Instant Messengers on Macs

Is it just me or are the Mac-friendly versions of AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), Yahoo! Instant Messenger and MSN/Windows Live Instant Messenger just not as fully-featured or quite as intuitive as the opposite PC/Windows counterparts?

 

dunno

why would you use them?

ichat / adium takes care of all IM needs

I particularly like adium

 

ichat is much nicer than AIM. Yahoo messenger and MSN are very disappointing on Mac.

 

Adium. Only word you need to learn. ^_^

 

iChat covers AIM, and it does it quite well. Adium works with all major IM accounts. Unfortunately, none of the IM clients work as well as Windows IM clients, particularly Microsoft Messenger, which lags far behind Windows Live Messenger.

 

why cant ichat support msn!!! does ichat support gmail though? cause I might just make a gmail account and add all my msn friends onto there

 

Its hard to say...it may be Microsoft getting in the way.

 

Soon to be coming to Mac (according to the website anyway)

http://www.digsby.com/

Integrates with many of the big name IM programs, email, and social networks. I've used it under vmware fusion and it's quite nice.

(I still prefer Adium though )

 

I use Adium. It's fantastic.

 

Another Adium user here

 

I vote Adium

 

How 'bout Skype? What has been y'all's experience with Skype? I've not used Skype on Macs but boy I really like it on the PC's. In fact, everyone in my family as well as everyone in my company (large global corporation) communicate daily with Skype. The video ain't so hot and is limitted in conferencing but the sound quality is excellent.

 

Skype works fine on Mac for me. I don't personally use it though, as I have no one on it .

 

In an effort to cut down on phone costs, everyone in my company has a Skype account and we communicate with each other daily from as far away as Germany for free. My sister, who travels to Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong and Vietnam frequently for her company, skypes with me all the time. The sound quality and clarity is quite amazing.

 

I use skype for long distance phone call, both design and voice quality are somewhat better than PC version imo

 

Adium is the best, simply because it has the largest and most rabid support base of any instant messenger program on the Mac platform. I made the switch from YIM and AIM years ago, and never once have I regretted it.

 

I miss my webcam.

 

I didn't like Adium's Hotmail functionality, it never carried over my password and notifications appeared *under* all my other windows. For MSN network IM use I just use MSN Messenger for Mac.

 

couldn't agree more..

 

Glad to see I'm not the only one who finds AIM, Yahoo and MSN/Windows Live to be quite lacking on a Mac (which is disappointing since I use all three but particularly both AIM and Yahoo).

 

I downloaded the Windows version at work, and I must say I like it quite bit (stopped using Trillian). What I didnt know about Trillian is, if another user logs on to your machine (seperate account) and they start Trillian, it will bring up your Trillian account (so someone else logged on your machine can send IM's as you)

 

aMSN works perfectly also has webcam support.
http://www.amsn-project.net/