Hotline Instant Messaging Client

Screenshots from the project's README.

A buddy list in the spirit of late-90s AIM, for the Hotline network: gray Windows 98 windows, the Sign On screen, a Buddy List with Online and List Setup tabs, one little window per conversation, away messages, door sounds when buddies come and go, and chat rooms.

• Instant messages use fogWraith's Hotline Instant Messaging extension on any Hotline server that has messaging turned on (Janus). Buddy lists live on the server, with buddy requests, presence, away messages, offline messages, and delivered/read receipts.

• Chat rooms are ordinary Hotline servers. HIM lists every server the public trackers know about, joins one as a guest, and shows its public chat the way AIM showed a chat room: the conversation, and the people there, by name only.

From the project's README.

Source code

The first release of HIM, the Hotline Instant Messenger: a late-90s AIM-style buddy list for the Hotline IM network. It starts out on VesperNet; Get a Screen Name on the Sign On window makes an account.

• Buddy List, IM windows, away messages and auto-responses, offline messages, delivered/read receipts
• HOPE secure sign-on, with ChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption when the server offers it
• Buddy Icons (the Buddy Icons extension, Janus 2.0.16+), including BadassBuddy zips as a searchable gallery
• AIM-style smileys, door sounds, and Hotline servers as chat rooms

| System | File | |---|---| | macOS, Apple silicon | HIM_0.1.0_aarch64.dmg (signed and notarized) | | macOS, Intel | HIM_0.1.0_x64.dmg (signed and notarized) | | Windows | HIM_0.1.0_x64-setup.exe, or the .msi | | Linux | HIM_v0.1.0_x86_64.flatpak / _aarch64.flatpak, or the .deb |

The flatpak needs the GNOME 47 runtime: flatpak install flathub org.gnome.Platform//47, then flatpak install --user HIM_v0.1.0_x86_64.flatpak.

Downloads

• HIM_0.1.0_aarch64.dmg  (4.0 MB)
• HIM_0.1.0_amd64.deb  (5.0 MB)
• HIM_0.1.0_arm64.deb  (4.7 MB)
• HIM_0.1.0_x64-setup.exe  (3.4 MB)
• HIM_0.1.0_x64.dmg  (4.4 MB)
• HIM_0.1.0_x64_en-US.msi  (4.7 MB)
• HIM_v0.1.0_aarch64.flatpak  (3.2 MB)
• HIM_v0.1.0_x86_64.flatpak  (3.6 MB)

• Hotline IM (HIM) v0.1.0 September 30, 2026