Free messenger client supporting audio and video chats
Jitsi is a free messenger client that supports most major protocols and even supports video and audio conversations.
Simply choose the IM protocol that you'd like to connect to from a selection that includes SIP, Google Talk, XMPP/Jabber, MSN or Windows Live Messenger, AIM, Bonjour, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger and Facebook chat. In the main window, you'll find all your personal contacts.
In the Jitsi chat window, you can exchange IM messages or initiate video or audio chats, including group chats. There are a limited number of emoticons and Jitsi keeps a history of your chats. Although the interface isn't particularly intuitive, the fact that you can initiate audio and video chats gives it a serious advantage over many slicker IM clients.
Note that this download link takes you to the nightly build page because Jitsi is being updated so regularly, that you can choose the latest version more easily.
Jitsi might not be quite as slick as other IM clients but is a serious alternative to classics like Miranda.
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User reviews about Jitsi
by Anonymous
Best IM for Linux of 2011. Most promising IM of 2011..
Jitsi seems to beat most IM's when it comes to being multiplatform and multi-client.
/>For Linux Jitsi beats Pidgin as an instant messenger as it supports video and audio calls and screen sharing for multiple clients. While Pidgin DOES have video support on it's Linux version, it doesn't on windows.
If it keeps developing at this, it could knock over Pidgin and be standrad on new Linux Distributions.
Pros:
The only up-to-date IM that truly supports video chat on Linux.
Improving fast
Supoorts Yahoo, ICQ, MSN, AIM, GTalk, Jabber and SIP.
Cons:
Doesn't support offline messages on it's Yahoo client (yet).
Doesn't support Yahoo video chat.
Video support nor screen sharing didn't seem to work between me and my girlfriend due to errors, but at least it seemed like it would work on most other machines. More
by Anonymous
Power Video Chat Client.
Being able to video chat on any IM network is nice adding extra security like Jitsi is even nicer. Who doesn't want as much privacy as possible?My complaint with Jitsa is the fact it's pretty basic outside of encryption and audio/video chat. There are no themes, there isn't even a universal away message. There is also no "Now Playing" feature for music. But the biggest issue I have with Jitsi is it doesn't have Skype support. It has audio/video chat for almost any other service except Skype. This could've been the ultimate audio/video chat client had they added Skype.Overall even without Skype and the plain look, the encryption and audio/video chat across all IM services make it something to try. I like the encryption but without Skype it might be too plain for me to leave Trillian and Digsby as my standard IM client.
Pros:
Added Encryption
Audio/Video Chat on all IM services
Free
Cons:
Lack of features
No Skype Support
Looks Too Basic More