# Is there a cross-program IM program? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 1, 2004, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-cross-program-im-program/277453 "2004-12-01T04:38:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-cross-program-im-program/277453/1 "2004-12-01T04:38:01Z")
That is, is there one that will allow someone to have only one program running but be able to send and receive IMs from IM, ICQ, Yahoo!, MSN? ---
**Author:** ![percypercy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@percypercy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percypercy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-cross-program-im-program/277453/2 "2004-12-01T04:46:40Z")
There may be a better one, but I use Trillian. Link: [http://www.trillian.cc/](http://www.trillian.cc/) It’s worked out pretty well. -Lil ---
**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-cross-program-im-program/277453/3 "2004-12-01T05:27:44Z")
There’s also Miranda, and at least a couple others I think. (Gaim comes to mind.) I tried both of those, and while I was happy with Miranda, I still use Trillian, simply because it’s comfortable, I’m used to it. Gaim didn’t impress me. I’d say try both Trillian and Miranda and see which one fits your expectations. They’re pretty comparable IMO. [Miranda](http://www.miranda-im.org/) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-cross-program-im-program/277453/4 "2004-12-01T23:17:35Z")
On the Mac, there’s Fire. I don’t use it so much any more because the main IM protocol I use nowadays is IRC, and Fire doesn’t elegantly handle the need for ferreting out the best IRC server for a given network, or provide you with lists of channels on a given network, etc. At least it didn’t as of the last upgrade I snagged. Fire’s worth checking out if you use AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, etc, though. ---
**Author:** ![rexnervous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rexnervous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rexnervous)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-cross-program-im-program/277453/5 "2004-12-02T01:37:33Z")
I’m pretty happy with Trillian Pro - I like a couple of the plugins, especially the RSS reader. I also like that you can put all of your chat boxes into a single window container. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-cross-program-im-program/277453/6 "2004-12-02T01:56:49Z")
I use Gaim [http://gaim.sourceforge.net](http://gaim.sourceforge.net) ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-cross-program-im-program/277453/7 "2004-12-02T04:34:34Z")
Another Trillian vote here. (Although I just imported all of my buddy lists… I still can’t figure out how to add people to Yahoo.