Adium is a free and open-source instant messaging client for macOS that supports multiple IM networks, including XMPP (Jabber) and IRC. Earlier versions also supported AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger. Adium is written in Objective-C using macOS's Cocoa API and is released under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later, with some bundled components under separate licenses.

First released in September 2001 with support for AIM only, Adium later integrated libpurple to support additional protocols. In 2005, it received a "Special Mention" at the Apple Design Awards. In 2014, the Electronic Frontier Foundation awarded it 6 out of 7 points on its Secure Messaging Scorecard.

History

Adium was created by Adam Iser, and the first version, "Adium 1.0", was released in September 2001 and supported only AIM. Since then, the version numbers of Adium have followed a somewhat unusual pattern. There were several upgrades to Adium 1.0, ending with Adium 1.6.2c. Adium X 0.88 was the first version compiled as a universal binary, allowing it to run natively on Intel-based Macs.

In 2005, Adium received a "Special Mention" at the Apple Design Awards.

After version Adium X 0.89.1, the team changed the name back to "Adium", and "Adium 1.0" was released in early February 2007.

Apple Inc. used Adium X 0.89.1's build time in Xcode 2.3 as a benchmark for comparing the performance of the Mac Pro and Power Mac G5 Quad, and Adium 1.2's build time in Xcode 3.0 as a benchmark for comparing the performance of the eight-core Mac Pro and Power Mac G5 Quad.

Protocols

Adium supports a wide range of instant messaging networks through the libraries libezv (for Bonjour), STTwitterEngine (for Twitter), and libpurple (for all other protocols).

Adium supports the following protocols:

  • XMPP (Jabber)
  • Twitter
  • Bonjour
  • Internet Relay Chat
  • Novell GroupWise
  • IBM Sametime
  • Gadu-Gadu
  • Skype with a plugin
  • Skype for Business Server (previously Microsoft Lync Server, Microsoft Office Communications Server) with a plugin
  • Telegram with a plugin
  • Steam Chat with the "Steam IM" plugin

Plugins and customization

Adium makes use of a plug-in architecture; many of the program's essential features are actually provided by plugins bundled inside the application package. These plugins include functionality such as file transfer, support for the Growl notifications system, Sparkle for program updates, and support for encrypted messaging with the Off-the-Record Messaging library.

See also

  • Comparison of cross-platform instant messaging clients
  • Comparison of instant messaging protocols
  • List of computing mascots

References