OS X chat clients: So many programs, so little time...

The choice of chat programs for OS X are much wider than the offerings under the Classic OS. In this short overview I take a look at some of the major single- and multi-protocol chat programs that I have tested under OS X. I don't dig into the world of IRC chat in this article...

Multi-protocol chat clients

These are the all-in-one chat toolkits that let users access the most popular chat networks all through one user interface. The two programs under OS X are always in flux, and their access to various chat networks is up to the whim of the current stategies of those chat networks. For instance, at times Fire and Proteus have lost the ability to use the AOL Instant Messenging network because AOL decided to shut down third-party client access to their site on that day in an effort to shut other programs out of their proprietary network. These situations are less frequent now, but beware that the proprietary nature of some chat networks could rear their ugly heads again in the future.

Fire
The original all-in-one chat client for OS X, Fire has been around since the beta days of OS X. I have been using Fire off and on, mostly on, since I started using the Public Beta in Oct. 2000. It supports the AOL Instant Messenger network, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, Jabber and limited IRC protocols. The latest version, Fire 0.31b, introduced a new behind-the-scenes architecture that required previous users to set up their accounts from scratch, which is a pain, but it seems more solid than the previous version that suffered from oddities like some users not showing that they are online when they indeed are online.

Fire offers a wide range of preference options, including on-the-fly spell checking, which can be a good feature if you use instant messaging for business correspondence. And Fire also offers strong logging features that make it easy to see what you have chatted about with each individual contact on any network.

I have put my use of Fire on hiatus while I try out Proteus as my all-in-one chat client, but Fire is still the leader in the multi-protocol chat clients because it supports IRC and it was the first on the scene.

Proteus
Proteus offers many of the same features as Fire. It is a multi-protocol chat client with access to AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo and Jabber networks, and it offers a clean interface that looks the most Mac-like of all the chat clients. Alien Technology's chat client also offers logging and spell checking, pretty much meeting Fire feature-for-feature. But Proteus 2.0, the latest version, offers one major advantage over Fire - the support for using multiple chat IDs on each network. This means that if you have two AIM IDs and you want to have them both online at once, you can do so with Proteus.

Proteus also offers the ability to send a single message to multiple users across your buddy list.

So far in my few weeks of using Proteus as my main chat client, I find it easy to use. A major feature missing from Proteus 1.5 is the ability to save multiple away messages, but you can customize the single away message to say what you want.

Single protocol chat clients

The rest of the OS X chat clients work with just one network - either AOL Instant Messenger, MSN, ICQ or Yahoo.

AOL Instant Messenger network

iChat
The chat client that is bundled with Jaguar or Mac OS X 10.2 beats the rest of the clients for the AOL Instant Messenger protocol with unique features that the other programs, including AOL's own chat client, have yet to get right under OS X. File transfers work, you can see each buddy's away messenger right on the screen without any extra effort on your part, and though the default behavior of the program takes up too much screen space, you can adjust the settings to make iChat behave like something other than the cartoon chat program it looks like in Apple's marketing.

AIM
The latest version of AIM 4.5.794 made big improvements in the client for OS X. It brings better support for buddy icons along with file transfer capabilities that almost make the OS X version of AIM equal to the Classic version of AIM. The main feature missing from AIM on OS X is support for graphical smileys.

Those features aside, the main AIM client suffers in many ways under OS X. It takes up tons of screen real estate, even at its most minimized state, and it eats up more computing resources with its streaming ads that try to pull your eyes away from the chat and to advertisers of AOL's choosing. I also find that it suffers from slow response to typing, meaning that characters appear slower on the screen than you can type them. AIM also doesn't support OS X services, so there is no spell checking feature.

If you need the most compatible AIM client, this is your best bet, especially if you need to do file transfers. But if you don't need that feature, try another AIM client.

Adium
Adium takes a novel approach as the best AIM client for OS X. It takes up a small footprint on your desktop, it offers high customization with multiple interface options, and it is updated frequently. You will be dazzled with how much you can tweak Adium 1.6b5 to make it work the way you want.

Unlike the AOL AIM client, Adium doesn't force you to view ads as you use the program and it claims to use very little processor time. And using the dual mode windowing feature in Adium really minimizes the amount of screen space taken up my Adium, even if you are chatting with say four buddies at a time. The dual mode feature leaves your buddy list in one small window and then offers a tabbed interface for the chat with as many buddies as you wish.

Adium offers spell checking, like most of the full OS X versions of chat programs.

ICQ X
The latest versions of the official ICQ client for OS X is drawing cheers from hard-core users on forums I have seen. It includes most of the features available on the Classic version of ICQ, but in its current form it doesn't offer common OS X features like spell checking. I don't use the separate ICQ client on my machine except in rare cases, since it offers very little over the ICQ capabilities of Fire or Proteus.

MSN Messenger
I will say up front that I have very little experience using the MSN client. I installed it to write this article and as usual, I came away from the experience with even more disdain for Microsoft products. Why? The MSN installer required me to quit all other programs and so the installer could do its work. Why can I update the entire Mac OS without taking this step, but one chat program forces me to quit everything? To its credit, at least the installer didn't require a restart once MSN was installed.

The biggest feature that MSN Messenger offers is tight integration with the Passport system and .Net features being touted by Microsoft. You have to have a current Hotmail account or Passport account at least in order to use MSN Messenger, so there is a lock into the Microsoft strategy to use this client. And, once loaded, the client offers very little that cannot also be offered by Fire or Proteus.

Yahoo chat network

Yahoo! 2.5b2
New in this latest version is support for video chat at 20 frames per second as well as more smileys and other improvements. One benefit of the Yahoo client is you can see when your buddy is typing something back to you, but otherwise there is little extraordinary to sell the free program.

Charla
Developed as an open source program by Peter Ammon, Charla offers many more features for the Yahoo Chat protocol than the Java chat option offered by Yahoo. It includes smileys, font attributes and full multithreading and Spam filtering capabilities. Once again, I haven't used Charla much since I rely on multi-protocol chat programs, but from my experience, this is the only game in town for OS X users who want a Yahoo chat client.

miChat
I have no experience with miChat, but it is another Yahoo Chat client that can access the service. The latest beta version was released in November 2001.

Conclusion

Choosing a chat client is a complex issue. The main reason for a choice is what chat network your buddies use the most, and if all of your friends or clients are on just one network then it makes sense to grab a single-protocol chat program. But if, like me, you have friends and co-workers on a number of networks, then one of the multi-protocol chat programs makes more sense. In my experience, it is a toss up whether to recommend Fire or Proteus, since both are stable and pretty complete programs.

Here is how I rank the chat clients that I use regularly:

1) Proteus
2) Fire
3) iChat
4) Adium
5) AIM

Rob McNair-Huff is a longtime Mac user and writer from the Pacific Northwest. In addition to writing about the Mac, and running this Web site, Mac Net Journal, he is the author of two books - Insiders' Guide to the Olympic Peninsula and Mountain Bike America: Washington - and he is working with his wife Natalie to write a third book this year called Birding Washington. If you have a need for Mac consulting, writing, Web design or photography help, check out Rob's business site: White Rabbit Publishing.

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