Trillian Astra sports a modern look–but Trillian's skins have never failed to impress.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)
The first of the multi-protocol chat clients, Trillian got its start nine years ago and had been updated with some regularity through 2005 and 2006. It was included in the Google Pack, a collection of freeware that Google was supporting. On the heels of Trillian 3.1, Cerulean Studios announced that Trillian 4, code-named Astra, was in development, and would finally port the service to Mac and Linux.
Except for the occasional minor announcement, that was the last big news about Trillian. Competition from more frequently-updated services like Pidgin, Digsby, and Adium has drawn away fans, but now there’s a private beta of Astra that seems to be accepting invitation requests from everybody who wants one. You can sign up for the Astra beta here–let us know if you don’t get an invite, because it seems that Cerulean is taking all comers.
Back when it was announced, Astra sounded great. Support for even more chat protocols, better encryption protection, and a downloadable contact list were just a few of the tantalizing features. Facebook integration was added to the list, eventually, but by that time many users had moved on. Astra, as it stands now, is good at what it does–but the competition has caught up.
It does everything that it should do at this point. It services multiple chat protocol, including mainstream services like Yahoo, AOL, Google, and ICQ. MySpaceIM is supported, and Skype is included, but requires the program to be running before it can be accessed through Astra–just as Skype does with other multi-chat apps. It includes POP3 and IMAP account notifications rolled in alongside the Facebook and webmail notices.
There are other useful tweaks and changes. By default, a pop-up will appear when you receive a chat. Click on it once and you’ll see two options, one for a standard Reply and the other for a Quick Reply. The Quick Reply will open a text field in the pop-up that you can write your response in, while hitting Reply will bring up the main chat window. Video chat and webcam support are supported by default, and three view modes are available for changing up your chat window appearance.
The main chat window can feature individual contacts or chats grouped in a tab, as well as three styles for viewing the chat text itself.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)
Astra is extensible, and impressively only crashed once, when I was jumping from a Gmail notification to the actual mail message. When you install though, don’t just cruise through the process on auto-pilot or you’ll wind up with the Weather Channel toolbar and the Ask.com toolbar. Two other problems stuck out: the news ticker that appears at the top of the chat window can’t be removed or even configured to run headlines that are useful to you, and the search function in the Options menu doesn’t work. This makes it difficult to navigate through the overhaul, since many features have changed in the update.
It feels faster and smoother than previous versions of Trillian, but that’s the least it should be, considering when its last update happened. The Astra skin feels slick and modern, but it can be a bit irritating at first as important features blend into the background because of a lack of contrasting colors. Overall, the experience feels smoother than I remember Trillian being, although I probably haven’t touched it in about two years.
Trillian Astra is a good chat client, and it doesn’t suffer from a “too little, too late” syndrome. This is a solid, modern multi-chat client. The question that won’t be answered until it finally comes out, though, is whether anyone still cares.
The rest is here:
Trillian Astra’s still alive, beta available
