The Alternatives

Today, instant messengers are basically divided into four camps, namely ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and AOL IM. Because of the availability of so many IM choices, it's inevitable that some of our contacts will be on another network. Therefore, we will almost always have to install and register for one or more of the other networks.

As we previously observed, each new release of every instant messenger is more bloated than the last. Just imagine using up 100MB of memory just to run all four instant messengers!

Thankfully, there are alternatives to installing all four messengers! What a relief! Multi-platform instant messengers such as Trillian, GAIM, Miranda IM and Jabber are available! They allow a single, consolidate client to access all four major networks.

The advantage of using such clients is obvious. They allow you to chat and keep in touch with your contacts from all the different networks through a single client. You can manage all these contacts within a single window, saving you precious and effort.

Miranda IM

However, there are certain disadvantages in using such alternatives. One of them is the inability to utilize certain native features, like the custom emoticons in MSN Messenger, Audibles in Yahoo! Messenger and so on.

Sometimes, certain key features, like multi-conferencing does not work well even though it is supported by the multi-client messenger. And whenever there is a change or an upgrade to the network protocol, their programmers need to update them to cater for the change. So, unless the client is still being actively supported and developed, you'll have a hard time connecting everytime Yahoo! or Microsoft decides to upgrade or tweak their instant messaging network protocol.

What Lies Ahead?

Very much like e-mail, instant messaging is definitely here to stay. However, stiff competition among the major IM providers will force their programmers to keep tacking on more and more features, whether they are truly useful or not.

At the time of writing, the latest version of Yahoo! Messenger is the worst of the lot. Why a simple instant messaging client would need up to 38 megabytes of RAM is beyond me. There are highly complex games out there that require less RAM than that!

Thankfully, there are alternatives that take up significantly less resources. Miranda IM is a favourite of mine, as it can be installed 'plain-jane' if you don't want any extra features.

With current versions of popular instant messaging clients as bloated as they are, I shudder to think about their future releases. Let's hope Yahoo! or even AOL doesn't decide to include a browser in their clients!

But on a lighter side of things, I think voice chat integration will be improved in future releases. Skype is currently the 'king' of PC-based VOIP solutions. But if MSN or Yahoo! can give the same voice chat flexibility as Skype, along with its exceptional voice quality, then they might be able to penetrate the emerging VOIP market.