Alternative to Live Messegner

[vester]

Now that MS is putting Messegner into the grave I want to hear about alternative to it,
as Skype is just no good friend...   

What I like about Messegner was the easy way to share pictures and files....
... and all the custom smilies. I just don't like the smilies in Skype.



Please tell what you use of alternatives that is easy to use for chatting and sharing files.

[MandelSoft]

I only know alternatives to Skype, and that's Google Talk. But that one is also pretty basic.

By the way, the Windows 8 version of Skype is hideously hard to find the right stuff in. The new metro interface is at its worst there...

[catty]

I use yahoo messenger

http://messenger.yahoo.com/

[Andreas]

What about using an alternative messenger software, such as Miranda IM, Trillian or Pidgin? I'm not sure if the support the Skype protocol, but there are many others, like ICQ, AIM, XMPP (Jabber), Yahoo and more.

[vester]

Have been looking at Trillian, saw a link to Pidgin.

Still like to hear about how the different programs handle sharing pictures and smilies.

[Swordmaster]

I'd say skype is pretty easy in sharing files?


Cheers
Willy

[art128]

I'd say skype is pretty easy in sharing files?


Cheers
Willy

The thing is, with skype when you want to show a picture to someone, that person has to download the picture to their computer, while with MSN we could drop the picture on the chat and it would open it.

Alternatively, for sharing files, pictures easily two (or more) people could create a shared Dropbox folder?

[catty]

I've never tried sending a file using yahoo messenger, so I don't know how well this would work, but according to the yahoo messenger help

When you need to get someone an important file fast, Yahoo! Messenger is the way to go. You can drag-and-drop up to 2GB of files right into the IM window. This is a great way to send documents, spreadsheets, presentations, music or any other files you want. And best of all, the built-in progress bar will let you know when your friend has finished receiving your files.

as for smilies there are lots of them

http://messenger.yahoo.com/features/emoticons/

http://messenger.yahoo.com/features/hiddenemoticons/

[vester]

At the moment I am trying out Trillian. Its better than Skype.
So far I like what I see.

Have add a nice skin and some icons.

Sharing picture is just drag to the chat window.
A small dialog box comes up and asking if you want to open a picture someone else shared.

[WC_EEND]

By the way, the Windows 8 version of Skype is hideously hard to find the right stuff in. The new metro interface is at its worst there...

easy solution: use the desktop client like I do. Also has the advantage of still being functional when running things in fullscreen whereas the metro one is not.

Xander

[Piteri]

I only know alternatives to Skype, and that's Google Talk. But that one is also pretty basic.

By the way, the Windows 8 version of Skype is hideously hard to find the right stuff in. The new metro interface is at its worst there...

You need to get Skype for Desktop.

[APSMS]

Hope I'm not off-base for resurrecting this, as Vester's probably found a solution by now, but I thought that this alternative found here: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/messenger-reviver-2-download is always worth a shot, since it maintains the old everything and still works. The original link is here, and I would vouch for its success except that I don't use Messenger (or Skype) so I haven't tried it. Looks viable, though.