is a
Multiprotocol Instant Messaging Application for
Windows created by
Cerulean Studios that can connect to multiple IM programs from one client, such as
AIM ,
ICQ ,
MSN Messenger ,
Yahoo! Messenger ,
IRC ,
Novell GroupWise Messenger,
Bonjour ,
Jabber , and
Skype networks (the latter four with Trillian Pro which allows for additonal plugins).
Initially released
July 1 2000 as a
Freeware IRC client, the first commercial version (Trillian Pro 1.0) was published on
September 10 ,
2002 . Trillian's creators have promised to continue to support and maintain a free version of Trillian, and it will remain a
Closed-source application.
The program was named after
Trillian , a
Fictional Character in ''
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy '' by
Douglas Adams .
Trillian is a closed-source application, but the Pro version can be extended by
Plugin s. Plugins by Cerulean Studios itself include spell-check, weather updater, a mini-browser (for viewing AIM profiles), e-mail checker,
Winamp song title scroller, stock exchange monitor, and
RSS feedreader, as well as a plugin for the Jabber and Bonjour networks. Others have developed various plugins, such as a ''games'' plugin which can be used to play
Chess and
Checkers , a protocol plugin to send
NetBIOS messages through Trillian, a plugin to interact with
Lotus Sametime clients, a plugin to interact with
Microsoft Exchange , a
POP3 and
IMAP email checker, or an automatic translator for many European languages to and from English. There is a plugin to interact with
Skype ,
SkyLlian , but it needs Skype to be installed in order to be used.
Plugins are available for free and are hosted at the main Trillian website and on the Trillian members plugin forum, but will only work with the Pro version of Trillian.
Trillian represents each client 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 for the mediums.
- Indicates that a plugin and Trillian Pro are needed)
Trillian Basic and Pro both come with Activity History. Basic logs the history as
Text Files . Pro has a History Manager which shows the chat history and saves it as
XML -files (as well as plain text files). It 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.
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Trillian Pro also has the so-called
Time Travel feature, allowing the user to record, and subsequently review, pause, rewind and fast forward live video and audio sessions.
Starting with version 3.0 in both the Basic and Pro suites, Trillian makes use of the English version of the
Wikipedia free online encyclopedia for real-time referencing using its
Database 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 the user points their
Mouse over the word, the corresponding article is
Downloaded from Wikipedia and displayed on screen as a tooltip. When the user clicks on the underlined word, they are given the choice to visit the article
Online . This easy access to information creates an impression of omniscience within an instant message window, a condition jokingly referred to as
Trilliscience .
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.
In version 2.0 to the current, the default emoticon 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 appreciated in Trillian Pro, but all of them can be used regardless. A few such emoticons are:
- (woot) - A little smiley leaping into the air and waving his hand.
- (dance) - A smiley doing the victory dance.
- (cheer) - A smiley waving his hands up and down as though cheering.
- (worship) - A smiley doing the 'I'm not worthy!' bow.
- (angel) - A smiley with wings and a halo.
- (devil) - A smiley with bat wings and horns.
- (santa) - A smiley resembling santa.
- (hug) - One smiley hugging another.
- (handshake) - One smilie shaking hands with another.
A comprehensive list of smileys can be found
here .
Initial Release, 0.50 of Trillian as an IRC client.
Version 0.52 released with more IRC-specific features.
Version 0.60 released with AIM, ICQ and MSN support. Many other features were also added.
Version 0.61 released. Includes Yahoo! Messenger support.
Version 0.62 released.
Version 0.63 released.
Version 0.635 released.
Version 0.6351 released.
Version 0.70 released. Initial support for file transfers.
Version 0.71 released. As first major IM client, Trillian included the ability to encrypt messages.
Versions 0.72x released. Fixed AIM connection problems.
Version 0.73 released.
Version 0.74 released.
Trillian Pro version 1.0 released.
Trillian Pro version 2.0 released.
Trillian Basic and Pro versions 3.0 released.
Trillian Basic and Pro versions 3.1 released.
New version of Trillian to be released (as confirmed by Scott Werndorfer on
The Cerulean Studios' Blog ).
