Firstly, like the latest version of Messenger for Mac, you should know that it doesn't work with webcams. This seems criminal I know, but Microsoft has seen fit only to allow those willing to upgrade to the corporate edition to use a webcam with it. However, the rest of it is pretty much as you'd expect. It is fitted with all the basic functions you'd want from Messenger and the application lets you organize your contacts into different groups, set your status, and use emoticons, etc. New conversations open up in a new window, which you can be moved around anywhere on the screen.

While it's fairly easy to check your Hotmail account thanks to the Mail button at the top of the interface, sending files and images to other users can be a bit slow. MSN Messenger is sufficient as a basic IM client, but we'd recommend upgrading your version of OS X and updating to the latest version of Messenger for Mac. Not only is it more secure, but it will also offer more features and a sleeker interface.

MSN Messenger is a decent if basic IM client for anyone with a Mac OS under 10.3.9 but the lack of webcam function is a major drawback

Download MSN Messenger 4.0.1 in Softonic

However, if neither of these are particularly important to you then version 7 might still be useful to you. Of course, whichever version you choose, you still have to sign in using your Hotmail or Windows Live account. Once installed, the first thing you'll see is that Microsoft Messenger 7 offers a slightly updated interface to version 6.

Messenger 7 offers Bonjour support, so you can detect and connect with users on the same local network as you. Features like sending files, displaying a picture or emoticons are unchanged. You can change your display name and add a personal message just by clicking on them.

One new feature is that you can give nicknames to your friends. Just click on their display name and start typing. We also liked the search feature, which is really handy to quickly find a contact or email address.

It's obvious that this upgrade is aimed at corporate users as they get the most significant updates though. The highly touted audio and video feature, with which you can have video conferences with your contacts, is only available to them.

The same goes with detailed presence information, as you'll need a version of Office Communications Server 2007 to use it.

Corporate users will love the new features in Messenger for Mac 7, like Bonjour Support, detailed presence information and especially audio and video. General users will find barely anything different from version 6 and should download Microsoft Messenger 8.0.

Download Messenger for Mac 7.0.3 in Softonic

Unlike some video conferencing applications, Oovoo is very easy to get running with your webcam and it can handle very high quality cameras - up to 2 megapixels, depending on the speed of your connection. During chats and video calls, you can add video effects such as sepia, blurring and morphing, something that sets it apart from other popular VoIP apps like Skype.

With ooVoo you can talk face-to-face with up to six people, add an ooVoo link to your blog or online profiles (so others can instantly add you to their contacts), send and receive video messages and, best of all, it's completely free. You will need to create an Oovoo account however, which, as registrations go, is fairly painless.

Once you've started the setup process, you'll be asked to create an ooVoo username and password. You'll also be asked to add a few friends and contacts to your ooVoo account although if you don't know anyone using ooVoo, you can simply elect to send invites and hope that they sign up.

What's really nice about ooVoo, though, is the ability to place your contacts, and their video images, down the side of your screen in a sidebar simultaneously. This way, you can chat away to all of them at the same time and see them at once.

Unfortunately, at the moment ooVoo is not compatible with Lion although the developers claim that they will release a compatible version soon.

OOvoo’s an impressive video chat app, although it would be interesting to see how it performs when multiple users are trying have a video conference.

Download ooVoo 3.0.2.116 in Softonic

That's all changed however with the release of Microsoft Messenger 8.0 which finally supports webcams and audio. There are no other major changes to the interface other than the addition of a video lens to start a chat and a microphone to start an audio chat. You may have to open a port on your router to conduct web conferencing however, details of which can be found on the Microsoft website.

You'll obviously need to sign-in using your Windows Live account or sign-up for one if you haven't got one. Microsoft Messenger for Mac still offers Bonjour support and features like sending files, displaying a picture or emoticons are unchanged. However, you can't drag and drop to send files yet and user profile pictures don't show up at all for some reason. It doesn't seem possible to change your own profile picture either.

You can however still change your display name and add a personal message just by clicking on them and give nicknames to your contacts. Just click on their display name and start typing. The search feature is really handy to quickly find a contact or email address.

If you've been frustrated by Microsoft Messenger for Mac's lack of support for webcams and audio, you'll be delighted by this latest release.

Download Microsoft Messenger 8.0.1 in Softonic

Whenever a product is specifically designed for Windows users and is then finally rolled out for Mac, the results can be less then impressive - and so it seems with Yahoo! Messenger. First the good points. The interface is fine. There's nothing that makes it stand out from other Instant Messenger interfaces but it's clean and not cluttered with ads or banners. My main problem is that I have hardly any Yahoo! contacts but fortunately, this latest version finally adds support for MSN contacts.

To add an MSN contact, you have to CMD-click on the main interface and select 'Add new contact'. I thought this could have been made clearer and it only allows the adding of contacts one-by-one - not entire accounts, which is a real pain if you've got lots of contacts. You can also add LCS and Lotus Sametime contacts, although who on Earth uses those nowadays I have no idea.

Overall, using Yahoo! Messenger is a frustrating experience. For instance, I was pleased to read it apparently iSight support (unlike the basic version of MSN Messenger for Mac) but to my dismay, it simply doesn't work. There's also a possibility to phone people as with Skype by purchasing Phone Out credit but I really don't see the point of this unless the rates and plans are more competitive than Skype, which they're not.

Yahoo! Messenger will only really appeal to Yahoo! die-hards that have a Yahoo! account and haven't yet discovered the pleasures of Adium.

Download Yahoo! Messenger 3.0.1 Beta in Softonic

Google Voice and Video solves this problem and as you'd expect from a Google product, it works extremely simply and effectively. Getting setup is extremely easy. You'll need a webcam of course but all you have to do is download the voice and video plug-in, quit all open browser windows, and install it.

Once done, simply sign into Gmail and select the contact you want to call. You can see immediately if they have a voice and video capability because there will be a yellow camera icon next to their name. If they don't, you can you can invite them to download the Gmail voice and video chat plug-in from the 'Video & More' menu in a chat window. If they don't have a webcam, you can still make voice calls.

Like everything else in Gmail, Google Voice and Video works extremely well and provides excellent quality video and audio to your webchats.

Download Google Voice and Video 1.0.2.0 in Softonic

When you think about IM clients, the first names that come to your head are MSN Messenger, Adium and the likes. But have you ever heard of QQ for Mac?

With more than one billion registered accounts, QQ for Mac is now more than just a simple IM client: it's a whole social phenomenon that millions of people use on a daily basis, and an essential part of their lives.

What you can do

The truth is that QQ for Mac is not that different from other IM clients you may have used. There are the typical contacts list – which you can organize by groups - support for voice and video chats, smileys, nudges, ability to send photos and share files (with support for pause/resume!), and other utilities we're used to finding in IM clients. There's one important difference however: in QQ for Mac you hardly find any ads!

Besides the traditional IM tools, QQ for Mac also includes some not-so-common features. You'll be able to capture an area of your screen or record a short video clip on the spot, and share both of them instantly with your contacts. Another area where QQ for Mac stands out is personalization. You can customize almost anything, from choosing a skin for the interface to selecting the font for your messages. The program also includes a wide selection of avatars and personal pictures to choose from, but if you don't like any of them, simply upload one from your hard drive. The only thing that didn't work for us was downloading more themes from the Web.

Remote control

QQ for Mac is mainly a tool for chat, but it can also be used to help your friends or customers thanks to its integrated Remote assistance tool: a basic remote control app that grants you access to your friend's desktop and enables you to help them with any computer issue.

In general terms, QQ for Mac surprised us for various reasons: first, it features a nicely designed interface with cute buttons and icons, which is hard to find in IM clients; second, it has interesting extra features that make it a complete communication tool; and third, it's amazing how such a popular program with more than a billion users is still known by so few people over here!

On the downside, QQ for Mac is a bit unreliable when trying to add contacts - which, by the way, are identified with numbers, like good old ICQ. Not a very user-friendly method, we'd say. Other than that, QQ Messenger is a great IM cilent that is definitely worth trying out.

QQ for Mac, the most widely used IM client in China, has now an international version that may help it become even more popular!

Download QQ for Mac International 1.1 in Softonic

Contrary to what the name suggests, this pack will not only allow you to add smileys to iChat, but also to other clients such as AdiumX, Proteus, Fire, Mercury and Skype. The pack is very easy to install and can be used right away. You'll see it offers all sorts of emotions, from happy to sad, ecstatic, disappointed and even original characters like a policeman, pig or a witch. There are also a few miscellaneous icons like a moon, sun or mobile phone.

I do get the feeling that some of them are a little outdated, or highly similar to the ones already present in MSN Messenger. Still, if you're a big fan of emoticons and can't really imagine a chat without them, then this pack will surely extend the choice already present in your chat client.

More iChat Smileys is a good set of 120 new emoticons for chat clients like AdiumX or Skype.

Download More iChat Smileys 3.1.1 in Softonic

Most importantly, it supports video although please be aware that in this latest release, due to a change by Microsoft in the way Messenger handles AV protocols, this latest release of aMSN does not support video or audio clips at the moment although the developers hope to resolve this soon. It should also be noted that the latest release of Microsoft Messenger for Mac does now support audio and video.

aMSN's chat client looks very similar to Microsoft's product yet differs on a number of points. aMSN's developers have delved into the preferences menu, adding extra little features like event alerts and sounds, conferencing support or autoaway messages. Like with MSN Messenger you'll be able to transfer files and organize all your contacts into groups on aMSN.

The big draw of aMSN however is webcam and audio clips support. You had to be a corporate user of MSN Messenger for Mac 7.0 to use webcams but aMSN allows you to do so for free. Starting a webcam is easy (simply by clicking on the webcam button in a chat dialog) although there is no real time audio yet. However, you can record audio clips to send to contacts. Read more about this feature on our OnSoftware blog here.

One of the biggest pet peeves of users with aMSN is the interface. It simply doesn't compare with more sleeker, more recent IM clients. In the developer's defense though you can download all sorts of skins from the program's website. Similarly it offers up a range of plugins, to customize your client to your liking. Chat addicts will also appreciate the animated emoticons on hand.

In a few words, aMSN is a good alternative to MSN for users looking to add more plugins, skins and delve into the preferences menu.

Download aMSN 0.98.4 in Softonic

Nimbuzz can log you in directly to MSN, ICQ or Yahoo! and allows you to chat, send files to other users or start conferencing with friends. Social networks like Facebook , MySpace or Twitter are also supported by the client .

After installing Nimbuzz, you need to create a new account or log onto a pre-existing one. With the help of the setup wizard, your login information for service providers such as Skype, Google Talk, MSN, ICQ, Jabber orAIM. You'll quickly be notified whether your login has been successful or not.

Nimbuzz imports contacts from the respective messenger services. You can then send messages, photos or files to one or more friends through the Nimbuzz menu as well as make phone calls. However, this feature is one of the most unreliable, and you may find it difficult to establish a connection.

Nimbuzz is an interesting free chat client for Mac but is still a little rough around the edges.

Download Nimbuzz 1.2.0 in Softonic

This messaging client is the perfect example of an excellent open source program. It's very regularly updated and has a strong and active community. Adium X works with almost all the IM services you'll find out there, including Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger.

The interface is simple yet colorful and multiple chats can be tabbed all into one window. If you want to engage in a private conversation with another user, Adium X support Off The Record (OTR) encrypted messaging.

As I said before, Adium X has generated an active community, which generates all sorts of extras for the client like icons, sounds, plugins or applescripts.

True, file transfer is a little flaky, and Adium X still doesn't offer voice or video chat, but it's very enjoyable to use and extremely flexible.

Adium X is a free and highly customizable IM client, that allows you to connect to almost any online chat service and engage in multiple conversations simultaneously.

Download Adium 1.5 in Softonic

Mercury Messenger is a Java based IM client which allows you to connect to your Windows Live or Hotmail account and chat with your contacts. Despite being based on Java, Mercury Messenger is remarkably lightweight, easy to use and allows you to do pretty much most things you can with the standalone client. This includes organizing contacts by groups, use emoticons, send files and activate your webcam during chats.

The interface itself is similar to that of MSN Messenger albeit a bit more basic. Some elements are placed a little clumsily here and there, making Mercury Messenger slightly unintuitive to use but luckily, the interface is interchangeable so if you find a good skin on the developer website, you can use that instead.

Perhaps the most unique feature about Mercury Messenger is the RSS support. Mercury allows you to add and preview RSS feeds. This sounds a bit weird for an IM client and the result is a bit awkward, akin to feed reading on a mobile device. Mercury Messenger also has a tabbed interface which allows you to open and work with multiple accounts although having too many open simply ends up confusing.

Although missing the most recent features of MSN Messengers and despite a weaker interface, Mercury Messenger is a good alternative with RSS and multiple account support.

Download Mercury Messenger 2.0 RC7 in Softonic

Of course, there's the possibility to use one of the big IM programs like Live or Yahoo! Messenger, but Spark is faster and far more secure. It uses the Jabber protocol which can be configured to use either private or public networks, depending on the plug-ins you install on your server.

Spark also has some extra details that are hardly found in LAN clients, such as avatar support, conference rooms, voice chat, spellcheck and even a special tool to capture anything on your screen and send it directly to any contact.

What's more, the program includes some other useful tools like a basic note editor and a task list.

I had some problems when trying to organize my contacts into groups, with groups completely disappearing from my screen (but easily recovered by restarting the program).

Also, I feel configuration settings fall too short: I'd like to be able to change the font and color of my text or hide offline contacts, just to mention two missing options.