Instantbird is a multi-protocol Instant Messaging client. Using it, you can connect to all your different IM accounts.
It uses the Mozilla rendering engine to display IMs, and the Pidgin libpurple to connect to the different networks.
Instantbird is an open source software, so you are allowed to use, distribute and modify it.
Here are some key features of "Instantbird":
Context menus:
· Context menus (opened with a "right click") are a common and expected part of the user interface. It can be very frustrating when they are missing, so in Instantbird we tried to add one wherever users are likely to expect one.
· In the buddy list, the context menu of contacts can be used to start a conversation (although pressing enter or double clicking is usually faster), show the conversation history, rename a contact, move the contact to a different group or remove it from the list
· The context menu is usable anywhere in the buddy list to toggle the display of offline buddies
· A context menu was added in the account manager too. There, it proposes all the possible actions for an account. Since Instantbird, it's possible to reorder the accounts in the list (this is also possible with drag & drop using the mouse or with the keyboard using shift + the up or down arrow).
· A context menu is available on conversation tabs, with actions related to that tab (opening it in a new window, closing it, ...) and to the conversation, like showing the history of previous conversations with the same contact.
· Last but not least, there's a context menu in conversation content. This is the most "contextual" context menu we have added. The proposed actions will vary depending on whether there is a selection or if the context click was done over a link.
· When selecting some text from a conversation, a common action is to copy it to the clipboard and then paste it in a browser to use it as the query in search engine. We have included search engine items directly in the context menus to reduce the number of clicks needed for this common case.
Cleaner UI:
· In Instantbird a lot of visual bloat has been removed from all windows. Some margins have been reduced, borders that weren't useful for clarity have been removed, and alignments have been improved. All of this contributes to a better use of the available space on the screen, and to a better perceived impression of simplicity in the user interface.
· The status can now be changed directly from the top of the buddy list instead of having to interact with a poor popup dialog. (Note that for the users who hate clicking, the status can also be changed quickly using commands from conversation windows: /away /dnd /back /offline.)
Message Styles:
· As exchanging messages is the most important feature of an instant messaging client, we put a great deal of thought into the way the messages are displayed. As we have already explained, we decided to implement the Adium message style system. This system offers a great flexibility to message style authors to display the conversation content the way they want.
· In order to give users a good out-of-the-box experience, we have packaged a variety of messages styles by default in Instantbird.
Bubbles:
· In Instantbird, the default message style, called "Bubbles," is a lot more colorful.
· Messages are displayed in colored bubbles. In a private conversation with one other user, there's a background color for your messages, and a color for the messages you receive. In multi-user chat rooms, there's a different color for each participant, so you easily can tell which messages are sent by the same participant
· In this theme, the display of messages is clear and well spaced out. This theme was designed to be usable for most users.
· A few special features have been added to this theme to improve the readability of conversations and reduce the waste of space: consecutive messages from the same person are grouped automatically, consecutive system messages are automatically grouped and collapsed, and the timestamps are no longer displayed for each message, but as a tooltip when a message is hovered.
· Because we know one theme cannot fit the needs of everybody, we provide a few other themes by default.
Dark:
· The "Dark" theme is designed to please people who like having a dark (almost black) background color in their windows.
Paper Sheets:
· The "Paper Sheets" theme is a less fancy alternative to the default Bubble theme.
· Most of the features of Bubbles are also there, but it takes less space on the screen (no bubbles), and the colors are lighter.
· The margins used in this theme automatically adapt based on the total size of the conversation area, in order to save space if you decide to use a very small conversation window.
Simple:
· As we know some people may feel nostalgic, hate fancy stuff, or simply want to have a very compact message theme, we have included a message theme called "Simple." With this theme, all the space is used for the conversation messages.
· Finally, a little reminder about extensibility: even though the themes included by default have been designed to fit the needs of most users, they may not fit perfectly your personal taste, and that's why there are hundreds of message themes already available for you to enjoy trying out. Creating a new one yourself is also very easy.
Stability:
· We care a lot about the stability of Instantbird. Again, the Mozilla platform has some great tools to help us here.
Requirements:
· 128 MB of RAM
· 100 MB of free disk space
What's New in This Release:
· The log viewer now groups your conversations by date.
Twitter improvements:
· The character counter for Twitter has been improved to take into account automatic link shortening, allowing you to easily tweet links without worrying about their length!
· Updated to the Twitter API v1.1, note that Instantbird 1.3 may stop working with Twitter on June 11th, 2013!
· Twitter now includes everyone you follow as a participant in your timeline.
· IRC authentication works better with bouncers (e.g. ZNC).
· You can now easily override self-signed/invalid/out-of-date certificates for IRC servers.
· Each account now keeps debug logs which can be accessed by right clicking on the account in the Account Manager and choosing "Copy Debug Logs", these contain essential information for developers to diagnose user issues. (Note that debug logs MAY contain sensitive information.)
Under the Hood:
· Updated: Instantbird 1.4 is based on Mozilla 20.0.1 and uses libpurple 2.10.7
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