After years of private testing, Trillian launched a public beta of its updated multi-protocol chat client earlier this summer. This week, the company took off the beta label, and Trillian Astra replaces the company's older chat client.
Trillian Astra lets users chat with contacts on a number of services, including AOL Intant Messenger, Windows live Mesenger, Google Talk, ICQ, and Yahoo! Messenger.
It also lets you update your Facebook and Twitter status messages, which makes Trillian Astra a direct competitor to Digsby. So if you were annoyed with Digsby's heavy-handed revenue generating techniques, you might want to take a look at Trillian Astra. To Digsby's credit, the company did roll out an update that makes the "Support Digsby" section easier to spot and configure, along with a link to a Wiki entry explaining how the Digsby Research Module works.
Trillian Astra is available as a free download for Windows. Mac and iPhone versions are in the works. There's also a web client, which pits Trillian Astra against web-based chat service Meebo.
