Free Software Linux

KickApps has expanded the service offering of its on-demand social media platform by partnering with Userplane to add Live Chat, instant messaging and presence awareness functionality.

Windows/Mac/Linux (Adobe Air): MeeBone, an Adobe Air implementation of chat aggregation service Meebo, makes the previously web-only chat service feel like a standard instant messaging app, complete...

Jailbroken iPhones/iPod touches only: Agile Messenger isn't the only multi-client app available for the iPhone, but it makes mobile messaging seriously convenient, and it's pretty slick-looking, to...

All things Mac web site Macworld details how to set your instant message privacy status on a schedule to help you stay productive during your busy times. Unfortunately there are no IM clients that...

Windows/Linux: The Facebook Chat for Pidgin plug-in connects the popular open-source chat application Pidgin with the new Facebook Chat instant messaging service. Facebook integration is one of the...

Web service IM Feeds notifies you via instant messenger if an RSS feed has updated—like a package tracking feed, a special friend's blog, or news site you're tracking closely. To sign up, send...

The newest beta of Mac instant messenger Adium boasts a super-cool new feature—the ability to pop a new chat when one of your contacts starts typing a message to you (but before he or she hits...

If you rock Google Talk in your Firefox sidebar, you'll be happy to know that it's finally integrated the Invisible status a good three months after Gmail's chat. Still no update on the desktop...

Is it too soon still to speak of the Twitter economy? Yeah, just a bit. But you'd be wise not to ignore the new vehicles for spreading the word. Complete Story

Windows only: Need to make sure your instant message chats can't be intercepted or read by third parties? SimpLite, a free suite of encryption packages, allows for fully encrypted chats over AIM,...

Windows only: We all got a little excited when we saw the new green screen-like background effects new to iChat in Leopard (especially the Star Wars hologram effect), but if you're living the Windows...

The Digital Inspiration blog suggests that Facebook's new browser-based chat system, which we stood up against Gmail's web chat yesterday, works well running inside a Firefox sidebar. To anchor it...

A few weeks ago Facebook promised to start slowly rolling out chat, and it just hit my account today. (If it's enabled for you, check it out in the lower right hand corner when you're logged into...

Windows only: For some time now, Google Talk has been more appealing as a web app than in its rarely updated desktop version. That changes, somewhat, with the release of Google Talk Labs Edition for...

On Tuesday we asked for your favorite instant messaging applications, and over 550 comments later, we've culled it down to the most popular five. From web-based chat to desktop clients to tools that...