Trillian Astra (Pre-Release): When beauty and functionality meet

In our region, the Trillian messenger is not too well known and widespread, which managed to grow to version 3.1. However, this branch of the development of this messenger had significant problems with the Russian language, which absolutely leveled all its advantages, of which there are so many, that for myself I consider it an ideal product for working with instant messages of various services in one program.

The new development branch of this client is named Trillian Astra — this is not only a sexy interface, but also a whole software package that we will tell you about.

In general, it will not be possible to download this client just like that before the official release, you can only get it by signing up for testers. But after subscribing, I never received an invitation, because "torrents" came to the rescue and you are reading this review.

That's why I use the Windows version of this client:

• support for all common IM protocols "out of the box": ICQ/AOL, GTalk, Jabber, Yahoo!, MSN and even the messenger used in MySpace;
• the ability to use "meta contacts" is a function of combining several accounts of your interlocutor under one icon;
• support for many plugins that can turn a messenger into anything;
• support for displaying contacts sorted by the following parameters: by status, by service, alphabetically, by the size of the message history;
• support for skins, as well as changes to the color palette of an existing skin (like many Vista programs);
• displaying avatars of 4 sizes (from small to just huge), and also two types of displaying contacts — a classic list and a tile, like folders in Windows — very beautiful and, it turns out, convenient!
• message history — here you can view it by calendar, view a graph of the frequency of correspondence per day on the timeline, search;
• support for voice and video communication;
• multidisciplinary support.

In addition to the offline client , the Astra ideology has spread to the creation of a web version of Trillian. That is, you have access to a Flash version that completely duplicates the settings of your desktop program. Moreover, now in the online version you will be able to view the message history regardless of the communication protocol. Also skins, meta-contacts are supported, and there is also a version for mobile devices, as well as for Apple iPhone. In addition, has its own widgets , for example, for working with Flickr, Twitter, weather and much more.