Gaim is an instant messaging client, based on Linux operating system.

Gaim allows its users to access multiple networks simultaneously. The users can login to their multiple accounts at a time. This is the unique and most popular feature of Gaim since the users can access all the instant messenger services at a time. For example – a person is chatting with friends on MSN messenger, and talking to another friend on Yahoo messenger and sitting in an IRC channel simultaneously at the same time.

Though Gaim basically works on Linux platform, it also works well with BSD, Mac OS X and Windows. This software has compatibility with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, Group-wise Messenger and Zephyr networks.

Gaim is supported by the features of various networks including file transfer, away messages, typing notification, window closing notification etc. Apart from these, it provides some other popular features like:

• Buddy Pounce – the ability to notify, send message, play sound, run a program when a specific buddy is online or goes away or busy or comes back etc.
• Plugins – consists of text replacement, buddy ticker, extended message notification, iconify the buddy, spell cheking, tabbed conversation etc.

Gaim works well with various system tray like Window’s system tray, GNOME2 and KDE3.1’s system tray. This compatibility helps working with Gaim without the requirement of opening buddy list windows up all the time.

Since the developers of Gaim are always trying to enhance its features and functionalities, Gaim releases are usually quite frequent and Gaim is under constant development.