Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

jarcoal · Jan 31, 2006, 11:13 PM

i have always used ichat, but i'm curious about others. outside of ichat it appears fire and adium are the most popular. which aim compatible clients do you guys use and why?

Silky Voice of The Gorn · Jan 31, 2006, 11:21 PM

Prepare for an Adium/Proteus holy war.

Adium, btw, until iChat gets tabs, then I'll switch back.

mpancha · Jan 31, 2006, 11:33 PM

I prefer Adium, never used Proteus.

Franz · Jan 31, 2006, 11:43 PM

Adium.

Open source and free, updated often and in active development, most customizable, most features, uses the least resources (CPU, RAM etc) in my experience.

http://adiumx.com/

mindwaves · Feb 1, 2006, 12:47 AM

Adium since v1.2

mduser63 · 01:47 AM

Proteus by far for me. I know why some people like Adium, but I really just don't like it. Can't even say why for sure. I guess part of the problem is that I hate Adium's default UI. I know it can be changed, but I'd rather have something that looks good by default.

Apfhex · Feb 1, 2006, 01:34 AM

For *just* AIM I would say iChat remains king. Adium still can't do Direct Connections, otherwise I'd give it the crown (I still use it anyway, it's very nice). I don't know what the appeal of Proteus is over Adium. :shrug:

leperkuhn · Feb 1, 2006, 01:57 AM

I've been using Adium for years, and every other messaging client is crushed by it.

Unless you want to do video chat... which I don't.

albook · Feb 1, 2006, 06:27 AM

Originally Posted by mpancha

I prefer Adium, never used Proteus.

Ditto, on both!

Catfish_Man · Feb 1, 2006, 07:00 AM

Originally Posted by Apfhex

Adium still can't do Direct Connections, otherwise I'd give it the crown (I still use it anyway, it's very nice).

I have my fingers crossed for 1.0 on this particular issue...

RevEvs · Feb 1, 2006, 08:30 AM

Adium

nbnz · Feb 1, 2006, 08:45 AM

Adium rocks.

- - e r i k - - · Feb 1, 2006, 09:25 AM

I used to be hardcore Proteus, but I switched to Adium a while back ago. And once you configure it correctly (with a nice UI) it's way better than Proteus, which isn't really actively developed even

tripletaker · Feb 1, 2006, 09:48 AM

Adium, although lack of direct connection and file sending makes me want to use the Windows AIM.

Stradlater · Feb 1, 2006, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by Silky Voice of The Gorn

Prepare for an Adium/Proteus holy war.

Maybe back in 2004.

Adium, btw, until iChat gets tabs, then I'll switch back.

I used to prefer Adium for this reason, but Exposé coupled with the Dock led me back to iChat. iChat is just more reliable for D.C. and F.T., which I don't use often, but I use sporadically. Sometimes you just want to send an image. Command-Control-Shift-4, select, paste in iChat window and send. That, or drag an image from Safari or from the Finder. It just simply works and works well.

I also like the fact that I can remain online without iChat open in the Dock. Just sign into the MenuItem and wait for an IM before iChat opens.

MindFad · Feb 1, 2006, 11:54 AM

iChat has always worked just fine for me.

PHYMAC · Feb 1, 2006, 11:54 AM

I use iChat, but there are definetly some features from aol's AIM that I wish I had in ichat, like be able to read full away messages, know how long someone is away and stuff like that.

I do like though how ichat is fully integrated and it works well with the isight

iluvmymactoo · Feb 1, 2006, 02:30 PM

iChat all the way for me.

Artanis · Feb 1, 2006, 02:45 PM

Adium is the best in my opinion though it has no video chat support. Let's hope it will be available soon.

Catfish_Man · Feb 1, 2006, 04:43 PM

Originally Posted by Artanis

Adium is the best in my opinion though it has no video chat support. Let's hope it will be available soon.

A/V support won't be happening until after 1.0

threestain · Feb 1, 2006, 05:05 PM

adium is wicked. nuff said I reckon. fire and proteus cannot hold a candle to it.

hickey · 05:44 PM

I just read this thread, and decided to try Adium. I love it! but I cant seem to figure out how to edit my profile, away messages, and buddy icon. Am i just overlooking something? Thanks.

Edit: I figured out the away messages, but still need help on the profile and the buddy icon

Edit 2: Figured out the profile and icon, sort of. My icon is an animated one that worked in AIM, does Adium not support those or something?

Catfish_Man · Feb 1, 2006, 06:15 PM

Originally Posted by hickey

I just read this thread, and decided to try Adium. I love it! but I cant seem to figure out how to edit my profile, away messages, and buddy icon. Am i just overlooking something? Thanks.

Edit: I figured out the away messages, but still need help on the profile and the buddy icon

Edit 2: Figured out the profile and icon, sort of. My icon is an animated one that worked in AIM, does Adium not support those or something?

Last I heard, the icon picker is a bit fussy about animated images. They have to be exactly the right size for AIM, and iirc you have to use the buttom on the picker rather than dragging and dropping.

lavar78 · Feb 1, 2006, 09:20 PM

iChat

jarcoal · Feb 2, 2006, 12:06 AM

thanks for all the replies, guess it's clear what the favorite is

Targon · Feb 2, 2006, 06:05 AM

They're all useless to me, Proteus and Adium always have given me problems just trying to send a file, iChat is useless because it has no -AUTO ACCEPT-, which i NEED open all the time for ppl to send me their tunes they write in the studio. I can't be there to accept when in completely different timezones. Official AIM is a POS and crashes all the time.

-AUTO ACCEPT- for iChat PLEASE!!!! Only ppl in my list will be able to send to me anyways...i don't care about any 'potential security concerns' (near zerØ).

hickey · Feb 2, 2006, 12:55 PM

Originally Posted by Targon

Official AIM is a POS and crashes all the time

I totally agree, it was happening to me a lot lately, then I found this thread and tried Adium. Its great, luckily I never needed the file transfer thing or direct connect, so its not a problem that Adium doesnt do that. Thanks again for the Adium recommendatins.

TheoCryst · Feb 2, 2006, 01:39 PM

Agreeing with pretty much everyone here and putting my vote in for Adium. Stable, actively developed, and more AIM-compatable than iChat, which doesn't even let you send custom fonts and colors to non-iChat users.

cybergoober · Feb 2, 2006, 02:17 PM

Originally Posted by Targon

They're all useless to me, Proteus and Adium always have given me problems just trying to send a file, iChat is useless because it has no -AUTO ACCEPT-, which i NEED open all the time for ppl to send me their tunes they write in the studio. I can't be there to accept when in completely different timezones. Official AIM is a POS and crashes all the time.

-AUTO ACCEPT- for iChat PLEASE!!!! Only ppl in my list will be able to send to me anyways...i don't care about any 'potential security concerns' (near zerØ).

I believe Chax adds this to iChat.

Targon · Feb 18, 2006, 08:27 PM

thanks so much cybergoober for this Chax!! Did not know it existed. Brilliant!!!! :-)

cybergoober · Mar 17, 2006, 12:59 PM

Holy crap! Chax just added the one thing I've been wanting since iChat's inception - tabbed chats. iChat is near perfect for me now.

Macanoid · Mar 17, 2006, 01:17 PM

Switched from Proteus to Adium a long time back. Adium is seriously brilliant. Although I do like iChat but until it gets tabs, thanks, but no thanks.

BZ · Mar 17, 2006, 01:52 PM

iChat.

BZ

Targon · Mar 18, 2006, 09:05 AM

Originally Posted by cybergoober

Holy crap! Chax just added the one thing I've been wanting since iChat's inception - tabbed chats. iChat is near perfect for me now.

ah yea on the beta page...this guy deserves a donation.

iREZ · Mar 18, 2006, 01:56 PM

i used to use aol, then finally felt comfortable with ichat, decided to try adium and used it heavily there after, then got an imac with isight built in and now im back to ichat.

ichat is the best aim app hands down.

Ryknow215 · Mar 18, 2006, 03:18 PM

I always hated the AIM port for OS X. It seemed so big and cumbersome to me. I used iChat for a while but Adium is my favorite. I've been using it for about 4 months now and it's the only chat app that I'll use. Fully customizeable, tabbed chatting, themes, skins and those damn cool dock icons....love 'em

My only wish for future versions is the ability to edit profile text in the same manner as the text in the chat window.