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]

Multi-protocol instant messaging client Pidgin has hit version 2.2. And when they say multi-protocol, they mean it. Pidgin supports AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, Groupwise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, MySpaceIM, QQ, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP, Yahoo!, and Zephyr.

In other words, there's a good chance this open-source program is the only instant messaging client you'll ever need to install on your Windows or Linux PC. There are a bunch of updates since the last release. One of our favorites is the return of optional protocol icons which make it easy to tell which of your friends are using MSN Messenger, and which are using AIM (and so on). Here are some of the other changes:

• Yahoo! Chat is fixed
• AIM file transfer issues fixed
• Properly restore idle status time for AIM and ICQ accounts that reconnect after being disconnected
• Remember "enable sounds" setting for a conversation

If you've got friends and family using 17 different instant messaging applications, Pidgin is a great way to keep in touch with everyone without installing 17 different programs. And the best thing is when you turn it off, they all go away. You know, unless they e-mail, call, or stop by your house for a visit.
[via Digg]