If you want to keep in touch with other users across social networking sites, which messenger would you install on your computer? If you are a business user, then Skype is a solution as many of us use the tool to make cheap international calls and it can be used to message other members. However, individuals are rarely on Skype and they use Facebook or MSN to chat to other users. Worse, business networking sites such as LinkedIn encourage you to connect, but there's no facility to message or quickly contact other users.

Trillian Astra has been in development for years and still hasn't moved beyond internal beta....until now. This messenger will enable you to chat to just about any user on any social networking platform, including MSN, AIM, Skype, ICQ and others. Better still, if you sign up to the beta testing, you can install and test straight away. There is only a beta version for the Windows platform at the moment, but Mac and iPhone versions are on the way.

Trillian Astra beta link.

08 Apr 2009