Just as I was about to check out the new iChat in Mac OS 10.4, Adium 0.80 came out. Adium is a multi-service, free, incredibly customizable, instant messaging application for Mac.

I didn’t think that this update would be as amazing as it is, however they continue to raise the standards of design and usability with Adium. Adium connects to all your instant messaging accounts (Yahoo! MSN AOL and more) within one application and provides tabbed windows for instant message conversations. You also have the ability to change the dock icon, message view formating and theme, contact list colors, sizes, themes, visibility and much much more. The chances of two Adium users having the same looking instant messenger client is not very possible.

The feature list is also a long one but includes visibility options, file transfer, message encryption, custom events, multiple accounts for one service, address book integration and many other features.

You can get more information over at the Adium site and even check out some of the pre-defined message and contact list looks over at the Adium Xtras site.