ICQ

ICQ is a cross-platform instant messaging and video-telephony service. ICQ has been around since 1996, one of the longest running instant messengers out there.

ICQ can be used in a client by logging in with the user's given UIN code. As of 2019, newly registering users of the service require an SMS-enabled mobile cell number for confirmation. Since the recent introduction of the new WIM protocol, an e-mail address (if given during registration) can also be used in place of the UIN to log in. The registered cell number can also be used to login, but this would require an confirmation code by SMS every time so this is not recommended.

The desktop version of ICQ (including on Windows and macOS) is open source (see GitHub).

Installation

You can use one of following methods in order to use ICQ in Arch:

(please note that ICQ's OSCAR protocol is depreciated and replaced by WIM - you should check if third-party clients support the new protocol instead of the old one. OSCAR still functions (as of March 2019) but it is highly recommended to make use of the new WIM instead):

Graphical clients

• ICQ — Official ICQ client for Linux.

https://icq.com/linux/ || icq-bin^AUR

• Jitsi — Audio/video VoIP phone and instant messenger written in Java that supports protocols such as SIP, XMPP, ICQ, IRC and many other useful features.

https://jitsi.org/ || jitsi^AUR

• Kopete — User-friendly IM supporting Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, GroupWise, ICQ, XMPP.

https://apps.kde.org/kopete/ || kopete

• Pidgin — Multi-protocol instant messaging client with audio support that uses libpurple and supports all its protocols (install purple-icyque-git^AUR for the WIM protocol).

https://pidgin.im/ || pidgin

• qutIM — Simple and user-friendly IM supporting ICQ, XMPP, Mail.Ru, IRC and VKontakte messaging.

https://qutim.org/ || qutim^AUR

Command-line clients

• EKG2 — Ncurses based XMPP, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ and IRC client.

https://github.com/ekg2/ekg2 || ekg2^AUR

• Finch — Ncurses-based chat client that uses libpurple and supports all its protocols (install purple-icyque-git^AUR for the WIM protocol).

https://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Using%20Finch || finch

Chat client plugins

• BitlBee — IRC gateway to popular chat networks (install bitlbee-libpurple^AUR and purple-icyque-git^AUR for the WIM protocol).

https://bitlbee.org/^{[dead link 2022-09-18 ⓘ]} || bitlbee^AUR

Web-based clients

• WebICQ — The official web ICQ client.
• Franz — Electron application. Messaging browser for many web services.

https://meetfranz.com/ || franz^AUR

• Rambox — Electron application. A GPL-licensed alternative to Franz. Offers all the features of its Apache 2 counterpart.

https://rambox.app/ || rambox-bin^AUR