonHarder on his Talk page regarding notability of Kadu.

</quote>

Alex Pankratov 13:33, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

I have not been able to come up with multiple indepedent, non-trivial published works for Kadu as suggested as a measure of notability by WP:SOFTWARE. I don't believe the quality of the article is diminished by removing the Kadu entry until notability is better established. As an interum measure, I have created a Kadu article as a redirect to Gadu-Gadu, which will semi-satisfy the existence of an article requirement of this article and eliminate the need to explain why there is one exception here. ✤ JonHarder ^talk 23:45, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Miranda IM GnuPG Plugin

Here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_instant_messaging_clients#fn_3-10

we can read the following text: "SecureIM plugin provides 192 bits AES Encryption, compatible only between Miranda clients. Also available "Off The Record" (OTR) plugin at http://addons.miranda-im.org/details.php?action=viewfile&id=2644"

Meanwhile at least since 17 mar 2003 there exist GnuPG Plugin for Miranda IM

http://addons.miranda-im.org/details.php?action=viewfile&id=216

There also exist a modern GnuPG Plugin version:

http://addons.miranda-im.org/details.php?action=viewfile&id=3485

Which would be compatible not only between Miranda IM clients, but with other, at least, OpenPGP-enabled Jabber clients.

Future versions will be available at "Security and Privacy" page of Miranda IM site:

http://addons.miranda-im.org/index.php?action=display&id=38

87.103.137.7 07:34, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

removal of proposed dletion tag

this page is a model of what such pages should be; see the edit history for discussion and widespread WP use & editing.DGG 00:13, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Malware accusations

The fact that an IM client has ads in its interface does not make it adware. Adware is what users send programs like Ad-Aware and Windows Defender after. Accusing programs of malware bundling without proper evidence is an NPOV violation.

Look before you link 208.138.31.76 15:25, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

This could prove helpful

There are concerns about adware because it often takes the form of spyware, in which information about the user's activity is tracked, reported, and often re-sold, often without the knowledge or consent of the user. Of even greater concern is malware, which may interfere with the function of other software applications, in order to force users to visit a particular web site.

It is not uncommon for people to confuse "adware" with "spyware" and "malware", especially since these concepts overlap. For example, if one user installs "adware" on a computer, and consents to a tracking feature, the "adware" becomes "spyware" when another user visits that computer, and interacts with and is tracked by the "adware" without their consent.

www.inspeak.com

Features - User Pics?

The ability to display 'User Pics' - or "Display Pictures" as Win. Live Messenger calls them - does not seem to be mentioned in the features section. Just thought I should mention that maybe this should be added, as it is at least as significant as some of the other features mentioned (eg: handwriting feature). EDIT: forgot to login before making that commentDonkeyKong64 (Mathematician in training) 18:48, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Yahoo! Messenger's entry needs updating

Hang on!!! My copy of Yahoo! Messenger supports Y!, Windows Live, LCS, Lotus SameTime and Reuters Messaging (although not in the drop down list of networks, it is supported according to the blog post at: http://blog.messenger.yahoo.com/blog/2007/04/04/working-together-yahoo-messenger-and-reuters-messaging/ ).

Also, Yahoo! Messenger supports a similar feature to Whiteboard called Yahoo! Scribbler (plug in) and Doodle (IMVironment). Also, via third party plug ins, Yahoo! Messenger will support features similar to Remote Desktop.

Chelseafan528 12:49, 8 July 2007 (UTC) ChelseaFan528

Request from a visitor to my page

Protocol support

The table for protocol support is needed in two pages:

• Comparison of instant messaging clients
• Multiprotocol instant messaging application

Can you make a template of it and change both pages accordingly? Thank you 91.35.185.115 15:38, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

I will do my very best to get an expert coder on that project! Cheers! ^Ariel♥Gold 16:10, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

As I am not the correct person to complete this (I currently do not have a sufficient knowledge of tables here on Wikipedia) I am hoping someone here may be able to honor the request by the poster to my page. (I have also posted this on the Multiprotocal's talk page, and WikiProject Computing, as advised by the Admin that I went to for advice.) Thank you! ^Ariel♥Gold 11:40, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Features table

I changed the Skype rows containing "Yes (Skype-to-Skype" to "Yes (Skype only)", understanding that "Skype-to-Skype" means Skype only and no other apps.

If "Skype-to-Skype" in the context of relevant features actually means a certain Skype(-related) feature, plugin or service, then change it back. -Mardus 14:12, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Dockable?

What does 'dockable' mean in the Features 2 table? This word should be clearly defined in order for the column to be at all useful. Perhaps it means 'minimizes to notification icon area (MS Windows) or system tray (X)'? Kopete does this, but I'm not prepared to put a Yes in the box until someone can clarify whether I've understood the column correctly. 212.44.26.44 16:21, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

OpenPGP

I have no experience with editing tabels in wikipeida yet, neither know if it`s wanted... There are some messengers which support OpenPGP: Miranda IM, Psi and Gajim (maybe more). I think it`s worth to add chasm. What do you think? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.183.136.90 (talk) 00:33, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Miranda Handwriting support?

What pluing should this be? I know there is a whiteboard plugin, but this is already listed in the feature 1 table. if all clients with whiteboard support, means support for handwriting too, the table is a little bit confusing. --Lastwebpage (talk) 13:02, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Text messaging (SMS) Feature

I'm considering adding a column for a text messaging (SMS) feature. AIM 6.0 now supports this, and it seems that some other IM clients do also. Any comment? Centrepull (talk) 10:04, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

imeem no longer has an IM application

they're all about being 'youtube for everything' and are all website based, the software download no longer exists or works. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.72.33.90 (talk) 18:56, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

---

AIM allows you to link screen names, thus letting you sign in with multiple accounts at once, the wiki page says it can't do multi accounts. Link screen names works in the older AIM 5.9 and the newest 6.5

WTF is single/multiple protocol

I can't figure out how this page is divided up into templates and how it would even be possible to explain the question above if I knew the answer. The organization is FUBAR. 70.112.121.70 (talk) 18:20, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

AIM Lite

Should AIM lite software be listed here? It is made by AOL, but has a different feature set than the normal AIM client. http://x.aim.com/laim/

--Rgb9000 (talk) 16:16, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Jabber Clients without any multi-protocol transports

What does that mean?! For I'm pretty sure Exodus can work with transports, other clients in that category most likely can do the same (maybe they can't register transports, but that doesn't mean you can't use them if you register them in another client). Lukas.polivka (talk) 09:43, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Updates: Notification, manual, automatic, etc.

Some of these clients (e.g., AOL, Yahoo, Windows Live, Pidgin) have an option where they will automatically notify the user of the availability of an update. Some will, either automatically or with user opt-in, download and install the update. It would be nice to add this in one of the features columns. 216.231.34.168 (talk) 03:06, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

add feature: web feed aggregator

What about adding the feature aggregator to the comparison (and/or helping to add the clients with features in the comparison of feed aggregators)? mabdul 0=* 18:04, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

cleanup

Hey folks, let's try to make this article better! I starte to make a first cleanup. but i didn't have time any more now. maybe next week...

• think about spiltting and comparing the features better!
• make more refs
• bringing back the part of the Template:Protocol support; that doesn't make any sense!
• archiving the talkpage!
• adding Template:rh and Template:rh2 (for disconntiuned clients) to get an overview!
• and more

mabdul 0=* 19:46, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Finch

Is Finch not listed due to being a console version of Pidgin? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jwh335 (talk • contribs) 23:14, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

SAPO Messenger

Once the instant messenger program SAPO Messenger was removed from this comparison page because it lacked popularity or references to be on Wikipedia.

Then, why aren't the pages:

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAPO_Messenger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAPO_Messenger

deleted?

512upload (talk) 09:24, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Comply with WP:V policy

This article has tag on the top that says unverified information may be removed. This tag has been there since 2007. I spent time earlier removing unsourced information from the redlinked entries. Restoring entries without articles must be done with verification from a reliable source (not the software publisher) of the claimed information. Miami33139 (talk) 18:29, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

There is still much work to be done as the bulk of content is either completely unsourced or attributed to a primary source, solely. JBsupreme (talk) ✄ ✄ ✄ 02:55, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Symbian should be a seperate column in Supported Operating Systems section/table along with others as it is the most used mobile Operating System

Symbian is the most used mobile operating system ( atleast the wikipage on Symbian Operating System claims so ) So I think we should have a seperate column for Symbian in the supported Operating Systems section —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikieeed (talk • contribs) 22:01, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

Mirador Instant Messenger

Not knowing much on the subject, I don't feel comfortable adding the information myself, but could somebody add information on Mirador Instant Messenger as it is an orphan article? Thanks a bunch! NeilHynes - ^Talk_Edits 14:20, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Deletion of this article

This article must be deleted according to this discussion and result about the deletion of similar list like articles like this one. An aticle of deletion should be created here: Wikipedia:Comparison_of_instant_messaging_clients. (Onle registered users can do this, so not me) --91.89.137.62 (talk) 15:54, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

Facebook chat now uses XMPP

The comparison of IM probably needs to be updated about Facebook compatibility, since now FB has adopted standard XMPP most clients compatible with this protocol can use the Facebook chat without plugins, the table instead lists some clients (Pidgin and other) as 'plugin required'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.44.2.108 (talk) 18:22, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Wippien

Wippien has an article yet doesn't appear anywhere in this article. Perhaps it should be added. I don't have time right now. Cheers. --Hm2k (talk) 18:29, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

Cleanup

I removed all the software that doesn't have its own article. Still a lot of clutter remains:

• Bombus
• Brosix
• Carrier
• Digsby
• eBuddy
• eM Client
• emesene
• EQO
• Fire
• GCN
• GOIM
• Goofey
• Gyachi
• imo.im
• IMVU
• InSpeak Communicator
• JClaim
• Kadu
• Konnekt
• LiveProfile
• meebo
• Meetro
• Naim
• Palringo
• Paltalk
• Pandion
• Proteus
• Qnext
• Spark
• talk
• VZOchat
• Xfire

I believe those should get removed too, and may be even sent to AfD process. Any feedback? — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk) 14:11, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

I disagree. Why do you think these should be removed? What are the criteria to determine which clients should be listed? size of userbase? features? uniqueness? or... — Siriushoward (talk) 23:59, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

The criterion is WP:WTAF. And WP:GNG helps with cleanup. At the time of posting there were no red links in the list. — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk) 10:17, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

I agree that we should remove the red link from the list items. But only the link, not the list items themselves, at least not all of them. The notability guidelines applies to standalone lists and articles, not individual item within list (or content in article).

In contrary, items that are not notable enough to have their own article have more reason to be listed. And if those items are expected to have their own article soon, red link is acceptable. see WP:LSC#Selection_criteria — 46.208.91.225 (talk) 14:44, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

I would agree that non-notable items should be included in other articles, but not to the list and comparisons, but instead to the class articles. Here no single red link is a good choice, specifically given the amount of already present IM articles and the obscurity of "expected to have their own article" term regarding software. — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk) 14:49, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

At least we agree on the obscurity of the amount of IM articles that should not be there. I guess we disagree on notability of the clients. For example, I do not understand why you would consider to remove ebuddy, meebo, and imo. But keeping Gajim — Siriushoward (talk) 20:51, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

This comparison actually highlights my idea on these: Gajim is a stand-alone and very much unique Jabber client, while Meebo, Meetro, imo.im and the rest of social messaging SaaSes are just like clones: not enough different from each other to have separate articles. I'm going to write a social messaging article to collect these instead. — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk) 22:47, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

Gajim looks like a clone of gaim to me. =P — 46.208.91.225 (talk) 22:51, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

Original Research

This page is pure "Original Research".

Since when is Wikipedia taking on the role of advocate for "selected" commercial products? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.151.160.158 (talk) 22:37, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

You may want to address some specific concerns either by noting them here or editing the article. — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk) 00:19, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Which ones allow calling to land lines?

I think it would be useful to know which ones allow calling to land lines and which ones do not. Friends of mine that use either VoipBuster or Skype do so because it allows them to call land lines. --82.170.113.123 (talk) 00:28, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

I second that. Chatterboxer (talk) 02:06, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

Any particular reason that Microsoft Lync and Office Communicator Clients aren't included?

IBM Sametime business product makes the cut, why not the Microsoft clients? And, for the record, they allow calling landlines. Which I agree should be part of the comparison matrix. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.244.200.177 (talk) 21:35, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Safety Jabber

Add Safety Jabber: http://safetyjabber.com/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.172.136.161 (talk) 09:04, 1 October 2012 (UTC)

Open source clients for Android

For anyone who wants to add them to the article, then I leave some I found:

• Xabber
• Gibber (or Gibberbot, I'm not sure which of these is its official name)
• Beem

--181.95.76.6 (talk) 12:40, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

IM applications that can be added as they have their own articles now

Of clients removed on 12.12.2011 some of these that are not redlinks could be added back:

• eM Client — Article needs cleanup
• LiveProfile
• talk — Historical, UNIX

Redirects

• Carrier — Fork of Pidgin, redirects to Pidgin (software)
• Goofey — Redirects to Goofy (Disney character)

Defunct or merged into other projects

• meebo — Acquired by Google and made companion to Google+
• Meetro — Defunct

IM clients already in the article

• Bombus — GPL
• eBuddy
• emesene — GPL
• Fire — GPL
• IMVU
• Kadu — GPL
• Naim — GPL, runs from console;
• Palringo
• Paltalk — embroiled as target of U.S. snooping programmes;
• Qnext
• Xfire

Redlinks

• Brosix — Deleted twice
• Digsby — Deleted on 13.01.2012
• imo.im — Deleted three times
• JClaim — Deleted on 15.02.2012
• Konnekt — Deleted on 13.01.2012
• Pandion — Deleted on 27.01.2012
• Spark — Deleted three times
• VZOchat — Deleted on 13.01.2012

Redlinks with software discontinued or marked as defunct

• EQO — Discontinued; Deleted twice
• GCN — "seemingly defunct", deleted on 13.01.2012
• GOIM — Defunct, deleted on 13.01.2012
• Gyachi — Defunct, deleted on 13.01.2012
• InSpeak Communicator — "seemingly defunct", deleted on 13.01.2012
• Proteus — Defunct, deleted on 13.01.2012

-Mardus (talk) 15:38, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

• Conclusion: of 32 removed titles, almost two years later 11 already exist (out of 15 bluelinks), 2 are defunct with existing articles, 2 are redirects; 14 are still redlinks, with 8 plain redlinks (without 'Defunct' status) and 6 redlinks with defunct items. Furthermore, all redlinks are deleted articles. And only three that are not in the article qualify for returning. -Mardus (talk) 16:11, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Clickwrap as a "licence"

Is it considered useful to put "Clickwrap" on its own in the licence column? AFAIK, clickwrap refers to the way a licence is accepted by the end user and does not impy anything about the licence itself - an open-source licence could be accepted via clickwrap as well as a proprietary one. Are the IM clients with "clickwrap" licences proprietary software? Are any of them free software? Vswitchs (talk) 20:18, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Very important IM client missing

Where is BBM ? It is completely missing. - (77.173.101.118 (talk) 16:01, 2 April 2014 (UTC))

Added BBM. Latest versionz of BBM need to be updated manually as updates become available. (77.173.101.118 (talk) 19:33, 12 April 2014 (UTC))

Zeroconf

The "zeroconf (Avahi/Bonjour)" column in the table was misleading: it was covering several unrelated protocols using Zeroconf link-local support for finding peers in different, mutually incompatible protocols. The only protocol in this group that is supported by multiple clients is XMPP via XEP-0174, so I removed column from "Protocol support" and added column "Link-local (XEP-0174)" to "XMPP-related features". — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk•track) 08:47, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Merge table from Secure instant messaging

I propose to merge Secure instant messaging § Table overview of secure messengers here, because this information is pretty important for the whole topic of comparison of instant messengers. — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk•track) 19:52, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

Proposed merge with Comparison of XMPP clients

Comparison of XMPP clients largerly duplicates XMPP-related features section of this comparison. — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk•track) 01:14, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

Logic?

Shouldn't IRC clients be featured in a list of IM clients or there be a link to list of IRC clients? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.181.252.67 (talk) 09:56, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

HIKE

Please add HIKE messenger in the list — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.124.85.125 (talk) 06:18, 20 August 2014 (UTC)

• Threema is missong too. --Slayer087 (talk) 12:46, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Tox protocol

The Tox (protocol) is not implemented sufficiently and correctly yet. The lemma contains "Tox", but it refers to it as it would be a client, though it is a protocol.

So what needs to be done is:

• Add "Tox" as a protocol-column in the table
• Remove "Tox" from the list of clients and instead add the different clients that exist for the Tox protocol, e.g. gTox, qTox, Antox, etc.

Some sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tox_%28protocol%29#Clients
• https://tox.chat/clients.html
• https://wiki.tox.chat/clients

--Tomakos (talk) 15:19, 18 March 2016 (UTC)

Deleted information about Telegram

This modification removes information about Telegram:

(cur | prev) 07:18, 14 April 2016‎ Bgwhite (talk | contribs)‎ . . (92,580 bytes) (-382)‎ . . (WP:CHECKWIKI error fix #94. Stray ref tag. Do general fixes and cleanup if needed. - using AWB (11971)) (undo) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 176.52.106.118 (talk) 08:38, 29 September 2016 (UTC)

Here is the diff for that edit, where you can see what was modified. I don't see any information about Telegram being removed. Are you sure you are referring to the correct edit? --Dodi 8238 (talk) 10:40, 29 September 2016 (UTC)

Untitled

Please, some admin can reverse the article back to remove the "OMG BILL IS MY BEST FRIEND" from all around the table. somebody replaced something with this phase.

Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by SunsBR (talk • contribs) 17:31, 11 November 2016 (UTC)

Someone wrote that phrase into the {{Active}} template that is used throughout this table. The edit has now been reverted as vandalism: diff. --Dodi 8238 (talk) 17:49, 11 November 2016 (UTC)

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Messengers with client-to-client encryption: Add Silence

It's a fork of Signal with only SMS/MMS encryption. (after this feature was removed from Signal)

Oh, it must have an article before doing that.

Tuxayo (talk) 23:41, 31 December 2016 (UTC)

Wire server code

Wire is now fully Open Source: https://medium.com/@wireapp/wire-server-code-now-100-open-source-the-journey-continues-88e24164309c Federation and self-hosting are the next steps. --2003:6B:E03:A900:88F5:6A8F:8F74:E761 (talk) 22:18, 22 September 2017 (UTC)

 Done: diff. --Dodi 8238 (talk) 09:57, 23 September 2017 (UTC)

Wickr Messenger and Wickr Professional

These two should be merged in the Messengers with client-to-client encryption table since they are both using the same protocol. https://www.wickr.com/blog-archive/2017/8/14/wickr-me-private-messenger-update https://medium.com/cryptoblog/wickrs-core-crypto-goes-public-324bb7de0133 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Apollo5 (talk • contribs) 23:29, 30 September 2017 (UTC)

I don't agree that they should be merged. Even though they are now using the same encryption protocol, they are still separate instant messaging clients that target different user groups. Other apps use a common set of encryption protocols, but we are not considering merging any of those entries. For example Signal and WhatsApp both use the Signal Protocol for end-to-end encryption, and ChatSecure, Conversations, Adium, Gajim, Jitsi, Pidgin, etc. are all XMPP clients that support the OTR encryption protocol. I think we should continue to list Wickr Messenger and Wickr Professional as separate entries, as long as they are distributed as separate applications. --Dodi 8238 (talk) 08:57, 1 October 2017 (UTC)

Someone add Rambox

http://rambox.pro/

Popular platform (October 2017) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.196.34.59 (talk) 23:53, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

 Declined. In general, an instant messaging client or platform is not added to this table until there is a Wikipedia article about it (see WP:WTAF), and a Wikipedia article about an instant messaging client or platform can only be written if the subject has received enough coverage in independent, reliable sources to meet the criteria in WP:GNG and/or WP:NSOFTWARE. --Dodi 8238 (talk) 09:57, 17 October 2017 (UTC)

Column indicating what data is stored

The 'Secure Messengers' chart should have a column indicating the logging policy or referencing what data is stored. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.10.51.57 (talk) 09:50, 5 December 2017 (UTC)

 Done. --Dodi 8238 (talk) 13:05, 5 December 2017 (UTC)

Good job!

Maybe one could differentiate a bit more. It might be advisable however to use a new chart - the existing one is already pretty extensive. It might be good to indicate what data is stored at all, and if that data is encrypted or unencrypted.

Messenger	Is data 1 stored?	is data 1 stored as plain text?	is data 1 encrypted (and what encryption is used)?	is data 2 stored	etc	etc	etc
msg1	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example
msg2	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example
msg3	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example

I know that this will be a lot of work and there probably won't be a lot of information around, but I think such a comparison will be very valuable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.220.154.71 (talk) 08:16, 6 December 2017 (UTC)‎

I wouldn't mind splitting this information into a new table, but I think the current format can already fit all of the parameters that you are proposing. We don't need three columns for each feature when we can have one column per feature and say N/A if the messenger doesn't include the feature, yes if the data is stored in plaintext and no if it is not stored in plaintext (i.e. stored encrypted or not stored at all). The source and additional information like the type of encryption can be included in a note. --Dodi 8238 (talk) 11:20, 6 December 2017 (UTC) [edited 11:39, 6 December 2017 (UTC)]

To my mind, it is an important difference whether data is not stored or not. Using encryption to me doesn't seem to be in the same category as not retaining the data. There are many ways to encrypt data, and there are many ways to handle the encryption process. And even an encryption standard that seems secure today may be recognized as flawed tomorrow. 92.216.107.189 (talk) 12:17, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

Then we can explicitly write that the data is stored encrypted (and how it is encrypted) or that the data is not stored at all. There’s still no need to create unnecessary columns. —Dodi 8238 (talk) 13:12, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

If you mean that the information should be contained within the chart and not just in a footnote, then yes, I think that would be a very good approach! Your work btw is excellent, I do not mean to overly criticize you! 92.216.107.6 (talk) 15:27, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

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Dubious claim in 1st sentence .. ICB, IRC, Zephyr, and the thing that IBM CP/CMS had all predate 1996. Sounds like a plug for Mirabilis.

To paraphrase Ecclesiastes 1:9, "There ain't nothing new under the sun, son." Instant Messaging was around, in one form or another, since perhaps the 1960s. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.185.76.84 (talk) 21:01, 3 July 2018 (UTC)

The "was invented" claim is nonsense. I recollect myself using IM at least as far back as 1987/8, both on dialup from a home computer (Acorn Archimedes) and on Unix and PCs at work. Unix "talk" goes back to 4.2BSD, which appears to date it 1983. Your own page lists Project Athena with a 1987 date. RFC 1459 (IRC) is 1993 - and we know that early implementations pre-date any formal RFC. I agree there were many ways to send messages. CP/CMS was probably one of the most widely used in the 1980's. Maybe what we need is a better definition of what is meant by instant messaging. As MS Windows had a method for sending messages to someone in Windows 95. 2600:1700:4BA0:BE60:D55D:3BFD:D7B0:90E0 (talk) 22:25, 1 August 2018 (UTC)8/1/2018

Presumably the Texas Austin Uni article linked to that claim is using a very idiosyncratic definition of instant messaging, and clearly this article is not using the same definition for its criteria, so that whole sentence should be scrapped or else a history section should be written which can note the development and temper or remove that claim. ZarhanFastfire (talk) 02:57, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

Edit Request

I am looking to add Keybase to the comparison list as the Keybase app on all platforms performs end-to-end encrypted chat. There is a COI as I currently work for Keybase, but the Keybase Client is topical to this article and I am in a position to include neutral accurate information. If it is acceptable for me to edit this page I will propose changes to this article as a draft for editors to review. Client4 (talk) 17:18, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

You may propose any requested changes here on the talk page. Please note that for an item to be listed, it should already be independently notable in Wikipedia.

Regards,  Spintendo  01:50, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

Notes

Table "Messengers with client-to-client encryption"

Sorry, I am new to talking here. Can someone please tell me if this table is up to date? I want to use this for my decision which secure e2e encrypted messenger to use and recommend to friends and family.

84.44.183.139 (talk) 17:09, 29 August 2019 (UTC)

Request edit

I added the sections below to be added, but I'm not sure I proposed them correctly. Client4 (talk) 18:35, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

Extended content

General information The following should be included in the corresponding tables of the article. Client Publisher First public release Type Latest stable version License Keybase Keybase 2014 (2014) Single-protocol 4.3.0 New BSD license Operating system support The operating systems the clients can run on without emulation or compatibility layers. Client Desktop Mobile Other Windows macOS Unix-like Haiku Amiga Windows Phone Android BlackBerry OS iOS Symbian MeeGo Java ME WebOS Web VGCs Keybase (chat) Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes No No No No No No Features Information on what features each of clients support. Client Toolkits or SDKs File transfer Editing sent messages Proxy server Graphical emoticons Unicode (UTF-8) Built-in games Themes, skins Plugin system Third party add-ons Scripting Message logging Voice messaging Voice mail Webcam Offline Cloud backup Remote desktop assistance Whiteboard RTL texting Keybase Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes No No No Client Handwriting mode Dockable Multiaccount Spell check User-defined graphic emoticons Animations OAuth Keybase No Yes Yes No No No No Secure Messengers Client Encrypted by default Development status Open source client Servers Contact verification Encryption ciphers Forward secrecy Multiple encryption Encrypted groupchat Encrypted file transfer Public key and IP unrelated Proxy /Tor Transport Asynchronous encryp. communication Encrypted client data Screenshot protection Self-destructing messages Open source servers Distributed Federated Data Symmetric Asymmetric Asym. key size TCP UDP SCTP Profile information Chat metadata Contact lists Cloud backup McEliece RSA DSA ECC NTRU El Gamal Default Max. Keybase Yes Active Yes No No No Stored Stored Not Stored Yes Yes No No No No Yes No No ECC-256 — Optional Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes References

Client4 (talk) 18:35, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

Reply 28-AUG-2019

Pinging local editors @Kashmiri, MrOllie, Dozed Off, and JJMC89: The COI editor Client4 would like to add the information contained in the extended content section above to this article. Not being familiar with this article, I was hoping you could take a look at the request and advise on whether the technology they wish to add is appropriate to be placed in Comparison of instant messaging clients. Any input you can offer would be most appreciated. Thank you! (My apologies for the ping if any of you are already watchlisted for this page.) Regards,  Spintendo  06:24, 29 August 2019 (UTC)

In lieu of any feedback from local editors I'm prepared to implement this edit request. The only problem preventing this is that the reference template chosen was {{cite web}} — while the |website= parameter is blank in all 19 references. This parameter is essential to use with that template. If those could be filled out, it would be much appreciated. When ready to proceed with the requested information, kindly change the {{request edit}} template's answer parameter to read from |ans=yes to |ans=no. Thank you! Regards,  Spintendo  14:04, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

@Client4: My apologies, the |website= parameter not being filled out was not a problem of your making, rather, it was due to a change which was implemented to the CS1 template behind the scenes, a change which was effected without consensus. Don't worry about fixing the issue, I'll take care of it when I implement the changes. Regards,  Spintendo  09:12, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

@Spintendo: Thank you for your communication! I'll keep watching until the changes are implemented in the event you need any changes. Regards, Client4 (talk) 17:55, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

@Spintendo: Can we add new text? Client4 (talk) 17:23, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

Facetime and Google Duo

Should Facetime and Google Duo be included on this list? Dktrigeek (talk) 15:53, 22 June 2020 (UTC)

Question: possible data to add to article

Hi.; i notice this article does not provide data on the functionality for each app in the functions shown below.

• Group threads
• Video calls

Also, I notice this article does not mention a number of apps, such as the ones below. Am I looking in the wrong place? is there another article where these items would be displayed? thanks.

• Line
• Telegram
• Textfree

thanks. --Sm8900 (talk) 18:59, 12 July 2020 (UTC)

E2EE should be partial on all closed source client applications

E2EE is not possible to prove on a closed source application, skype is cited as an example In the related article while in this page it says it does provide E2EE, does it makes any sense? So I think that we should use "partial (closed source)" on all messaging clients that don't provide an open source client. --Eloyesp (talk) 02:40, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

Other data to be added?

Other data to be added may be:

• vocal calls
• sms
• if the app is free or not (request money payment)

Coetledefretdena (talk) 01:43, 16 January 2021 (UTC)

I suggest that "jurisdiction" (e.g. none/[country name]/depends on user location) be added. A definite bonus would be to indicate (through colors) whether a country is part of a digital surveillance jurisdiction: [3].

Other additions might be image display, SMS replacement (i.e. can it take over the functionality of text messages), what is encrypted (e.g. text, images, voice, video) vs just 2-person and group, encryption on/off/user select each time by default, whether encryption works on both ends and across platforms, and whether data is saved on the device, a server or both.

Instead of just "Self-destructing messages," have it show WHEN it will delete (e.g. no, after read, after x minutes, user setting, select to delete).

Also, since infrastructure is broken down into P2P and federations, I'd like to suggest that all P2P functions - instead of just text chat - be listed, and that federation be specified (e.g. onion, TOR, Lokinet).

It would also be a good idea to include the encryption(s) (e.g. Protocol, Shared Secret Exchange, Message Encryption Cipher) used and color-code them according to level of security. This is not my area of expertise. I'm currently researching the topic.

There are many more IMs not listed...

These resources might help:

• SECURE MESSAGING APPS' comparative table [4]
• Secure Chat Guide's App Features Matrix [5]
• Restore Privacy's Best Secure and Encrypted Messaging Apps [6]
• Restore Privacy's Session Messenger Review [7]
• Blokt's Most Secure Messaging Apps in 2020 [8]

Maybe breaking it up into multiple tables would be a good idea, although it'd be a pain in the butt. ReveurGAM (talk) 21:41, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

Additional Software - Online communities

What is the edge between an instant messaging client and a online chat? I mean, virtual communities usually host a instant chat service opened to all connected users (e.g. online gamers in a multiplayer). Then, these communities host lots of users exchanging instant messages, maybe much more than some apps. They are relevant too. Brainfrogk4mon (talk) 10:15, 15 March 2021 (UTC)

Cross platform browser extension column

We can use LINE just fine on Linux via chrome-extension://ophjlpahpchlmihnnnihgmmeilfjmjjc . Therefore there needs to be another column: cross platform browser extension. Jidanni (talk) 00:59, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

Why this article looks like this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Comparison_of_cross-platform_instant_messaging_clients&oldid=922997158

this is what it looked like before the renovation. Just why.

More info in the table. But I agree it makes it far harder to read. --gilgongo (talk) 08:23, 18 November 2022 (UTC)

Done some changes. — kashmīrī ^TALK 09:21, 18 November 2022 (UTC)

SMS/MMS support? Does the messaging app support both/either (in addition to any proprietary format)?

I would welcome a new section or an additional column (or two) to one of the existing sections detailing whether SMS and/or MMS is supported by the app, perhaps in the section with information about the format(s) currently supported. 47.150.34.85 (talk) 22:49, 9 March 2023 (UTC)

Moving release dates to Operating system support section

I will move operating system specific release dates and remove the versions as they are not comparable. If anyone disagrees, please, let me know. 90.167.219.143 (talk) 21:09, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

lua error: not enough memory

there is a lua error: not enough memory natelabs (talk) 21:42, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for noting that. I raised the issue at Module talk:Wd#"Not enough memory" errors. DMacks (talk) 04:14, 27 February 2024 (UTC)