{"slug": "trillian", "name": "Trillian", "category": "communication", "category_name": "Email and chat", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 2.684, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2025-11-15", "latest": "2026-04-11", "why": "you could use 3rd party apps like Trillian and Pidgin instead of the official clients", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [1, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "you could use 3rd party apps like Trillian and Pidgin instead of the official clients", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://trillian.im", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Trillian"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 737728801, "item_id": 46108050, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46108050", "by": "pogue", "date": "2025-12-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We need a modern Trillian or Pidgin that just connects to and talks to everything", "excerpt": "I'm sick of having so many different messaging apps. Everyone is using a different one, so you have to download another app, signup for something, figure out how to configure it & etc etc. We need a modern Trillian or Pidgin that just connects to and talks to everything. To be fair, Pidgin still has lots of plugins for many different chat protocols. I don't know how well maintained they are and if they work consisten", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "WhatsApp will become interoperable with other messaging apps in Europe"}, {"id": 735006096, "item_id": 45937881, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45937881", "by": "jlarocco", "date": "2025-11-15", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you could use 3rd party apps like Trillian and Pidgin instead of the official clients", "excerpt": "I don't know. I use the Linux and Windows clients, and to me they feel the same. They're not great, but I wouldn't say one is worse. In fact, I'd say all of the modern chat apps are pretty much equally terrible. They're all proprietary, bloated, web apps with terrible clients that people only use because they have to for work. Chat apps peaked in the early 2000s when the protocols were more open and you could use 3rd", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Unofficial Microsoft Teams client for Linux"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["irc client", "unified multi-network chat"], "compared": [{"slug": "pidgin", "name": "Pidgin", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46107109", "title": "WhatsApp will become interoperable with other messaging apps in Europe", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47724118", "title": "Installing Every* Firefox Extension", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45808407", "title": "Unofficial Microsoft Teams client for Linux", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 763767234, "item_id": 47735452, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47735452", "by": "6510", "date": "2026-04-11", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "configuring trillian reading irc out loud", "excerpt": "There use to be lots of \"handy\" programs and toolbars for windows xp and internet explorer. You know, the kind of things no one in their right mind would install. I think people learned to code and wanted to make something? My theory was that if you are going to make something you will at least try to make something useful. The free extra toolbar, context or menu button will need some selling point. So I did what eve", "context": "", "use_case": "IRC client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Installing Every* Firefox Extension"}, {"id": 737873568, "item_id": 46117098, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46117098", "by": "hshdhdhj4444", "date": "2025-12-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "In the 90s and early 2000s, my MSN (personal chats with people I knew IRL), Yahoo Chat (chats with people I met in Yahoo Games), ICQ (strangers all over the world) all were different personas and server different purposes. And yet using those different chat services would have been unimaginable if it wasn\u2019t for Trillian and then later Adium when I moved to a Mac. Combining them into a single app with a singular UI, t", "context": "", "use_case": "Unified multi-network chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "WhatsApp will become interoperable with other messaging apps in Europe"}, {"id": 737728801, "item_id": 46108050, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46108050", "by": "pogue", "date": "2025-12-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We need a modern Trillian or Pidgin that just connects to and talks to everything", "excerpt": "I'm sick of having so many different messaging apps. Everyone is using a different one, so you have to download another app, signup for something, figure out how to configure it & etc etc. We need a modern Trillian or Pidgin that just connects to and talks to everything. To be fair, Pidgin still has lots of plugins for many different chat protocols. I don't know how well maintained they are and if they work consisten", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "WhatsApp will become interoperable with other messaging apps in Europe"}, {"id": 735006096, "item_id": 45937881, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45937881", "by": "jlarocco", "date": "2025-11-15", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you could use 3rd party apps like Trillian and Pidgin instead of the official clients", "excerpt": "I don't know. I use the Linux and Windows clients, and to me they feel the same. They're not great, but I wouldn't say one is worse. In fact, I'd say all of the modern chat apps are pretty much equally terrible. They're all proprietary, bloated, web apps with terrible clients that people only use because they have to for work. Chat apps peaked in the early 2000s when the protocols were more open and you could use 3rd", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Unofficial Microsoft Teams client for Linux"}]}