Enlarge picture
Yahoo Messenger is often more than a simple instant messaging client because it provides a lot of powerful functions that allows users to communicate with ease. Since the version 6 was released, Yahoo Messenger was continuously promoted and managed to become the most popular application on the Internet. As you know, the instant messaging client is available for free with a simple Yahoo account that is also compatible with other products developed by the company such as mail or bookmarks. However, most of the Yahoo clients are creating their accounts because they want to communicate on the Internet using Yahoo Messenger.
The latest version of the application allows users to chat with webcam support, send emoticons and audibles, send files or create conferences to communicate with multiple connected clients at the same time. However, some of the users might find one or more of these functions annoying and refuse to connect to Yahoo Messenger anymore. At this time, there are only a few instant messaging clients that allow users to communicate using different networks such as Google Talk or Windows Live Messenger.
Today, I'll present you the most powerful alternatives for Yahoo Messenger that allow you to communicate with your friends from other applications but with the same support for Yahoo Messenger. In fact, by using one of the following programs, you'll be able to communicate with every contact from your Yahoo list but with some other functions and interface.
Enlarge picture
Trillian is probably one of the best Yahoo replacements, helping users to connect to multiple networks including the giant’s portal. The program allows you to send files to your Yahoo contacts but it provides a different set of emoticons and sounds. The interface is 100 percent changed because Trillian enables you to customize the appearance by using different styles or themes. At this time, the developers are working on a new version of the application that will include support for many of the Yahoo Messenger editions and made them fully compatible with your client.
Enlarge picture
Gaim is another powerful Yahoo Messenger alternative, being recently renamed to Pidgin after some federal problems with more famous companies. However, Gaim is still available for download in version 2.0 beta 6 but you're also required to install GTK+ for Windows as an add-on for the stand-alone program. Gaim offers support for most of Yahoo Messenger functions, including file transfer and emoticons but it also includes some new tools that can be very useful for the chatting experience. For example, the Psychic plugin helps the users find out when another client of Yahoo Messenger starts to type a message even before he presses the enter button.
Enlarge picture
I think these two programs are the most powerful in their category so, if you want to use an instant messaging client other than Yahoo Messenger, you can download it from Softpedia. However, if you still want to chat even easier, without having to install any application, you can use one of the web-based clients that help you communicate on the Internet from an online Interface. Although Yahoo's Web Messenger is regarded as an easy way to do that, you can also use Meebo, a solution that supports a lot of messaging protocols.
