Psi+

Instant messaging clients have come a long way since their inception, and although by today’s social media standards, having dedicated IM clients can be seen as redundant, there still might be instances or users who prefer such practices. Considering that most social media platforms already carry an inherent chat module, one cannot help but wonder about the real need for dedicated chat clients. Psi+ aims to provide an answer to such questions, through its minimalist, Jabber-compatible chat solution.

It’s the 2000s’ again, and you’re just starting up your messenger client for some chat session. Actually, no, it’s present times and you’ve just initialized Psi+ and might either be wondering about its old-school looks or let nostalgia creep in.

Regardless of its quite rusty appearance, we believe that its functionality isn’t impaired by it, and during testing, we didn’t feel encumbered by the design. One can argue that this simple design can actually improve handling, as there are fewer distractions and the focus is set purely on functionality.

Despite having an outdated design, the application does come with a very detailed settings module, which makes up for the rather truncated chat experience. In it, users will be able to find a myriad of options, which can add up to a highly customizable experience.

Aside from that, the actual chat experience is, well, basic, at least compared to the present analogs of similar IM clients, and if it weren’t for the Jabber dependency, we couldn’t find any real advantages.

Psi+ can be your piece of pie if you’re looking for a very basic implementation of a Jabber IM machine. However, if old looks and pure functionality aren’t for you, we’d recommend looking into alternatives.