Comments on: Trillian Astra – Is It the Best Instant Messaging Client Now?

By: Riley

Riley — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:39:25 +0000

I like to use Palringo. It has many of the premium versions for free.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:27:52 +0000

A friend of mine, Brett, did a review of Trillain Astra for my blog and that's when I was introduced to it. I like it. It has a lot of good features, I just don't find myself using IM programs very often any more. I guess since the advent of web-based communications I communicate a bit differently now.

By: Clown

Clown — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:27:19 +0000

before I love to useing Trillian Basic. It was my best messenger, but after updated to Trillian Astra, I feel is getting complex and difficult to use. Very Bad.

Now I face to pidgin, easy and simple, especilaly for Portable version easy to go.

By: othoproudfoot

othoproudfoot — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:08:03 +0000

I may be missing something here but when are these multi-protocol chat clients going to add QQ to their arsenal ? They have some 160 million clients in China alone, including many foreign nationals working here.

By: blackfog

blackfog — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:57:23 +0000

Was a Trillian user for years and am an Astra beta tester, as well. But, once I started using Digsby, I couldn’t go back. I even tried last week, but I found that the new Facebook and Twitter changes to Digsby were far superior to Astra.

I do like where Astra has gone and if Digsby didn’t exist, it’d be my client of choice. But the best? IMHO, no. It has some real competition now.

YMMV, of course. Depends what you need in your client.

By: drcypher

drcypher — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:40:09 +0000

I have to agree with digsby lovers…

One and main reason I keep with it is frequent updates and excellent support along with amazing simplicity… Having digsby runing on my work PC looks much more in line with all of my tasks and open windows… Other messengers are simply too flashy, too colorfull and overall annoying…

Tried Trillian, and didn’t find it good enough…

By: Heather Edick

Heather Edick — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:40:06 +0000

I have been using Trillian for years and now I am using Astra. I can say that it is the best IM client I have found and have tried others to see if I am missing anything. Fortunately, I have not found that to be the case. I also feel that the team that works on Trillian is phenomenal about responding to issues and bringing in new features. I think they really love what they do.

By: Ashutosh Mishra

Ashutosh Mishra — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:58:23 +0000

Astra is a really nice communicating app, but my vote still stays with Digsby. Here are a few reasons :

1.AFAIK, the Digsby team is more interactive.
2.Digsby is of course free, offering everything @ no cost. Astra Free is almost as good, but I always prefer full apps to semi-disabled ones.
3.Digsby beautifully separates email and chatting tasks. For eg, I have added my Hotmail account under the email category, but not under IM as I don’t have many Live Messenger friends. Similarly, if I have a account with lots of friends but with very few mails, I can add it under IM only. Astra unifies email and IM, which may be good for many, but not for me.
4.Astra’s default skin confuses me like mad. Digsby’s Windows 7 skin is more pleasing.
5.Digsby updates frequently, bringing new features every now and then. You never know with Trillian : it could basically stay the same for another three years before another awesome update arrives.

So yeah Astra is a good app, but Digsby is the one for me. :]

By: Vikas SN

Vikas SN — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:36:15 +0000

I have been using it from few days now. And I must say it is one the best multi IM clients I have ever seen. Also the UI looks simply amazing.

By: Jonathan Cohen

Jonathan Cohen — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:52:46 +0000

I used to love Trillian in the late 1990s, but as another reader said, it started to feel bloated and unfriendly.

I’ve been a big fan of cross-platform Pidgin which is extensible through plugins. Maybe it’s time to give Trillian another go