Digsby is hands-down my favorite instant messenger on Windows not only because it works on all the major networks, but also because it is well designed. When we first covered the messenger some of you were a little hesitant to use it because of the excessive amounts of memory it chewed up (upwards of 70MB), but you’ll be happy to hear that the Digsby team has taken your criticism to heart!
According to a recent blog post the next release, which should be available in about a week, will include memory leak fixes, a “major reduction” in memory usage, and a more responsive interface. There’s no doubt that users will be applauding the developers if the performance improvements really are this significant.
Also by reading through the comments on that article I was able to grab some things that the developer said will be coming in future versions:
- Group chat support
- Direct Connect with AIM users
- Portable version of Digsby
- Skype support
- IRC support
- Mac version (they are already working on it now)
- An option to disable smilies or download other emoticon sets
- An API so that users can make their own themes, and then upload them to a website for everyone to download
Exciting, huh? It’s nice to see someone taking the time to develop a cross-network messenger application that has the features users actually find useful. When the new version comes out we’ll be sure to keep you updated, and and will also let you know if the performance improvements are as good as they say they are.
Digsby Homepage [via Webware]

I used to use desktop messengers (like AIM and MSN and even Google Talk for a short while) but I got so used to meebo for its convenience and that fact that it doesn’t take up any space on my hdd (except my browser’s cache) that I won’t be switching back from the web-based messenger arena.
Are there any IM programs that let you be logged into to more than 1 IM program at the same time? I use multiple computers and miss messages because of being on a different system. I appears it may the server that does this. Thanks.
Thats great news! I’ll have to try the new version when it comes out.
I wish they make Yahoo work from behind a corporate proxy.
Excellent app! Already using it as my IM client and email notifier. Thanks!
Does it support secure connections with Google yet?
I’ve tried web-based messengers, but I hate that I always need to have my browser open in order to receive messages. Plus I don’t get nice notifications then.
Unfortunately that’s something the service providers would have to allow. I’m pretty sure that Windows Live Messenger 9 Beta allows multiple connections to the MSN servers, and so this might be something Digsby (and others) will be able to do in the future.
That’s coming in the next release as well. They say that it will work behind a corporate firewall or proxy.
I didn’t know that it didn’t use a secure connection with Google, so I’m not sure if that’s been fixed.
can we make calls using digsby?
I can’t wait for Digsby Portable version… to use at sites that do not allow installation of programs! The sooner the better!