What Instant Messaging system are people using now?

[JeffL]

I used to run ICQ a couple of years ago; if I had my system on, I had ICQ running, and I used it quite a bit. For some reason I stopped using it a year or so ago.

So I'm thinking about installing an Instant Messaging sytem again, and I'm wondering: what is "the" system to use these days? Is there one that is the new standard?

[Jason McCullough]

"Whatever your friends are on" seems to be what everyone uses. Pretty evenly split.

[Matthew Gallant]

I use ICQ Lite. You have to goof with the settings to keep it from being annoying. I've had to set it to not accept messages from anyone not on my contact list, and to not steal focus on an incoming event. Then you still get the occasional spam requests to add Greta from Sweden to your contact list.

[Anders Hallin]

Trillian, MSN/ICQ/Yahoo.

[voltaic]

None. Instant messaging is intrusive and ridden with security issues. I have a phone.

[wumpus]

I hate instant messaging. It's a license for people to annoy you.

However. The fact that there is no SMTP/POP3/HTTP type standard for IM by this late date is nothing less than a travesty.

[chet]

I vote for Trillian. I probably get the most connects from AIM.

Works great for our hosting support, people tend to prefer a dedicated client vs our web client for chat.

Like any communication tool, it is only as intrusive as you allow it. It seems like AOL has stopped fighting Trillian, so it stays connected to everything pretty well - except Yahoo.

chet

[Bullhajj]

I'll second everyone who is saying they don't use it much and the person who said Trillian. IM is intrusive. But if you have to use it, go with Trillian because it supports all the different services. Nothing worse than having a dozen IM clients because you're friends are spread out over different services.

[Bullhajj]

Like any communication tool, it is only as intrusive as you allow it.

I knew a guy who worked on the Windows Messenger loc team. Of course everyone signed up for IM, and the boss would constantly send out random requests throughout the day. Talk about a disaster.

[Met_K]

AOL has indirectly stated that they're no longer going to fight Trillian, and are simply going to beat it and the other IM programs by creating the most "user friendly" and "useful" features possible. Trillian's the best choice by far.

[Guido Jones]

Trillian is very nice - but I've only been using IM at work as of late so I end using MSN Messenger cause that's one of the things I work with. Ugh. I hate that program.

[Aszurom]

I use Trillian - however, of all the different IM modes it provides I find that I prefer the ICQ emulation. Reason? It acts like an answering machine. I don't have to be online to get messages, and when I log in, they show up. Kinda like email, but with a faster turnaround time.

Also, one thing that is handy to do is put yourself into "N/A" mode and leave it there. Your friends know you're probably there, but the spammers don't get through. I haven't gotten a single ICQ spam in at least a year. My girlfriend signed up and had like 10 in the first hour until I delisted her from the directory and put her in N/A - now she too gets none.

[DennyA]

Yep. Trillian. Supports all the IM systems. I spent the $$$ for the Pro version -- has some nice plugins for showing you the weather, showing how many POP3 emails are in your inbox, etc.

www.trillian.cc

As for IM being intrusive, I doubt anyone has a story to beat that of a certain game magazine I used to edit. The owner required everyone to set their ICQ timeout flags so that he'd be able to tell if you hadn't typed anything for a certain amount of time, or (god forbid) gotten up from your desk. It was just a good thing that putting a webcam on everyone's desk would have cost him $50/station or there'd probably have been video survelliance instead...

[Derek Smart [3000AD]]

Also, one thing that is handy to do is put yourself into "N/A" mode and leave it there. Your friends know you're probably there, but the spammers don't get through.

heh, I'm 99.99% of the time in invisible mode. If you're not in my invisible list, well then, you're not special I suppose. :D

[Mark Asher]

I hate 'em all. What's wrong with email?

[DavidCPA]

I hate 'em all. What's wrong with email?

I'm with you Mark. I had AOL IM for a couple of days and it was just annoying. I prefer to answer people at my leisure rather than getting pestered every 2 secs to send something back.

-DavidCPA

[GMicek]

I just text message on my phone like a madman. Sure, the typing takes a little while to get used to, but I'm pretty good at it now. And I can do it anywhere without having to be at a computer.

[Tom Ohle]

Trillian's probably the best, but I actually run ICQ and MSN--ICQ for external contacts, MSN for internal. I'm too lazy to change.

[Jason McCullough]

Like any communication tool, it is only as intrusive as you allow it.

I knew a guy who worked on the Windows Messenger loc team. Of course everyone signed up for IM, and the boss would constantly send out random requests throughout the day. Talk about a disaster.

Oh, yeah; they're a friends-only thing.

The reason they're an improvement on email is that email will go ignored for hours/days at a time; maybe they want to see your message, but they've got to get around to checking email.

[Jason Cross]

Trillian is the greatest. Most of my friends and associates are on ICQ, but one or two use AIM, and one or two use MS Messenger. I log on to all of those, plus Yahoo, using Trillian.

The memory footprint for Trillian is higher than ICQ, but it's a lot lower than running all those things at once. Plus it's skinnable and has a decent user interface. Oh, and a reasonable built-in IRC client.