New ICQ for Windows, open source and something else

In November 2015, we recalled how the interface of ICQ changed . Today we have released a new version for Windows, whose appearance has been completely redesigned. ICQ found a minimalistic interface and became very similar to its mobile incarnation. And besides - tadam! - we opened the source code of the application because we used Qt cross-platform toolkit to create a new version.

The new ICQ is significantly different from the previous version. Minimum details, relative dimensions of the interface elements are redesigned so that the application is visually as close as possible to the mobile version. Not forgotten support for Windows 10 and large screen resolutions. It is also possible to rotate the image during a video conference, which the owners of Windows tablets and transformers will appreciate. We also improved the VoIP engine, which provides higher quality calls on weak channels. This list of innovations does not end there. The new version now synchronizes the history of correspondence, and all sorts of smiles, trolls, emoji and stickers are placed in a separate tab, where it is much easier to work with them. In addition, ICQ significantly accelerated, which is especially felt on accounts with many friends. The application speed has increased 8 times, now ICQ starts instantly. Also new ICQ consumes much less memory.

As mentioned at the beginning, the new version was created using the Qt library. One of its features is the use of MOC, - Meta Object Compiler - a preliminary code processing system that significantly expands the possibilities of developers. In addition, Qt is equipped with its own graphical development environment that allows you to create interface elements in WYSIWYG mode. The popularity of the library is very convincingly indicated by the list of projects and companies using Qt: Autodesk Maya, Skype, VLC, Google Earth, DreamWorks, Google, HP, Lucasfilm, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Siemens, Volvo, Walt Disney Animation Studios and many others. Not to mention the well-known KDE desktop environment and all related applications.
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Qt is distributed under two licenses: commercial and LGPL. At the same time, Qt itself includes a number of components distributed under different versions of the same LGPL. This imposes certain conditions when developing using this library: depending on the chosen license, the components used and the degree of Qt involvement in your project, it may happen that you have to open the source code. This is exactly what we did: now you can examine each line of the new ICQ code available on GitHub.

An inquisitive reader will notice that since we ported ICQ to Qt and opened the source code, will there be a version for Linux? And we say: yes, it will be! In the meantime, you can try the new version under Windows, it is available on ICQ .