Filed under: Internet, Features, Windows, Web services, web 2.0
Instan-T: Voice, video and text chat client for Google, AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!
by Brad Linder May 16th 2008 at 6:30PM
Your co-workers use MSN Messenger, your family is partial to AOL Instant Messenger, and your friends use Google Talk. There are plenty of utilities that let you keep in touch with all of your contacts regardless of the IM platform they're using. But while we love Digsby, Trillian, Pidgin, and Adium most of the time, there are a few features missing from those apps:
- Support for voice and video chats
- The ability to invite friends from different IM networks into a single chat room
And that's where Instan-T comes in. This multi-protocol chat client for Windows supports AOL, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Messengers. It also supports voice and video chat across each network, although we've found that feature to be a bit finnicky. When we tested out a voice chat, we were able to the person speaking on the other end, but she couldn't hear us. We'll chalk that up to a hardware problem.
Probably the most interesting thing about Instan-T is that it lets you set up a chat room that you can invite contacts from any service to participate in. Just click on a contact name and select multi-person chat. They'll receive an invitation with a URL to click on that will open up a Flash-based chat room, which also features voice and video support.
We'll be honest. The Instan-T interface is a little cluttered and confusing when compared with other multi-protocol chat clients. But the application definitely shows promise. If you want to try the service without downloading and installing anything, you Instan-T also has a Meebo-like web based instant messenger. The web client supports Internet Explorer and Firefox, which means you should be able to access the service whether you're using Windows, Linux or OS X.
[via TechnoBuzz]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
aanidaani said 10:06PM on 5-16-2008
As much as I like the idea of integrating video, I find that the individual service clients (Skype, GTalk), do a much better job with it. Maybe if they can improve the quality it might be worth it, but it looks too bloated to me -- I'll stick to Pidgin.
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Josh said 10:07PM on 5-16-2008
Why would you bring up Adium when there is no Mac support? =\
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gman said 10:07PM on 5-16-2008
Check out Nimbuzz (www.nimbuzz.com). It links your basic webmail accounts along w/Skype. The cell phone build is supposed to be better than the PC one, and it looks like it has potential.
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Quikboy said 9:02AM on 5-17-2008
Not to be a drag, but now that it's 2008, it should be Windows Live Messenger (Live Messenger/WLM to be short). They should trying giving the current Messenger buddy icon, than the MSN logo. Just my opinion.
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neil said 11:33AM on 5-17-2008
iwaan
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Joshua said 2:41PM on 5-17-2008
Digsby does have voice and video support, it's just pretty dodgy at this point. I get audio and video only going one way etc, stuff like that.
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SDreamer said 6:18PM on 5-17-2008
It's all nice looking and what not, but I hate the fact that you need to make an account to use it. I'll stick with pidgin for now, just wish it had better skins. Same reason I don't want to use Digsby. Why do I have to make an account with them and give them my pw for my accounts and what not? I just don't like that idea really.
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