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As the name suggests, instant messaging is a very immediate form of communication and is much quicker than waiting for someone to reply to an email.
You can see if your friends and family are logged on to the service at any given time and it's possible to use instant messaging whether you have a dial-up or broadband internet connection.
If you have a broadband connection, though, you can take advantage of other instant messaging features, such as audio- or video-based chat, by connecting a microphone or a webcam to your computer. Some instant messaging services even allow you to play games with online adversaries.
In this group test, we've rounded up some of the best instant messaging services available today, all of which can be downloaded totally free of charge. It's time you got down to the serious business of chatting.
AOL Instant Messenger
www.aol.co.uk
AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM for short, is one of the oldest and possibly the best known of the instant messaging services and part of its attraction is its simplicity.
Older versions of the software offered only basic text-based chat features for anyone who didn't subscribe to AOL's internet access service.
However, that's all changed now with the launch of AIM 5.9, which gives all users access to AOL's audio and video chat features.
As with all the services featured here, once you've added friends to your address book, chatting with them is simply a matter of double-clicking on their name when they appear online. Then you can type in your message, hit enter, and the text instantly appears on the screen.
You can also use emoticons to say something about how you are feeling. These symbols can substitute some of the subtleties of spoken conversation, so adding a smiley face to what might appear to be a barbed comment transforms it to a gentle tease.
Uploading a picture to represent yourself also adds a personal touch to your chat window, and there are plenty of themed backgrounds to choose from online.
You can keep abreast of new emails too by linking to any POP3 accounts you have. AIM will notify you when new mail arrives.
There's also AIM Express, a download that lets you view your address book and send chat messages when you're away from your own PC without having to download the whole AIM program again. It's quite useful for chatting from public computers, such as those in internet cafés, or at a friend's house.
AIM is tightly allied to Microsoft's Outlook Express email program. You can open your AIM buddy list in Outlook Express and edit the information there, and even send chat messages direct from the email program.
MSN Messenger
messenger.msn.com
Along with AIM, MSN Messenger is one of the better known messaging applications. Its latest version goes far beyond simple text-based chat, offering the chance to personalise your chat window with images, design your own emoticons and interact with other users via audio and video chat.
Messenger is designed to work best with Hotmail; you can share information, such as address book entries, between the two programs and it's easy to switch between them. This is handy when a friend you want to speak to isn't online as you can right-click on their name to send them an email instead.
Right-clicking when someone is online is a useful shortcut to accessing some of the features; you can start audio and video conversations, send files, play games or even block people if you fall out with them.
You can also sign up for alerts that tell you when it's someone's birthday or whether your stocks and shares have crashed. Unsurprisingly, though, the majority link to advertisements for flower deliveries and suchlike.
One of the most interesting new features in Messenger is its ability to send messages to mobile phones in the form of text messages. To do this, the person you want to contact will first have to add their mobile number to their profile.
Messages to mobiles have to be paid for, so you'll have to tell Microsoft your mobile number. Charges will be made direct to your phone bill.
Jabber
www.jabber.org
Jabber isn't a single piece of software, but a set of open source technologies based on a standard called XML. The simplest way to describe XML is that it's a way of creating information so that it can be shared by people using different programs.
What that means for instant messaging software is that two people using different messaging services can chat to each other.
Jabber does have two limitations for ordinary web users and, to be fair, the first isn't really its fault. Open source standards enable anyone to create software that can be used by others, but the most popular messaging services use their own standards.
This means that problems sometimes occur when a Jabber user wants to talk to someone on AIM, MSN Messenger or Yahoo. The second, more annoying, issue is that you can't use Jabber to send files to friends, and there's no audio or video chat.
The most popular Jabber software is called Exodus. To start using it, you must first set up an account with a Jabber server. You can find a list here, which helpfully tells you which other messaging services you can talk to and whether you'll be able to engage in group discussions.
We'd recommend www.jabber.org.uk because it supports all the other services featured in this group test.
Before you can chat to users on other messaging services, you'll have to have an account with the relevant service (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and so on) and tell Jabber what your user name on that service is.
We thought the instructions provided in the online Jabber User Guide could have been clearer but, once the connection is made, Jabber automatically downloads your contacts book from your MSN, AIM or Yahoo account.
Because Jabber is based on open-source programming, there's a real community feel to using the software. If you get stuck, there are plenty of people on the many discussion groups who will be happy to help. Tell them you're a new user and remember to be polite.
Trillian
www.trillian.cc
Trillian uses similar technology to Jabber but is far more user-friendly, selling itself as a five-in-one instant messaging service. Once installed, Trillian asks you to register the login details for each instant messaging service you want to use. You can choose from MSN, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo and Internet Relay Chat.
Once you've done this, the address book from each instant messaging service chosen is automatically downloaded. If you later make friends with someone who uses a different messaging service, you can add it to Trillian using the Connection Manager.
The program even directs you straight to the registration page for the messaging application you want to use if you haven't already set up a profile there.
Another useful feature is Trillian's Meta Contact. If you have friends who are registered with more than one instant messaging service, Meta Contact allows you to give a single name to all of them, saving confusion and space in your address book.
Unlike Jabber, Trillian lets you send and receive files, although when we tried sending simple pictures the results were a bit hit and miss. Video is available only to those who pay for the Pro version, while audio chat is out of earshot in both programs.
ICQ
www.icq.com
After ICQ is installed, the software browses through email addresses stored on your PC's hard disk to see if any of them are registered as ICQ users. If they are, you have the option of adding them to your address list.
What's special about ICQ is that it enables you to search for new friends who have the same interests as you. The Meet People Directory groups people together by interests, and you'll find hundreds of communities in practical, spiritual and purely fun topics.
The site claims to have more than 160 million members around the globe, so finding the right people to talk to might seem a bit overwhelming. ICQ helps you whittle down your search. For example, you could look for people in South America who speak English and are interested in genealogy.
There's no audio or video chat but, like MSN, you can choose to send text messages to friends who aren't in front of their computer when you want to talk to them. Unlike MSN, you simply dial their mobile number direct; the reasoning is that people won't give you their mobile number unless they're happy for you to call.
You will also have access to public chat rooms, or you can set up your own and invite selected friends to join you. You also have the ability to send electronic birthday cards. ICQ will even remind your online friends when it's your birthday, as long as you enter the details in the View/Change my details menu.
As for security, you can tweak your preferences to block spam and messages from unknown users, but there's no option in the free version to make sure that your anti-virus software gets first peek at incoming files.
Yahoo Messenger
www.yahoo.co.uk
Yahoo has really gone to town on features and content with the latest release of its instant messaging client. One of the best new additions is the Launchcast service, which gives users access to free radio stations. You can customise the kind of music you want to hear or choose a pre-programmed station.
If you're particularly proud of your musical taste, it's easy to add the title of the song you're playing to your status message line. Friends can then choose to tune in to what you are listening to as they type.
Avatars are also new. These are animated characters that grin, gurn and frown in response to emoticons during chat sessions and can be personalised with virtual clothing. If this is all a bit too spooky for you, just add a simple picture to your chat window.
One feature that is guaranteed to drive you mad is Yahoo's Audibles. This lets users send sounds with a single click, to say hello, offer taunts or, as the company blurb states, "express attitude". It's great fun - for about 10 minutes - but can quickly become unbearable if you are chatting to more than one person online.
As with MSN, there's the opportunity to play games via the chat window, and you can customise your area with 'Imvironments'. Clicking on this tab gives you a choice of Desktop themes for your window, many of which annoyingly include adverts for US-based products.
Got the message?
Instant messaging is a fun and easy way to keep in touch with your contacts and, with the range of interactive features on offer for free today, there's more reason than ever to try these services out.
We were impressed by the features provided by the six instant messaging services featured in this group test but our favourite service was AOL Instant Messenger, due to the range of free interactive tools and video and audio chat.
One thing you should be aware of is that, while it's possible to swap files with other instant messaging users, it's also possible that instant messaging software can be used to slip viruses onto your hard disk.
There's no need to fret, though, as most of the services reviewed here let you check incoming files with your own anti-virus software before they're allowed through. Providing you're aware of these security issues, instant messaging is a great communication tool.
Handy chat
Handheld computers can put the power of instant messaging right in the palm of your hand. You can download miniature versions of most of the instant messaging software we have mentioned in this feature and transfer it to a compatible handheld device by synchronising it with your desktop computer.
If you're messaging while out and about, you'll have to connect to the internet using your mobile phone, so it's worth investigating the details, such as how to set up a connection on your handheld computer, what data services your mobile provider offers and how much it costs to use them.
Mobile messaging is really only suitable for basic chat because sending file attachments is slow and can make a data call more expensive. You can get handheld versions of Trillian and Jabber online and there are various independent programs for MSN Messenger, AIM and Yahoo Messenger.
I'm not talking to you
One of the biggest problems associated with technology is incompatibility, when devices and software don't talk to each other.
In the case of instant messaging, the greatest tragedy is that most of the main companies behind the software haven't designed their individual messaging clients to be able to work with one another. So if you use AIM, for example, but your friend uses a rival service, such as MSN Messenger, then you won't be able to communicate.
While you can use services such as Trillian to get around this, users find they often have to download updates to their software whenever commercial programs add new features, and some of the advanced features on offer, such as live video links, won't work between rival services.
To be fair, there's no law that says companies have to let their users chat to anybody else's. So to get the best from instant messaging you will either need all your friends to be using the same program, master the art of juggling a handful of the popular ones, or sacrifice some features.
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