Trillian
Shares rank 31 of 48 messaging apps by recommenders
People recommend Trillian as a single app that combines messages from many chat networks, with one interface and shared shortcuts. One critic found it less portable than smaller tools.
People recommend Trillian as a single app that combines messages from many chat networks, with one interface and shared shortcuts. One critic found it less portable than smaller tools.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
One app for many chat networks
“the awesomeness of Trillian made it obvious how useless it is for so many different services to coexist”
Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “IRCv3” “a single app such as trillian or Adium was enough to communicate on all of them”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin” “I loved having a single app for all of my messages across all of the networks”
Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Using the internet like it's 1999” - Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “WhatsApp will become interoperable with other messaging apps in Europe”
Used in place of official clients
“you could use 3rd party apps like Trillian and Pidgin instead of the official clients”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “Unofficial Microsoft Teams client for Linux” “stuff like trillium came out which meant you didn't have to use AIM's awful client”
Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “IRCv3”
Other messaging apps people recommend
The four most recommended other messaging apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 48 messaging apps, rankedWhat people said
All 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the awesomeness of Trillian made it obvious how useless it is for so many different services to coexist”
“stuff like trillium came out which meant you didn't have to use AIM's awful client”
“a single app such as trillian or Adium was enough to communicate on all of them”
“It was tiny and portable (unlike Trillian)”
“everyone started to use Trillian because of their support for the Bonjour protocol”
“I loved having a single app for all of my messages across all of the networks”
“Messaging back then was so much better.”
“Combining them into a single app with a singular UI, the same KB shortcuts”
“you could use 3rd party apps like Trillian and Pidgin instead of the official clients”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.