<p>Suggested options: ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!, Gtalk.
Addtional options are welcomed.</p>
<p>use whatever your friends are useing...or get an application which can be used for all of the different networks.</p>
<p>Pidgin,</p>
<p>that way I can use Gtalk, AIM, MSN, IRC all in one program.</p>
<p>trillian is also pretty good</p>
<p>I have them all, but mainly use aim and fb chat</p>
<p>client: pidgin</p>
<p>Trillian Astra supports just about anything I throw at it.</p>
<p>If you're on a mac, then either adium or ichat (personal preference). Apparently pidgin is the windows-equivalent of adium (so I'm told) so that gives you an idea.</p>
<p>I use adium.</p>
<p>AIM, been using it since 8th grade.</p>
<p>i used to use aim, before that it was msn, but now i just use facebook chat, it has glitches pretty often but i like using it lol</p>
<p>I use AIM. Exclusively. Sometimes I use Gchat when I'm in my Gmail folder, but mostly just AIM.</p>
<p>I have an aim and I use it with adium, but the aim network is so flaky that I try to use gtalk when possible</p>
<p>Is IMing really that popular in college? In high school it seems no one uses IM anymore... it's all texting. I guess it changes when you go to college?</p>
<p>it might be a generational thing ZFanatic or maybe just your school. in college both are used frequently.</p>
<p>I just use AIM.</p>
<p>AIM, because all my friends use it.</p>
<p>Trillian is great</p>
<p>Pidgin is awesome. It lets you use a bunch of IMs (like MSN and AIM) at once. I like it better than Trillian.</p>
<p>I suppose my "main" IM is MSN, though.</p>
<p>Generally, the "main" IM protocol to use is basically the one that most of your friends are using. You convert your friends to whichever one you're using, or reluctantly switch. When one IM protocol gains a sort of "critical mass", it becomes the "main" protocol for that group. Most of my friends use MSN, but I'm told by a friend who's off to college that most of her friends are on AIM, so she never uses MSN anymore. Just one example.</p>
<p>Anyway, most of the time I'm on Arch Linux, so I use Pidgin for my IM needs. =P</p>
<p>I'd much rather use my laptop with full keyboard rather than try and text on my phone. Plus, you don't have to pay any company ridiculous overpriced rates for text services.</p>
<p>AIM FTW!</p>
<p>Also, meebo.com is a great site for you instant messengers.</p>
<p>its web based and allows you to log in tons of instant messengers at once.</p>