Trillian (software)

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–

(

March

2024

)

(

)

Trillian

Cerulean Studios

Initial release

July 1, 2000

; 25 years

ago

6.6.0.13

/ 25 July 2023

6.6.77

/ 13 September 2024

6.3.0.1

/ 27 May 2020

6.6.0.18

/ 20 November 2024

6.5.0.45

/ 4 September 2024

6.6.19

/ 30 April 2024

Written in

[

]

and later,

, and

Available in

English

Website

As of

2021-02-11

Trillian

is a

application created

by Cerulean Studios. It is currently available for

, and the Web. It can connect to multiple IM

services, such as

, VZ, and

networks; as well as

, such as

, and

; and

services, such as

and

Trillian no longer supports

as these services

have combined and Microsoft chose to discontinue Skypekit, which was used for

connection.

They also no longer support connecting to

, or a

distinct connection for

although these can still

be connected to via

. Currently, Trillian supports Jabber (XMPP)

and Olark.

Initially released July 1, 2000, as a

IRC client, the first

commercial version

(Trillian Pro 1.0)

was published on September 10, 2002. The

program was named after

, a fictional character in

A previous version of the official web

site even had a tribute to Douglas Adams on its front page.

On August 14,

2009, Trillian "Astra" (4.0) for Windows was released, along with its own

Astra network. Trillian 5 for Windows was released in May 2011, and Trillian

6.0 was initially released in February 2017.

Features

[

]

Connection to multiple IM services

[

]

Trillian connects to multiple instant messaging services without the need of

running multiple clients. Users can create multiple connections to the same

service, and can also group connections under separate identities to prevent confusion. All contacts are gathered

under the same

. Contacts are not bound to their own IM service groups, and can be dragged and dropped

freely. Trillian represents each service with a different-colored sphere. Prior versions used the corporate logos for

each service, but these were removed to avoid copyright issues, although some skins still use the original icons. The

Trillian designers chose a

scheme based on the

maps used by the

that uses

different colors to differentiate between different lines.

IM services

[

]

Green And Blue for Trillian Astra Network

Grey for

Amber and Dark Gray for

(Rendezvous)

Purple for

(partially broken as of 10/27/2017)

Teal and Amber for

(discontinued as of 2022)

Blue And Teal for

(discontinued as of 2022)

Blue for

(discontinued as of 2013)

Green for

(discontinued as of 2017)

Amber for

(discontinued as of 2017)

Mail services

[

]

White envelope for

emails

Manila envelope for

emails

Teal envelope for

Prior versions of Trillian supported:

Messenger

Metacontact

[

]

To eliminate duplicates and simplify the structure of the contact list, users can bundle multiple contact entries for

the same person into one entry in the contact list, using the Metacontact feature (similarly to

feature). Subcontacts will appear under the metacontact as small icons aligned in the form of a tree.

Activity history

[

]

Trillian Pro comes with Activity History, and both log the history as both plain

and as

files. Pro has

a History Manager that shows the chat history and allows the user to add bookmarks for revision later on. XML-based

history makes the log easy to manipulate, searchable and extendable for future functions.

Stream manipulation

[

]

Trillian Pro also has a

feature labelled 'time travel', which allows the user to record, and

subsequently review, pause, rewind, and fast forward live video and audio sessions.

SecureIM

[

]

SecureIM is an

system built into the Trillian Instant Messenger Client.

It encrypts messages from user to user, so no passively observing

between the two is supposedly able to read the

encrypted messages. SecureIM does

not

its messages, and therefore it is susceptible to active attacks

including simple forms of

According to Cerulean Studios, the makers of Trillian, SecureIM enciphers messages with 128-bit

encryption.

It only works with the

and if both chat partners use Trillian.

However, the key used for encryption is established using a

which only uses a 128 bit

prime number as modulus, which is extremely insecure and can be broken within minutes on a standard

Instant lookup

[

]

Starting with version 3.0 in both the Basic and Pro suites, Trillian makes use of the English-language version of the

free online encyclopedia for real-time referencing using its

of free knowledge. The feature is

employed directly within a conversation window of a user. When one or more words are entered (by either user),

Trillian checks all words against a database file and if a match is found, the word appears with a dotted green

underline. When users point their

over the word, the lead paragraph of the corresponding article is

from Wikipedia and displayed on screen as a

. When users click on the underlined word, they are given the

choice to visit the article

Emotiblips

[

]

Emotiblips are the video equivalent of an emoticon. During video sessions, the user may stream a song or video to the

other user in real time. One can send MP3s, WAVs, WMVs, and MPGs with this feature. QuickTime MOV files as Emotiblips

are not currently supported.

Hidden smileys

[

]

In version 2.0 to the current, the default

set contains emoticons that don't appear in the menu but can be

used in conversations. Some of these are animations that can only be viewed in Trillian Pro, but all of them can be

used regardless.

Skins and interfaces (Discontinued)

[

]

Trillian has its own unique skinning engine known as

SkinXML

. Many skins have been developed for Trillian and they can

be downloaded from the official skins gallery or

Trillian also came with an easier skinning language,

Stixe

, which is essentially a set of

Entities that simplifies

repetitive codes and allows skinners to share XML and graphics in the form of emoticon packs, sound packs and

interfaces.

The default skins of Trillian are designed by Madelena Mak. Trillian Cordillera was used in

Trillian 0.7x

, while

Trillian Whistler has been the default skin for Trillian since Pro 1.0. Small cosmetic changes were noticeable in

each major release.

The

Trillian Astra

features a brand new design for the front-end UI, named Trillian Cordonata.

Plugins (Discontinued)

[

]

Trillian is a

application, but the Pro version can be extended by

. Plugins by Cerulean Studios

itself include spell-check, weather monitor, a mini-browser (for viewing AIM profiles),

song title scroller,

stock exchange monitor,

feedreader, and conversation abilities for the Logitech G15 keyboard, as well as a plug-in

for the XMPP and Bonjour networks.

Others have developed various plug-ins, such as a

games

plug-in which can be used

to play

and

, a protocol plugin to send

messages through Trillian, a plug-in to interact with

clients, a plug-in to interact with

, a

and

email checker, or an automatic

translator for many European languages to and from English.

Trillian 5.1 for Windows and later included a plug-in that allows you to chat and make calls on Skype without Skype

being installed. As of July 2014, Skype is no longer accessible from the Trillian client, as the Skype plug-in no

longer works (some had been able to use older versions of the Trillian client, but now these also no longer work with

Skype.)

Plugins are available for free and are hosted on the official web site, but most need Trillian Pro 2+ to run.

In-Game Chat

[

]

Starting at version 5.3, Trillian users can toggle an overlay when playing a video game on the computer that allows

the user to use Trillian's chat features, in a similar vein to

's overlay chat.

When toggled, the overlay will

show the time according to the system's clock, and the chat window itself is a variation Trillian's base chat window,

with tabs used for different sets of queries and channels.

Also, when the overlay is not activated, users can view a

toggle-able sticker that tells the user how many messages are unread.

History

[

]

This article needs to be

updated

Please help update this article to reflect

recent events or newly available information.

(

March 2019

)

Early beginnings

[

]

After several internal builds, the first ever public release of Trillian, version

0.50

, was available on July 1, 2000,

and was designed to be an IRC client. The release was deemed 'too buggy' and was immediately pulled off the shelf and

replaced by a new version

0.51

on the same day. It featured a simple Connection Manager and skinned windows.

A month later, two minor builds were released with additional IRC features and bug fixes. Despite these efforts,

Trillian was not popular, as reflected in the number of downloads from CNET's Download.com.

[

]

Trillian was a

at that time. They used

for receiving donations through their web site.

Introduction of interoperability

[

]

Version

0.6

, released November 29, 2000, represented a major change in the direction of development, when the client

became able to connect to AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ and MSN Messenger simultaneously in one window.

Although similar products, such as

and

, already existed, Trillian was novel in the way that it

distinguished contacts from different IM services clearly on the contact list, and it did not require registration of

a proprietary account. It also did not lose connection easily like the other clients.

[

]

A month later, Yahoo! Messenger support was introduced in Trillian

0.61

, and it also featured a holiday skin for

Christmas. Meanwhile, the Trillian community forums were opened to the public.

During this period, new versions were released frequently, attracting many enthusiasts to the community. Skinning

activity boomed and fan sites were created. A skinning contest was held on

in Summer, and the winner was

selected to design the default skin for the next version of Trillian. Trillian hit 100,000 downloads on August 14,

2001.

Entry into mainstream and the "IM Wars"

[

]

Contrary to the anticipation for version "0.64" in the community, the next version of Trillian was numbered

0.70

. It

was released December 5, 2001. Development took five months, considerably longer than development of prior builds.

The new version implemented file transfer in all IM services, a feature most requested by the community at the time.

It also represented a number of skin language changes. It used the contact list as the main window (as opposed to a

status window 'container' in prior versions) and featured a brand new default skin,

Trillian Cordillera

, and an

emoticon set boasting over 100 emoticons, setting a record apart from other messengers available at that time.

Version

0.71

was released on December 18, 2001. It supported AIM group chats and was the first major IM client which

included the ability to encrypt messages with SecureIM.

In the following months, the number of downloads of Trillian surged, reaching 1 million on 27 January 2002, and 5

million within 6 months. Trillian received coverage and favorable reviews from mainstream media worldwide,

particularly by

and

. The lead developer and co-founder, Scott Werndorfer, was also interviewed on

AOL became aware that Trillian users were able to chat with their AIM buddies without having to download the AIM

client, and on January 28, 2002, AOL blocked SecureIM access from Trillian clients.

Cerulean appeared to have

circumvented the block with version

0.721

of its client software, released one day later. This "AOL War" continued for

the next couple of weeks, with Cerulean releasing subsequent patches

0.722

0.723

and

0.724

Trillian appeared in the

Internet audience ratings in February 2002 with 344,000 unique users, and

grew to 610,000 by April 2002. While those numbers are very small compared to the major IM networks, Jupiter said

Trillian consistently ranks highest according to the number of average minutes spent per month.

Trillian also created a special version for

Commercialisation with Trillian Pro

[

]

On September 9, 2002, a commercial version,

Trillian Pro 1.0

, was released concurrently with

Trillian Basic 0.74

. The

commercial version was sold for $25 US for a year of subscription, but all those who donated to the development of

Trillian before were eligible to a year of subscription at no cost.

The new version had added SMS and mobile messaging abilities,

support, pop-up e-mail alerts

and new plug-ins to shuttle news, weather and stock quotes directly to buddy lists.

It appeared Trillian Pro would be marketed to corporate clients looking to keep in touch with suppliers or customers

via a secured, interoperable IM network, and a relatively stern user interface. The company had no venture capital

backing, and had depended entirely on donations from users to stay alive.

Trillian Pro 1.0 was nominated and picked among three other nominees as the Best Internet Communication shareware in

its debut year of being a "try before you buy" shareware.

On April 26, 2003, total downloads of Trillian reached ten million.

Blocking from Yahoo! and cooperation with Gaim

[

]

A few weeks after

Trillian Pro 2.0

was released,

attempted to block Trillian from connecting to its service

in their "efforts to implement preventative measures to protect our users from potential spammers." A few patches were

released by the Trillian developers, which resolved the issue.

The Trillian developers assisted its open-source cross-platform rival

in solving the Yahoo! connection issues.

, the developer of Gaim, posted in its site, "Our friends over at Cerulean Studios managed to break my speed

record at cracking Yahoo! authentication schemes with an impressive feat of hackery. They sent it over and here it is

in Gaim 0.70." It was later revealed that the developers were friends and had helped each other on past occasions.

Meanwhile, as Microsoft forced its users to upgrade to MSN Messenger 5.0 for upgrades in their servers for security

issues,

October 15, 2003 also would mark the deadline for Trillian support for MSN Messenger. However, it appeared

that Cerulean Studios worked with

to resolve the issue on August 2, 2003, long before the deadline.

On March 7, 2004, and June 23, 2004, Yahoo! changed its instant messaging language again to prevent third-party

services, such as Trillian, from accessing its service. Like prior statements, the company said the block is meant as

a pre-emptive measure against spammers.

Cerulean Studios released a few patches to fix the issues within a day or

two.

Trillian 3 Series

[

]

In August 2004, a new official

was created in attempt to rebuild connections between the Studios and its

customers. Trillian 3 was announced in the blog, and a sneak preview was made available to a small group of testers.

After months of beta-testing, the final build of Trillian 3 was released on December 18, 2004, with features such as

new video and audio chat abilities throughout AIM, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger, an enhanced logging manager and

integration with the Wikipedia online encyclopedia. It also featured a clean and re-organized user interface and a

brand new official web site.

The release also updated the long-abandoned

Trillian Basic .74

to match the new user interface and functionalities as

Trillian Basic 3.0

. The number of accumulated downloads of Trillian Basic in Download.com hit 20 million within a

matter of weeks.

Trillian 3.1

was released February 23, 2005. It included new features such as

(UPnP) and

multiple identities support.

On June 10, 2011, all instances of Trillian 3 Basic got an automatic upgrade to Trillian 3 Pro, free of charge.

U3 and Google Pack

[

]

A version of Trillian that could run on

USB flash drives was released on October 21, 2005. Trillian could previously

be run from generic flash drives or other storage devices with some minor unofficial modifications, known as "Trillian

Anywhere".

version of Trillian Astra is also posted on the official Cerulean Studios forum.

On January 6, 2006,

, President of Products at

, announced

, a bundle of various

applications including

Trillian Basic 3.0

as "a free collection of safe, useful software from Google and other

companies that improves the user experience online and on the desktop".

According to the Cerulean Studios blog, Trillian was discontinued from Google Pack on 19 May 2006.

The inclusion of Trillian in Google Pack was perplexing to some media analysts as Google had at the time its own

service which touted the benefits of an open IM system. The free Trillian Basic client could not be used

with Google Talk, however, the paid Trillian Pro was listed as one of the "client choices" in the Google Talk client

choices list

until Google Talk was replaced by Google Hangouts in May 2013.

Trillian Astra (Trillian 4)

[

]

More than a year after the release of

Trillian 3.1

, the Cerulean Studios blog began spreading news again and announced

the next version of Trillian, to be named

Trillian Astra

The name for version 4,

Astra

, is the nickname used by the

same fictional character that is the namesake of the software, which is a reference to

. The new release claimed to be faster and include a new login screen. A new domain, www.trillianastra.com, was

disclosed to the public, with only the logo and blue background. On July 3, 2009, Cerulean Studios reopened the premium

web version of Astra to public testing. On August 14, 2009, Cerulean Studios released the final gold build.

Trillian

has its own social network named Astra Network, in which users who have Astra ID can communicate with each other on

the network regardless of platform.

Cerulean Studios later registered a new domain, www.trillian.im, to provide a more

user-friendly experience.

On November 18, 2009, the first mobile version of Trillian was launched for iPhone. As of 2010, final builds for

, and

were available for their markets (

and

respectively).

Trillian initially cost US$4.99 but became free of charge, supported by ads, in 2011.

As of August 2010, the

version was in beta testing.

Trillian 5

[

]

This section needs to be

updated

Please help update this article to reflect

recent events or newly available information.

(

September 2014

)

On August 2, 2010, Trillian 5.0 was released as a public beta. Newer features included a resize-able interface, History

synchronization, a new

inspired interface with Windows theme integration, new "marble-like" icons for service

providers, the option to revert to the Trillian 3 & 4 interfaces, and a new social network interface window were

introduced. Along with Trillian 5.0 For

and the aforementioned Mac beta. As of 2010, the Android and

BlackBerry OS final builds were available on their respective markets for free.

OpenCandy

[

]

Included with the installation of Trillian 5.0 was a program called

which some security programs,

including

, classed as

OpenCandy was removed shortly after on May 5, 2011.

Trillian 6

[

]

This section needs to be

updated

Please help update this article to reflect

recent events or newly available information.

(

April 2019

)

On January 8, 2016, Trillian 6 was released.

Loss of networks

[

]

Trillian has stopped attempting to work around the systems to make their client work with other networks.

They have

also not done any development to integrate support for any of the newer networks.

Instead they urge people to use their

own IM service instead.

As Yahoo! has decided to shut down the legacy

clients and servers, Trillian and all other clients

are no longer able to connect to Yahoo! Messenger as of August 31, 2016.

As AOL has decided to shut down the

network, Trillian, and all other clients are no longer able to connect to

AIM as of December 15, 2017.

has decided to disable support for third party IM clients, Trillian is no longer able to connect to ICQ as

of April 1, 2019.

The ICQ service was shut down on June 26, 2024.

accounts were also able to be used as

accounts, when Microsoft Acquired Skype in 2011, but could still

use the service at that time.

The service was shut down in 2013.

As (Microsoft)

has decided to disable support for third party IM clients, Trillian is no longer able to

connect to Skype in 2013.

has shut down, Trillian is no longer able to connect to the service, as of June 16, 2022.