Chat with friends on multiple chat networks with Pidgin

Online chat is a great way to quickly connect with people, but the number of services available can lead to too many programs running at the same time. Pidgin solves this problem and brings all of your lists into one program.

Installation is simple and there is the option to install spellchecking. This is not selected by default so it is worth looking out for in the Choose Components step. A UK dictionary is available.

The account setup window appears when Pidgin runs for the first time. Most accounts just need the username and password as Pidgin already knows the specific details to use.

The latest version now supports Facebook chat. The full list of supported services is: AIM, Bonjour, Facebook, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, GroupWise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, MXit, MySpaceIM, QQ, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP and Yahoo.

Groups within instant messaging services are preserved and it will display the images that people use as their logos. There is a window for you contacts, called the buddy list, and conversations open in a new window. This window is tabbed for different contacts so it keeps things neat and organised. The tab titles are coloured to alert you of new messages.

There are plenty of plugins for Pidgin that can be installed from within the software. These include a ticker list of contacts and a theme editor. Unsupported third-party plugins are listed on the Plugins page on the Pidgin site.

This download is for the Windows version of Pidgin. There is a Linux version as well on the Pidgin download page.

There is a portable version of Pidgin available from Portableapps.com.