Trillian is a

proprietary {{Short pages monitor More than a year after the release of ''Trillian 3.1'', the Cerulean Studios blog began spreading news again and announced the next version of Trillian, to be named ''Trillian Astra''. The name for version 4, ''Astra'', is the nickname used by the same fictional character that is the namesake of the software, which is a reference to

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' is a Science fiction comedy, comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series), radio sitcom broadcast over two series on BBC ...

. The new release claimed to be faster and include a new login screen. A new domain, www.trillianastra.com, was disclosed to the public, with only the logo and blue background. On July 3, 2009, Cerulean Studios reopened the premium web version of Astra to public testing. On August 14, 2009, Cerulean Studios released the final gold build. Trillian has its own social network named Astra Network, in which users who have Astra ID can communicate with each other on the network regardless of platform. Cerulean Studios later registered a new domain, www.trillian.im, to provide a more user-friendly experience. On November 18, 2009, the first mobile version of Trillian was launched for iPhone. As of 2010, final builds for Android,

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

, and

Apple iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

were available for their markets (

Market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

, App World and

App Store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...

respectively). Trillian initially cost US$4.99 but became free of charge, supported by ads, in 2011. As of August 2010, the

Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

version was in beta testing.

Trillian 5

On August 2, 2010, Trillian 5.0 was released as a public beta. Newer features included a resize-able interface, History synchronization, a new

ribbon A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily as decorative binding and tying. Cloth ribbons are made of natural materials such as silk, cotton, and jute and of synthetic mate ...

inspired interface with Windows theme integration, new "marble-like" icons for service providers, the option to revert to the Trillian 3 & 4 interfaces, and a new social network interface window were introduced. Along with Trillian 5.0 For

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and the aforementioned Mac beta. As of 2010, the Android and BlackBerry OS final builds were available on their respective markets for free.

OpenCandy

Included with the installation of Trillian 5.0 was a program called OpenCandy, which some security programs, including

Microsoft Security Essentials Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is a discontinued antivirus software (AV) product that provides protection against different types of malicious software, such as computer viruses, spyware, rootkits, and Trojan horses. Prior to version 4.5, ...

, classed as

adware Adware, often called advertising-supported software by its developers, is software that generates revenue by automatically displaying Online advertising, online advertisements in the user interface or on a screen presented during the installatio ...

. OpenCandy was removed shortly after on May 5, 2011.

Trillian 6

On January 8, 2016, Trillian 6 was released.

Loss of networks

Trillian has stopped attempting to work around the systems to make their client work with other networks. They have also not done any development to integrate support for any of the newer networks. Instead they urge people to use their own IM service instead. * As Yahoo! has decided to shut down the legacy

Yahoo Messenger Yahoo! Messenger (sometimes abbreviated Y!M) was an instant messaging client (computing), client and associated protocol created and formerly operated by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger was provided free of charge and could be downloaded and used with ...

clients and servers, Trillian and all other clients are no longer able to connect to Yahoo! Messenger as of August 31, 2016. * As AOL has decided to shut down the AIM network, Trillian, and all other clients are no longer able to connect to AIM as of December 15, 2017. * As ICQ has decided to disable support for third party IM clients, Trillian is no longer able to connect to ICQ as of April 1, 2019. The ICQ service was shut down on June 26, 2024. * MSN IM accounts were also able to be used as

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

accounts, when Microsoft Acquired Skype in 2011, but could still use the service at that time. The service was shut down in 2013. * As (Microsoft)

has decided to disable support for third party IM clients, Trillian is no longer able to connect to Skype in 2013. * As

Google Talk Google Talk was an instant messaging service that provided both text and voice communication. The instant messaging service was variously referred to colloquially as Gchat, Gtalk, or Gmessage among its users. Google Talk was also the name o ...

has shut down, Trillian is no longer able to connect to the service, as of June 16, 2022.

References

External links