Telegram is a free messaging app that focuses on speed and security. There are official Telegram applications available for iOS and Android as well as various unofficial clients for Windows, Mac OS X and Windows Phone.

On Linux, Telegram is available as a Chrome App, browser app as well as a command line client and now, thanks to Costales' work, you can now also use a Telegram webapp in Ubuntu.

The Telegram Ubuntu webapp uses Webogram (an unofficial Telegram Web App) under the hood and features Unity Dash integration so you can launch Telegram from Dash and also, you get Unity Launcher / Messaging menu conversations unread count.

- The unified Messaging Menu / MeMenu has finally arrived in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot:

According to a recent update to the Ubuntu Wiki Messaging Menu page, the MeMenu will be integrated into the Messaging Menu. Further more, the MeMenu Ubuntu wiki page now says it's obsolete and will be replaced "by an IM status section in the messaging menu", which makes it pretty clear that the MeMenu and Messaging Menu unification is about to happen.

There's a very old thread @ Ubuntuforums which includes a python script to get NotifyOSD notifications for Skype. Since the first post, the python script has been improved by many users and it now provides both Ubuntu Messaging Menu integration (with all the features the Messaging Menu provides like the envelope icon changing color when you have a pending notification, etc.) as well as NotifyOSD notifications for Skype.

Using the script on Ubuntu Forums involves manual setup and the instructions are pretty clear but there are quite a few steps to follow. Also, the thread doesn't provide info on what dependencies you may need to install to get it working. So I've made a script which sets up most of the stuff automatically, however you still have to add a command in the Skype options manually to get it to work.

If you prefer to do this the manual way, download the improved Skype Notify by not_insane from UbuntuForums and follow the instructions inside. For an somewhat automated way, follow the instructions below.

Great news for those of you who use Evolution and Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (either with Unity or the classic Desktop): the PPA that provides a patched Evolution indicator which allows you to close Evolution (this basically minimizes Evolution to the Messaging Menu) and still get new mail notifications -, has finally been updated for Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:goehle/goehle-ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install evolution-indicator

I've seen numerous requests for making Evolution minimize to the Messaging Menu when closing the main window but for whatever reason, this wasn't implemented in Ubuntu.

But I've recently discovered a PPA for Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat (I've only tested it in Ubuntu 10.10 and Evolution 2.30.3!) that provides a patched Evolution Indicator which allows you to close the main Evolution window yet still get new email notifications - basically the Evolution window is minimized to the Messaging Menu (Evolution Indicator) instead of closing.

A while ago we were telling you about a PPA that provides a package called "xul-ext-indicator" that integrates Thunderbird in the Ubuntu Messaging Menu. This is actually a Thunderbird extension packaged in a .deb so you can easily get updates.