Instan-T Multi-Client Messenger Review

Instan-T is a Multi-Client Messenger program integrating Yahoo, WLM, AOL, Google Talk and ICQ Clients. Version 5.0 can be downloaded from the Instan-T website.

Install was easy and quick. And registering as a new user was painless enough. My contacts for all the supported clients was simple as well. I don't have ICQ but AOL/ICQ were listed together. I imported AOL/Yahoo/WLM and Google Talk contacts. I was able to show all or only online contacts which was nice, and you can keep them grouped by client or disassociate them. You can also broadcast your cam as your display pic if you choose to do so. There are however only two current skins to choose from. One slightly interesting feature is the notification sounds. They are either on or off, but they are definitely different - I won't ruin the surprise on that one...

Another major nice thing was you can show or hide the ads. What a novel concept! And if you go to the "mini" screen it takes off all the extraneous stuff and shows just your contact list in a very nice compact little moveable screen.

I was able to test text messaging with Yahoo and WLM no troubles at all. Although figuring out how to start a voice conversation was a bit of a challenge. After clicking on most everything on the main contact listing, I finally noticed a small Yahoo smilie that had a drop down arrow in text that enabled 1-1 voice which worked quite nicely. From that same drop down I was able to start a multi person voice conversation which sent a link to my contact. Now that I've had time to explore it a little more - right clicking on the contact brings up the same type of menu and is far easier.

We were successful in getting two Yahoo users, and another WLM user on into one conference and we were all able to talk. I was the only one with a webcam, and since mine is integrated in my laptop it was on when I accepted letting Flash run. I couldn't find a way to disable the video though once I started it. For external cam users that would be no big deal but for an internal cam it's a pain - but it's the same with most flash based sites so it's not a drawback of the program.

The voice quality was fine, although a bit quiet. I had my sound adjusted all the way up on my system and in the program and had difficulty hearing. My contacts however said it seemed fine, so perhaps it was a Flash setting on my end that I need to investigate. It was convenient to be able to see who was speaking, or a message that said no one was speaking and I was free to talk. However, I did notice a slight lag when a contact would "push to talk" and the time I actually heard them speaking. It was quite tolerable however. Just like Yahoo voice conference, there was text available to all contacts as well.

All in all, I was reasonably impressed with it. The voice conference was not as good as Yahoo voice conference, but better than what I've experienced on multi person Skype chats. The 1-1 voice was just as good as any of them. From a multi client side of things it seems to work very well. It's certainly worth testing out.