Windows only 
A few months ago we tried out Digsby, and our verdict was that it’s one of the best cross-network messenger clients available. The only downside was that when it came to the performance of Digsby things weren’t so pleasant. Some of the commenters on our article noticed RAM usage spiking to 70MB and above as they were using the program, and this disappointed a lot of people since they liked the appearance and functionality of the messenger.
I’ve been closely following the Digsby blog, and they posted some great news last Friday night. Right now they are preparing for a major new release that has both performance and RAM optimizations that should solve the remaining qualms. This all comes due to a reworking of the application’s architecture, which I’m very grateful for!
My first-hand experience is that the new version cut my memory usage by over 50% as seen in the screenshot above. I use Google Talk, Windows Live, and Twitter services with Digsby, and overall it only used about 27MB of my memory. That’s not bad considering the previous release ate up over 50MB with the same accounts.
Before we tell you how you can get this pre-release version checkout what the developers had to say about this big milestone:
- RAM Optimization: Many people have reported that Digsby is taking 70MB – 110MB during normal use. If you leave Digsby running for a while, the memory leaks caused RAM usage to climb to 150MB+ on some systems. We completely reworked the architecture to use less memory and also improved the memory management by releasing objects when they are no longer needed. We also hunted down and eliminated numerous memory leaks. All in all, these changes lower Digsby’s RAM usage by over 50%. It should now hover in the 20MB – 50MB range depending on how many accounts you have and what you are doing at the moment. There is still more we can do and our goal is to get RAM utilization down even further!
- Performance: The changes in architecture improved the performance of simple user interface elements like buttons and menus; they now draw 2x – 3x faster! Digsby should be much more responsive now than ever before. However, while this build focused on RAM optimization, the next 1-2 builds will have a strong focus on improving “perceived performance” even more, including things like GUI response time, CPU utilization, etc.
- Firewalls and Proxy Servers: Those who have not been able to use MSN or other IM protocols due to firewall/proxy restrictions should now be able to connect without any issues.
- Crash Reporter: The new release includes a crash reporter that will ask you whether you want to send a crash log to us if Digsby should crash.
- Bug Fixes + Enhancements: Over the past two months we have added a large number of bug fixes and enhancements. There are too many to list here but we will include a full Change Log when the release is pushed to everyone.
You can grab a “testers only” version of the new Digsby from their forum, but be aware that it might not be stable (I didn’t have any problems with it though). They plan to have a full public release soon, but I’m sure some of you won’t want to wait. 
Whoa? since when is digsby windows only? I dont know if the newest update that cut the memory usage in half was windows only, but digsby itself definitely is not windows only, hope you clarify this so that people wont be left out if they are linux or mac users.
i switched to digsby from pidgin, which uses half the memory of digsby. The reason I switched was twitter and the pop-up notifications for IM which allow you to reply in them.
Digsby is currently Windows only. They do have plans to make a Mac and Linux version, but it’s currently not available. So I wanted to be sure to point that out, because last time I wrote an article on Digsby I made the mistake of saying it was available for all of the operating systems already.
I was one of the few who saw their memory increase to 70MB. I even provided some feedback to the Digsby developers.
The Digsby site states that memory usage should now be around 20-50MB. That is still a lot, no matter how many accounts you have. People think that in our age where PCs come with a minimum of 1GB RAM, 50 MBs is not a lot. Well, sorry this is just an excuse by developers (see for example Firefox). On the contrary, exactly because in our age technology and programming techniques advance so much, smart software should keep up with that.
Look at Miranda for instance, I have 3 accounts and it never exceeds 11MBs!!! Pidgin is around 20MBs.
@cody: With 3 accounts you will be under 20MB. We said 20MB – 50MB because a lot of people (surprisingly) have 10-15 accounts and it will get close to 50MB with that many accounts.
But do file transfers work?
I’ve played with Digsby a few times, and I really like it, but file transfers hardly ever work (same complaint for Pidgin and Miranda too really).
I’m forced to stick to official clients for working file transfers which I use alot.
I don’t think I’ve come across a messenger service that does support all of the different file transfers out there. A lot of the problem lies in the fact that each service uses a different way to send the files. There needs to be some kind of universal method that everyone uses, but we all know that will never happen.
Anyone know how they connect to Google Talk? Are they using a secure port for at least the authentication, preferably the chatting as well?
Anyone know if Digsby is compatible with Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 (LCS)?
Ok, cool. Must have missed it… Thanks for clarifying, but I guess it might be a good idea to add that there is a linux/mac version coming soon?
love your blog btw.
Also, Change, for googletalk, just click add IM account, then put in your gmail account and password.
I dont really use filetransfer in my IM, I use IM purely for text… but I understand, as I had to use it once or twice, and you are right, pidgin and probably digsby and the rest of the bunch dont work as well as the official clients for transfers. But if you need multiple clients to just talk with people on different networks just doesnt make sense to me. Plus I am for open source and prefer using open source solutions if they are on par or better than the closed source solutions. For example, I prefer using microsoft office for as my office program rather than open office because as much as open office is getting better it still isnt as good as MS office. But firefox is definitely better than both safari and IE7, though, if i had a mac, i might use safari just as often as firefox.
Ryan, what wordpress plugin are you using to do the “type into the field for span protection”? thanks.
What I hate about Digsby is that you have to open an account on their site that contains all your logins.
Since my Google account is used for more than just a chat program, I’d like to make sure it’s protected well. I know I can just fill it in, but it doesn’t tell me if it’s well protected or sent over the net in plain text. I suppose I’ll have to use a throwaway Google account and find a program that can track which ports are used on my computer, and which URLs contacted, to see how that works (or perhaps I can find out if they’re using the Google API, which should also make it safer).
I think that they way they do it is via the jabber protocol, which is how google says you can add google talk to pidgin. just digsby automated it, so that you dont have to manually add the jabber account and all the stuff you need to just, but i could be wrong.
Yeah, I guess the use of a cross-platform toolkit like wxWidgets for the interface and other things also imposes a certain memory penalty in Digsby, unlike Miranda which uses the Windows API exclusively. Besides, Miranda is built for extensibility, while Digsby has everything and the kitchen sink out of the box. Essentially, they cater to different audiences.
AFAIK, all the logins to Google’s Jabber servers for GTalk are made over an encrypted channel (SSL).
No plugin… it’s just a system I built on my own. It’s only got a small database of words that I came up with while sitting at home looking around the room.
Yeah, it’s not optimal, but there is a benefit to that. Any computer you install Digsby on only takes one login to access all of your accounts. For people who have 10 or 15 different accounts this is a huge convenience.
That’s what I was thinking. I’m pretty sure it’s all secure, but I’d have to imagine that the Digsby developers would know the answer to that. You should shoot them a message.
I think I already did quite a while ago but never got an answer. Thanks for your comment Lashiec, that sounds good
Well, I don’t.
I for one think you should be able to opt out from this.
Hey, do you use twitter? because it seems that the digsby twitter account will respond to you very quickly, so, you can ask them.