Digsby Build 30295

Overview

Digsby is an amazing software application that simplifies the way you access your instant messaging utilities. Receive email notifications and your social networking accounts with just one click. By creating a single account on Digsby, you will reduce all the aforementioned account logins to one. Overall, with this tool you will be able to get one combined list of friends and manage multiple conversations tabs simultaneously. In fact, it allows users to transfer various files at the same time, thanks to its transfer manager feature.

A further important feature of Digsby that you will be glad to learn about is that it allows complete synchronization between the devices you access it from, starting with the status you choose on IM to the skin interface. What is great about its newest version is that it provides support for most of the IMs, emails, and social networks that you can find online.

Installation

Even though currently this software is available for Windows operating systems only, soon Mac and Linux users will be able to enjoy Digsby as well. The installation process is simple, straightforward and quite fast, as the kit of the application has only 19 MB. The final step of the installation requires you to create an account and once you launch it you can add the email, social network and IMs service accounts that you want. A big plus for this application, taking into account that it is free, is that it does not contain malware, nor does it ask the user to set a certain homepage or install a toolbar.

Interface

Overall, at least at first glance, the interface seems clean and the notifications are very visible. On the other hand, some users claim that the friend list contains way too many options that are difficult to find. Furthermore, it seems that whenever you are trying to add a new contact or interact with your current friends, it all has to be done via its menus, which can be a bit confusing for novice users. Keep in mind that the latest version is a beta and there will be a lot of improvements coming soon.

On the other hand, you have several customization options for both the interface and the conversation windows, so you can give it a personal look and feel. Moreover, you have complete control over the layout of the buddies list and you can choose to sort them by status, name, or service they are using. In fact, you can choose two criteria for sorting this list out for easier access. Last, but not least important, you can customize Digsby so that it alerts you in any way you see fit and only on the services and events that you prefer.

Pros

The biggest advantage of this application is its function. With just one login, you can have access to all the email services, IMs and social networks that you subscribed to. However, the area where Digsby really shines is in its features. Whether you want to set Yahoo Messenger status, track your friends on Facebook, or send email alerts, all you need to do is place the mouse over a given account in your friends list.

Another big plus of the application is that during benchmark testing on various tech websites, none of the testers reported any crashes. Besides its high stability, it does not consume noticeable computer resources and thus, does not interfere with your PC’s speed and overall performance.

Cons

Even though in general Digsby is stable and has a low memory footprint of about 24 MB, some users complained that after a while that footprint reaches 100 MB. It is important to note that almost all users reported having these caching problems after certain updates.

Alternatives

The main competitors of this application are, in order of popularity, Trillian Astra, Pidgin and the web-based software, Meebo and eBuddy.

Conclusion

Sure, the product does need some improvements for its caching mechanism and accessing certain options. On the other hand, for the time being the newest beta release is quite promising in terms of computer resource consumption and array of features. Its indiscriminative acceptance of almost all available IM services and its excellent email and social network tools make it one of the best options in its category.