All messages that enter Trillian appear the same regardless of which service is used, thus stripping away an IM client's identity. Trillian attempts to solve the lack of interoperability by letting people manage their various instant messaging accounts under one consistent user interface. As a result, most instant messaging users have downloaded multiple clients to reach different contacts. However, the largest instant messaging networks-America Online's AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ, Microsoft's MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger-are proprietary and prohibit communication between one another. Instant messaging has become one of the most popular applications on the Internet, allowing people to exchange text messages in real-time between PCs. Neither Cerulean's Werndorfer nor Yahoo commented when asked whether yesterday's software patch release was the result of negotiations between the companies, or an independent decision by Cerulean. Trillian lets people with multiple instant messaging applications-such as AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger-integrate them all onto one graphical interface. The patches were released shortly after Yahoo said that upgrades to its own service might shut out people using Messenger through a third-party client such as Trillian. 'The patches upgrade both the MSN and Yahoo engines within Trillian to comply with the latest protocol requirements,' Werndorfer wrote in an e-mail. Trillian Pro 2.0, the most recent version of the for-pay service, has already been upgraded, Werndorfer said. They allow the free 0.74 and the older for-pay Pro 1.0 versions of Trillian to continue to work with Yahoo and MSN's instant messaging clients, according to company co-founder, Scott Werndorfer. The patches were posted Wednesday afternoon ET on Cerulean's Web site. Cerulean Studios has released new software patches that will allow its popular Trillian client to support MSN and Yahoo's instant messaging services, according to its co-founder.

Trillian messenger sign in