You could try Empathy. The user inteface is different, but underneath it's the Telepathy, the same framework that powers instant messaging on your tablet.

I wasn't really satisfied when I last tried it, but that was quite a while ago and my distribution didn't offer all packages then, so I couldn't use some protocols. Actually, I should give it another try when I return home after the holidays.

EDIT: http://live.gnome.org/Empathy