The Sunnyvale company Yahoo owns the most popular instant messaging client on the Internet but, in the recent period, more and more users started looking for an alternative as the main program is rarely updated with new functions and features. The main characteristics of a potential Yahoo replacement? First of all, it must be compatible with the Yahoo network in order to allow the user to communicate with his friends connected on Yahoo's servers. Then, it has to be able to send files with other Yahoo Messenger users and allow the consumers to use the basic chatting functions such as emoticons.

However, some of the users are looking for a simple chatting solution that would allow them to instantly chat with their friends connected to the Yahoo network. At this time, there are numerous solutions able to replace Yahoo Messenger but some of the users avoid migrating to them since they are not fully compatible with the instant messaging client powered by the Sunnyvale company.

Take Meebo for example. This is an interesting solution that comes as a web-based alternative for Yahoo Messenger, allowing you to communicate with your friends connected on the Yahoo network straight from the window of your browser. Although it can be very useful sometimes, most of the users are avoiding it since it doesn't offer file transfer support and other features included in Yahoo Messenger.

But the things might be changed soon because the folks from Cerulean Studios are preparing Trillian Astra, 100 percent Yahoo Messenger compatible software that might represent the perfect alternative for the old fashioned instant messaging client. In fact, Trillian has always been regarded as a very powerful YM alternative but this new version comes as a program that provides support for most of the features bundled into Yahoo's client.