Tencent QQ, generally referred to as QQ, is the most popular free instant messaging computer program in China, and the world?s third most popular IM service. The program is maintained by Tencent Holdings Limited (HKEX: 0700), owned in part by Naspers. Since its entrance into Chinese households QQ quickly emerged as a modern cultural phenomenon, now being portrayed in popular culture. Aside from the chat program, QQ has also developed many subfeatures including games, pets, ringtone downloads, etc.
Using reverse engineering, open source communities have come to understand the QQ protocol better and have implemented client core libraries and user-friendly clients. Most of these clients are cross-platform, so they are usable on operating systems which the official client does not support. However, these implementations have only a subset of the functions of the official client and therefore are more limited in features.
* Adium, an open source multiprotocol client for Mac OS X
* Pidgin, an open source cross-platform multiprotocol client
* Eva IM client is a client for the K Desktop Environment (KDE) that can be used to access the QQ network.
* LumaQQ Is an open source QQ client using the Java SWT implementation.
* TextQQ Is an open source command line QQ client that uses the LumaQQ core library.
