DWine Insight

Pidgin is an instant messaging program for Windows, Linux, BSD, OS X and other Unixes. You can talk to your friends using AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, and Zephyr.

Pidgin can be considered a successor to Meebo.



Pidgin can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AIM, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time.

Pidgin supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfer, away messages, and typing notification. It also goes beyond that and provides many unique features. A few popular features are Buddy Pounces, which give the ability to notify you, send a message, play a sound, or run a program when a specific buddy goes away, signs online, or returns from idle; and plugins, consisting of text replacement, a buddy ticker, extended message notification, iconify on away, spell checking, tabbed conversations, and more.


Pidgin Related Software

PhoneGaim is a software based on Pidgin (and thus also available under the GPL) that uses the SIP protocol to gain voice communication over the Internet via VoIP.

ScatterChat is an encrypted instant messaging client based on Pidgin.

Adium and Proteus are instant messaging clients for Mac OS X that support multiple protocols through libpurple.

OpenWengo is a hybrid SIP-based VoIP and Instant messaging client which uses libpurple for messaging support.

Meebo is a multi-protocol web-based instant messaging client that uses libpurple.

Download Pidgin here.