If you are a user of Mac OS X you’ll probably know that the MSN application that Microsoft has developed for OS X isn’t really that amazing. For starters you can’t have a video chat with a friend or talk via a microphone using MSN on OS X. Also the interface for the application doesn’t look all that amazing.

So I have decided to make a list of five alternative chat MSN applications out there for Mac OS X that have better functionality and allow you to customize the look and feel of the application.

(1) Adium

I do a lot of texting on my mobile phone, either to my girlfriend, to my family back in Britain and even to clients. I also do a lot of Twittering when I am out and about. This can lead to a lot of SMS’s being stored up in my phone and some phones impose a limit on how many messages can be stored before you have to start deleting. If your phone has a limit, you may be interested in TreasureMyText which is an online SMS storage system.

If you’re a social network magician, you’ll know that a big part of these sites is “updating your status”. This can be something profound such as “discovered the meaning of life - 42!” to the more tedious “hey! Just discovered something big and green up my nose!“. But like it or hate it, status messages have become a big part of social networks and now Ping.fm has come along to make updating them a lot easier for you.

Instant Messaging has become an indispensable online tool these days, and messenger applications have therefore become popular in connecting with people. With the wide variety of programs coming out in this arena, the experience only gets better. Here are some add-ons to add additional features to your favorite chat program.

Multi Protocol Instant Messengers

Not add-ons, really, but these multi-protocol IMs help a lot in connecting to people from various networks - you need not necessarily have to install every other Instant Messaging software around. Give them a go!

I widely advertise my instant messaging ID’s as I want potential clients to be able to find me easily. But the problem with doing that is that I end up with a lot of spam messages every day.

Never a day goes by without automated robots sending me instant messages inviting me to talk dirty with them or to go to a certain website to stock up on my Viagra tablets. Now normally I would just block them but this only really works for one or two messages a day.

There are two groups of people in the world - those who know when to walk away from their computer and those who are tied to it 24/7. The former group will therefore hate this hack - and will wail about it in the comments. The latter group will love it. Unfortunately, I am in the latter group!

There is a plug-in available for Pidgin called gSMS which will notify you by mobile phone SMS when someone tries to contact you by Pidgin and you don’t respond within a specified time frame. This would be useful if you had to step away from your desk but you were expecting an important message. By configuring this plug-in, you can be told by SMS that the person left a message and you can get back in touch with them as soon as possible.