Flamingo for Mac

Flamingo is a unified messaging client for OS X that lets you chat with all your Facebook, Google Hangouts, and XMPP-based contacts in one visually pleasing interface.

Pros:

Sleek design: With features ranging from slide-out animations to great contact flow, Flamingo is a premium app for a relatively premium price. However, the design is nothing short of wonderful: The left column slides in and out to display all your contacts, tabbed under each respective service. As you select a friend to chat with, the center displays your most active conversations, and the chat lines are all on the far-right panel. Colors are pleasing, the flat interface is minimal, and Flamingo's handy vertical keeps you constantly aware of who's talking when.

Easy setup:Flamingo's setup process is straightforward, no crazy settings to manage. Just click on Google Hangouts or Facebook, input your log-in creds, and let Flamingo do the rest. Flamingo also requests use of your contact list but purely for consolidation reasons.

Search:Flamingo's search is one of the best features, as you can search by conversation as well as contact. If you're looking for a past conversation about jazz, just type "jazz" into the search field, and Flamingo will instantly pull it up.

Cons:

No group chat: As of this writing, Flamingo does not support traditional Hangout features like audio and video chat. It also doesn't support group chat.

Buggy:One of Flamingo's frustrating bugs is that at times Google Hangout accounts flat-out fail to connect. The app still feels more like a beta product than a final release, and that's unacceptable when there are free open-source alternatives with comparable features, such as Adium.

Final Verdict:

Flamingo is a fabulously dressed app but still suffers from unpredictable slowdowns and random function breaks. With that said, when it does work, Flamingo is one of the most pleasant chatting experiences you can find on Mavericks. We'd be willing to overlook the asking price of $9.99 if the app wasn't buggy all the time. We'll keep an eye on this app as it develops.