Trillian 5 Beta Review

I've long been a fan of Trillian, the idea behind it is great - one single client, which supports multiple networks, and unlike other alternatives like Pidgen, it actually supports the unique features of each different messenger network, like for example Webcam support and proper MSN file transfer support. There has been one thing though that stopped me using it, in recent years when graphical interfaces when from being all colourful, to being simple and powerful, Trillian's developers spent there time being fancy graphical interfaces with silly graphics which consumed tons of your computer resources. I wanted a feature full client, but one that didn't destroy my computers resources.

Trillian 5 as its called, is currently only in beta, it offers all the features from Trillian 4 (theres hundreds) but this time, in a proper Windows 7 designed interface. It supports jump lists in Windows 7, as well as having a tidy and neat yet customizeable interface.

Let me first introduce the contact list, its a clean install so my contacts buddy icons haven't downloaded yet, but you can see the clean interface. You can also customize how it looks, going from big colourful icons, to small text.


The message windows are also simple and customizeable, you can have tabs or no tabs, and you can theme and customize it. Personally I like non-tabs, as I like to arrange my message windows as I use it, but the choice is there. For people who are use to the iPhone messaging application, it will look strangely familiar.


The amount of preferences and options in Trillian is equally as good, you can customize an number of things. You can add accounts from tons of different Messenger networks including Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Facebook, Myspace and so fourth


But some of the best features, are difficult to screenshot and need to be experienced for yourself. The first of which, all you accounts link to one "Trillian" account, which allows you to login on different computers, on a web interface and on mobile applications for iPhone, Android and Blackberry (with more to come). I have an iPhone so I managed to take some screenshots of it in use, I don't have any other device to show you the client on though.


One last feature which is my favourite, though not to everyone's tastes. If you have a notification pop up enabled on the bottom right corner like in the official MSN client when you have a new message, you have the option to quick reply in that message without even having to open a conversation window!


Overall, Trillian 5 is shaping up to be a great multi-purpose client. With Clients for Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android and other devices, as well as an online web-client, it will most likely replace my MSN and Google Talk clients and become my default choice.

If your interested in trying the beta, head over to there website at Trillian.im

 

V4 of Trillian is a GUI disaster, however after reading your review and looking at the screenshots I downloaded this and am in love . This looks and feels like a totally different product, I'm really happy with the iPhone application too!