Instant Bird – ‘Firefox meets Pidgin’ Hybrid chat Client

By , Published July 1, 2010
Why do you get when you cross Firefox and Pidgin? InstantBird.
 
No, That wasn't a joke without a punchline but an introduction to one of the more interesting applications I've tried in a while a while: A messaging client that is a curious hybrid of both Firefox & Pidgin.
 
InstantBird makes use of the popular libpurple library (as used in Pidgin and Mac client Adium) for connecting to IM services and draws on the Mozilla rendering engine to display messages. By using the well-known bibpurple library the app is able to connect to almost every major chat service, including: -
  • AIM
  • MSN
  • Yahoo! Messenger
  • Google Talk
  • Facebook Chat
  • XMPP
  • Gadu-Gadu
  • ICQ
  • IRC

The result is the familiar feel of Firefox but with the goodness of Pidgin thrown in.

InstantBird 0.2 Beta

As this was my introduction to the application I decided to test out the latest beta version rather than poke around with the year-old Stable release that is known to have many flaws.
 
First impressions? The app has a reassuringly familiar feel. The account set up handles like in Pidgin, being both simple and straightforward to configure. Better yet I was actually prompted to enter a 'alias' (nickname) for my MSN account rather than it just defaulting to my e-mail address!
 
The contacts list is plain with no avatars or status indicators present. Conversations are tabbed by default and once you've got a few open the entire application really starts to resemble Firefox. This vibe continues into the preferences and settings dialogue which is identical in layout to that of current Firefox releases. It's almost slightly surreal to see different tab headings and options tucked away in such a habitual place.
 
Conversations themselves are basic with minimal support for emoticons and nothing else fancy. InstantBird also doesn't provide any feedback indication that your contact is typing – which will suit some as much as it irks others.
 
Managing InstantBird windows feels like trying to catch a bird! The lack of tray icon for notifications, status changing or minimisation was a bit disappointing – particularly since didn't register on my dock at all.
On a more positive slant Instant Bird Beta does possess something killer up it's sleeve: Add-ons.
 
This Mozilla method of searching, installing and removing extensions is particularly great in this context, letting you 'personalize your messaging experience' with total ease – no browser needed!
 
If you're interested in seeing what extensions are available before you install check them out @ 

Purpose

With many other IM clients built around libpurple – and exploiting the feature set to greater potential – most users will find nothing here that isn't already provided by something else.
 
The addition of extensions hold promise and there are already some excellent themes available but this minor convenience is more than offset by the dearth of other features.

Download

InstantBird 0.2 Beta can be downloaded @ http://www.instantbird.com/download-0.2b2.html

To run just extract the folder, mark the 'instantbird' file inside as executable and then double-click to run.

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

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  • Grey Beard

    it definately needs a tray icon, and notifications if someone starts chatting with me!
    With that, it would be an awesome IM client.

    • Florian Quèze

      This is already planed and will be added in a later release :).

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/112716579620970145970 4th guy

    It’s been over a year since this was updated. Is this project dead?

    • Peteatoms

      The blog (link on site) seems to have been updated as recently as yesterday.

  • PeteAtoms

    I definitely like that is multi-protocol and cross-platform. Definitely something to keep an eye on, that most people aren’t aware of. It’s not a real competitor to the more mature clients.

    I wonder if this will ever become as integrated to Firefox that ChatZilla is.

  • Anonymous

    i like it so far. flashing tray notifier is necessary; i’m sure it’s coming soon as long as they’re working on the project. he bottom window notifier is helpful, too. my yahoo account will NOT work anymore in pidgin or empathy at all so i’ve been searching for a new client. yahoo works well with instantbird so i’ll continue to use the beta.

  • Angry

    The problem here is that Instantbird development is really slow. This project is older than you could think. There is no real progress …

  • Mohan

    I used this years ago and found it lacking in features that I had come accustomed to in Pidgin. I should give it another try.

  • ninjapirate89

    Why does this need to be a different application? Is there no way they could have simply made a Firefox add-on? Also, if Songbird wasn’t such a terrible media player I would say it would be cool to use it instead of Firefox so you could chat, listen to music, and browse the web all from one program.

  • http://twitter.com/explodingwalrus Carl Draper

    Add-ons aren’t exactly ‘killer’, i mean there’s plenty of great plugins in PIdgin. And if it’s anything like Firefox, with lots of added plugins it’ll no longer be so ‘instant’. While it’s nice to have alternatives, what does this have over Pidgin?

  • Anonymous

    This is old news and has been in development for a looong time… stagnant development at best.

  • Anonymous

    Well, yes, the file “instanbird” is executable, but it keeps open a terminal windows, which is not the most practical of things.

  • patrickjdempsey

    You got a few facts wrong…. I’ve been developing 3rd-party themes for Instantbird for awhile now (Stratini Instant and Stratini Instant Black) so maybe I can clear some things up.

    The buddy list displays an icon related to the messanger client and an icon floats over that related to the status. There are indicators for “busy” “idle” “offline” and “mobile” users. If you hover your mouse over a user name their avatar will appear in the tooltip dialog. If these are not appearing it may be a regression in the version you are using but I’m sure they will be in the final product.

    Within the conversation window, Instantbird does support avatars, but you may have to try out a few different message styles to find one you like via their add-ons site. Also, in the top-left corner of the conversation tab, it displays an icon that displays the status including an animation that your buddy is typing. Also, in the “statusbar” at the bottom of the conversation it tells you your buddy is typing. I think the buddy name at the top of the tab also turns green to indicate typing!

    @ 4th guy and brettalton. The final version has not been updated in over a year, but they have been very very busy working on the new version. If you try out 0.2 Beta, you might have to bite your words!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UFCNPNEKQKJJL5VU7TGFUSQIUA mmhmm

    works very nicely! :) thanks, Pidgin has been acting up like theres no tomorrow. but this is working great.  <3