Trillian (software)
Trillian is a
proprietary multiprotocol instant messaging application for
Windows,
Mac OS X,
Android,
iOS,
BlackBerry OS, and the Web, created by
Cerulean Studios. It can connect to multiple IM services, such as
AIM,
ICQ,
Windows Live Messenger,
Yahoo! Messenger,
IRC,
Novell GroupWise Messenger,
Bonjour,
XMPP, and
Skype networks; as well as
social networking sites, such as
Facebook,
Twitter and
MySpace; and
email services, such as
POP3,
IMAP,
Gmail,
Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail.
Initially released July 1, 2000, as a
freeware IRC client, the first commercial version
(Trillian Pro 1.0) was published on September 10, 2002. The program was named after
Trillian, a
fictional character in
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by
Douglas Adams. The
old version of the official web site even used to have a shrine to Douglas Adams on its front page.
On August 14, 2009,
Trillian Astra (4.0) for Windows was released, along with its own
Astra network. Trillian Astra has a free version, and a premium version with extra features.
On November 18, 2009, the first mobile version of Trillian was launched for iPhone. As of 2010, final builds for
Android,
BlackBerry, and
Apple iOS were available for their markets (
Market,
App World and
App Store respectively) was $4.99 USD. Trillian was initially a paid app but is now free of charge.
Trillian 5 for Windows was released in May 2011.
Features
Connection to multiple IM services
Trillian connects to multiple instant messaging services without the
need of running multiple clients. Users can create multiple connections
to the same service, and can also group connections under separate
identities to prevent confusion. All contacts are gathered under the
same contact list. Contacts are not bound to their own IM service
groups, and can be dragged and dropped freely.
Trillian represents each service 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. The Trillian designers chose a
color-coding scheme based on the
underground maps used by the
London Underground that uses different colors to differentiate between different lines.
IM services
Mail services
A White Envelope for POP emails
a Manila Envelope for IMAP emails
a Teal Envelope for Twitter
Prior versions of Trillian supported:
Metacontact
To eliminate duplicates and simplify the structure of the contact
list, users can bundle multiple contact entries for the same person into
one entry in the contact list, using the Metacontact feature (similarly
to
Ayttm's fallback messaging feature). Subcontacts will appear under the metacontact as small icons aligned in a manner of a tree.
Activity history
Trillian Pro comes with Activity History, and both log the history as both plain
text files and as
XML
files. Pro has a History Manager that shows the chat history and 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.
Stream manipulation
Trillian Pro also has a stream manipulation feature labelled 'time
travel', which allows the user to record, and subsequently review,
pause, rewind, and fast forward live video and audio sessions.
SecureIM
SecureIM is an
encryption system built into the Trillian Instant Messenger Client.
It encrypts messages from user-to-user, so no passively observing
node between the two is supposedly able to read the encrypted messages. SecureIM does
not authenticate its messages, and therefore it is susceptible to active attacks including simple forms of
man-in-the-middle attacks.
According to
Cerulean Studios, the makers of Trillian, SecureIM enciphers messages with 128-bit
Blowfish encryption. It only works with the
OSCAR protocol and if both chat partners use Trillian.
However, the key used for encryption is established using a
Diffie–Hellman key exchange which only uses a 128 bit prime number as modulus, which is extremely insecure and can be broken within minutes on a standard
PC.
Instant lookup
Starting with version 3.0 in both the Basic and Pro suites, Trillian makes use of the English-language 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
users point their
mouse over the word, the lead paragraph of the corresponding article is
downloaded from Wikipedia and displayed on screen as a
tooltip. When users click on the underlined word, they are given the choice to visit the article
online.
Emotiblips
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.
Hidden smileys
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 viewed in
Trillian Pro, but all of them can be used regardless.
Skins and interfaces
Trillian has its own unique skinning engine known as
SkinXML. Many skins have been developed for Trillian and they can be downloaded from the official skins gallery or
deviantArt.
Trillian also came with an easier skinning language,
Stixe, which is essentially a set of
XML
Entities that simplifies repetitive codes and allows skinners to share
XML and graphics in the form of emoticon packs, sound packs and
interfaces.
The default skins of Trillian are designed by designHazard. Trillian Cordillera was used in
Trillian 0.7x,
while Trillian Whistler has been the default skin for Trillian since
Pro 1.0. Small cosmetic changes were noticeable in each major release.
The
Trillian Astra features a brand new design for the front-end UI, named Trillian Cordonata.
Plugins
Trillian is a
closed-source application, but the Pro version can be extended by
plugins. Plugins by Cerulean Studios itself include spell-check, weather monitor, a mini-browser (for viewing AIM profiles),
Winamp song title scroller, stock exchange monitor,
RSS
feedreader, and conversation abilities for the Logitech G15 keyboard,
as well as a plugin for the XMPP and Bonjour networks. Trillian 5.1 for
Windows and later includes a plugin that allows you to chat and make
calls on Skype without Skype being installed. 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.
Plugins are available for free and are hosted on the official web site, but most need Trillian Pro 2+ to run.
In-Game Chat
Starting at version 5.3, Trillian users can toggle an overlay when
playing a video game on the computer that allows the user to use
Trillian's chat features, in a similar vein to
Steam's overlay chat.
When toggled, the overlay will show the time according to the system's
clock, and the chat window itself is a variation Trillian's base chat
window, with tabs used for different sets of queries and channels. Also,
when the overlay is not activated, users can view a toggle-able sticker
that tells the user how many messages are unread.
History
Early beginnings
After several internal builds, the first ever public release of Trillian, version
0.50,
was available on July 1, 2000, and was designed to be an IRC client.
The release was deemed 'too buggy' and was immediately pulled off the
shelf and replaced by a new version
0.51 on the same day. It featured a simple Connection Manager and skinned windows.
A month later, two minor builds were released with additional IRC
features and bug fixes. Despite these efforts, Trillian was not popular,
as reflected in the number of downloads from CNET's Download.com.
Trillian was a
donateware at that time. They used
PayPal for receiving donations through their web site.
Introduction of interoperability
Version
0.6, released November 29, 2000, represented a major
change in the direction of development, when the client became able to
connect to AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ and MSN Messenger simultaneously
in one window.
Although similar products, such as
Odigo and
Imici,
already existed, Trillian was novel in the way that it distinguished
contacts from different IM services clearly on the contact list, and it
did not require registration of a proprietary account. It also did not
lose connection easily like the other clients.
A month later, Yahoo! Messenger support was introduced in Trillian
0.61, and it also featured a holiday skin for Christmas. Meanwhile, the Trillian community forums were opened to the public.
During this period, new versions were released frequently, attracting
many enthusiasts to the community. Skinning activity boomed and fan
sites were created. A skinning contest was held on
deviantArt
in Summer, and the winner was selected to design the default skin for
the next version of Trillian. Trillian hit 100,000 downloads on August
14, 2001.
Entry into mainstream and the "IM Wars"
Contrary to the anticipation for version "0.64" in the community, the next version of Trillian was numbered
0.70. It was released December 5, 2001. Development took 5 months, considerably longer than development of prior builds.
The new version implemented file transfer in all IM services, a
feature most requested by the community at the time. It also represented
a number of skin language changes. It used the contact list as the main
window (as opposed to a status window 'container' in prior versions)
and featured a brand new default skin,
Trillian Cordillera, and an emoticon set boasting over 100 emoticons, setting a record apart from other messengers available at that time.
Version
0.71 was released on December 18, 2001. It supported
AIM group chats and was the first major IM client which included the
ability to encrypt messages with SecureIM.
In the following months, the number of downloads of Trillian surged,
reaching 1 million on 27 January 2002, and 5 million within 6 months.
Trillian received coverage and favorable reviews from mainstream media
worldwide, particularly by
CNET,
Wired Magazine and
BetaNews. The lead developer and co-founder, Scott Werndorfer, was also interviewed on
TechTV.
Trillian remained the center of attention in IM in the media for the
rest of year. AOL became aware that Trillian users were able to chat
with their AIM buddies without having to download the AIM client.
Version
0.72 was released on January 29, 2002, and it began to suffer connection problems to AIM.
AOL blocked SecureIM access from Trillian clients. Cerulean appeared to have circumvented the block with version
0.721
of its client software, released one day later. The "AOL War" continued
for the next couple weeks, with Cerulean releasing subsequent patches
0.722,
0.723 and
0.724. Trillian garnered a lot of media attention as a result, and its developers were praised by its community for their efficiency.
[citation needed]
Trillian appeared in the
Jupiter Media Metrix
Internet audience ratings in February 2002 with 344,000 unique users,
and grew to 610,000 by April 2002. While those numbers are very small
compared to the major IM networks, Jupiter said Trillian consistently
ranks highest according to the number of average minutes spent per
month.
Trillian also created a special version for
Iomega ActiveDisk.
Commercialization with Trillian Pro
On September 9, 2002 a commercial version,
Trillian Pro 1.0, was released concurrently with
Trillian Basic 0.74.
The commercial version was sold for $25 US for a year of subscription,
but all those who donated to the development of Trillian before were
eligible to a year of subscription at no cost.
The new version had added SMS and mobile messaging abilities,
Yahoo! Messenger webcam support, pop-up e-mail alerts and new plug-ins to shuttle news, weather and stock quotes directly to buddy lists.
It appeared Trillian Pro would be marketed to corporate clients
looking to keep in touch with suppliers or customers via a secured,
interoperable IM network, and a relatively stern user interface. The
company had no venture capital backing, and had depended entirely on
donations from users to stay alive.
Trillian Pro 1.0 was nominated and picked among three other nominees
as the Best Internet Communication shareware in its debut year of being a
"try before you buy" shareware.
On April 26, 2003, total downloads of Trillian reached ten million.
Blocking from Yahoo! and cooperation with Gaim
A few weeks after
Trillian Pro 2.0 was released,
Yahoo! attempted to block Trillian from connecting to its service
in their "efforts to implement preventative measures to protect our
users from potential spammers." A few patches were released by the
Trillian developers, which resolved the issue.
The Trillian developers assisted its open-source cross-platform rival
Gaim in solving the Yahoo! connection issues.
Sean Egan,
the developer of Gaim, posted in its site, "Our friends over at
Cerulean Studios managed to break my speed record at cracking Yahoo!
authentication schemes with an impressive feat of hackery. They sent it
over and here it is in Gaim 0.70." It was later revealed that the
developers were friends and had helped each other on past occasions.
Meanwhile, as Microsoft forced its users to upgrade to MSN Messenger 5.0 for upgrades in their servers for security issues,
October 15, 2003 also would mark the deadline for Trillian support for
MSN Messenger. However, it appeared that Cerulean Studios worked with
Microsoft to resolve the issue on August 2, 2003, long before the deadline.
On March 7, 2004 and June 23, 2004, Yahoo! changed its instant
messaging language again to prevent third-party services, such as
Trillian, from accessing its service. Like prior statements, the company
said the block is meant as a pre-emptive measure against spammers. Cerulean Studios released a few patches to fix the issues within a day or two.
Trillian 3 Series
In August 2004, a new official
blog
was created in attempt to rebuild connections between the Studios and
its customers. Trillian 3 was announced in the blog, and a sneak preview
was made available to a small group of testers.
After months of beta-testing, the final build of Trillian 3 was
released on December 18, 2004, with features such as new video and audio
chat abilities throughout AIM, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger, an
enhanced logging manager and integration with the Wikipedia online
encyclopedia. It also featured a clean and re-organized user interface
and a brand new official web site.
The release also updated the long-abandoned
Trillian Basic .74 to match the new user interface and functionalities as
Trillian Basic 3.0. The number of accumulated downloads of Trillian Basic in Download.com hit 20 million within a matter of weeks.
Trillian 3.1 was released February 23, 2005. It included new features such as
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and multiple identities support.
On June 10, 2011, all instances of Trillian 3 Basic got an automatic upgrade to Trillian 3 Pro, free of charge.
U3 and Google Pack
Trillian was made available for
U3
USB flash drives on October 21, 2005, despite Trillian Anywhere making
Trillian portable long before then, through small file modifications. A
U3 version of Trillian Astra is also posted on the official
Cerulean Studios forum.
On January 6, 2006,
Larry Page, President of Products at
Google, announced
Google Pack, a bundle of various applications including
Trillian Basic 3.0
as "a free collection of safe, useful software from Google and other
companies that improves the user experience online and on the desktop".
"We're very excited for Trillian to be included in Google Pack, as we
at Cerulean Studios have always been very focused on giving end-users
the highest quality experience possible," said Scott Werndorfer,
Co-founder, Cerulean Studios. "We believe this goal aligns Trillian
perfectly with Google Pack."
The inclusion of Trillian in Google Pack was perplexing to some media analysts as Google has its own
Google Talk
service, which touts the benefits of an open IM system and the free
Trillian Basic client cannot be used with Google Talk. Trillian Pro is
also included as one of the "client choices" in Google Talk's client
choices list.
According to the Cerulean Studios blog, Trillian was discontinued from Google Pack on 19 May 2006.
Trillian Astra (Trillian 4)
More than a year after the release of
Trillian 3.1, the Cerulean Studios blog began spreading news again and announced the next version of Trillian, to be named
Trillian Astra. The name for version 4,
Astra,
is the nickname used by the same fictional character that is the
namesake of the software. The new release claimed to be faster and
include a new login screen. A new domain, www.trillianastra.com, was
disclosed to the public, with only the logo and blue background. On July
3, 2009, Cerulean Studios reopened the premium web version of Astra to
public testing. On August 14, 2009, Cerulean Studios released the final
gold build.
Trillian has its own social network named Astra Network, in which users
who have Astra ID can communicate with each other on the network
regardless of platform. Cerulean Studios later registered a new domain,
www.trillian.im, to provide a more user-friendly experience.
Trillian Astra is available on Microsoft Windows, Web,
Android,
BlackBerry OS, and
iOS. As of August 2010, the
Mac OS X version was in beta testing.
Trillian 5
On August 2, 2010, Trillian 5.0 was released as a public beta. Newer
features included a resize-able interface, History synchronization, a
new
ribbon
inspired interface with Windows theme integration, new "marble-like"
icons for service providers, the option to revert to the Trillian 3
& 4 interfaces, and a new social network interface window were
introduced. Along with Trillian 5.0 For
Windows
and the aforementioned Mac beta. As of 2010, the Android and BlackBerry
OS final builds were available on their respective markets for free.
OpenCandy
Included with the installation of Trillian 5.0 was a program called
OpenCandy, which some security programs, including
Microsoft Security Essentials, classed as
adware. OpenCandy was removed shortly after on May 5, 2011.
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