Adium: Sending MSN messages to offline contacts

[ICEBreaker]

Dear Adium users,

I am surprised that I could not find any mention of this common problem on Google, Adium, or this forum. So perhaps I am missing something.

In MSN, one is able to send and receive offline messages, i.e. sending a message to an offline contact, and receiving a message that was sent by a contact when one was offline.

However, I am not able to do send offline messages with Adium. I keep getting the error that the message could not be sent as the contact is offline. This is very inconvenient if the contact lives in another time zone, or if the contact is invisible.

My question is whether Adium really does not support sending offline messages. If so, does anyone know if other unified instant messengers support this.

Thank you for your assistance.

JC

 

[Nermal]

Yes, Adium supports it and I haven't had any issues with doing so. When I try to send a message to an offline contact, it pops up and asks whether I want to send an offline message. If you're not getting this option then check your preferences and ensure that you're running a recent version.

 

[BlackThunder]

I haven't been able to connect to MSN Messenger through Adium in weeks... anybody know why?

 

[ICEBreaker]

Hi Nermal, thanks for reply. You are right, offline messaging seems to be supported. I also have three options, and I've noted that it specifically addresses the issue of invisible users. However, after choosing SEND NOW, I get the error message that it could not be sent because the user is offline. This implies no offline message is sent. Do you get this message?

BlackThunder, I am not sure why that is so... I've not had any problems. Perhaps you should check your username and password? Sorry I cannot be of more help to you.

 

[killmoms]

Hi Nermal, thanks for reply. You are right, offline messaging seems to be supported. I also have three options, and I've noted that it specifically addresses the issue of invisible users. However, after choosing SEND NOW, I get the error message that it could not be sent because the user is offline. This implies no offline message is sent. Do you get this message?

BlackThunder, I am not sure why that is so... I've not had any problems. Perhaps you should check your username and password? Sorry I cannot be of more help to you.

You should click "Send Later." This will send your message as soon as the contact in question signs online.

 

[karenflower]

I use offline messaging in Adium, however - the offline contact needs to initiate the conversation first, and you have about a minute after their response to reply. Every time. Otherwise you get the error message that you described.

 

[Osarkon]

I use offline messaging in Adium, however - the offline contact needs to initiate the conversation first, and you have about a minute after their response to reply. Every time. Otherwise you get the error message that you described.

That's exactly what my experience.

To enhance a bit, it seems to work for a bit, but after a while it'll just stop working as soon as it thinks that contact is properly offline.

Hopefully this'll be rectified soon, I'd also like to be able to see offline messages sent to me, which Adium doesn't support at the moment.

 

[ICEBreaker]

To enhance a bit, it seems to work for a bit, but after a while it'll just stop working as soon as it thinks that contact is properly offline.

Hi guys, thanks a lot for your help. So I guess like I said, it's not really supported. It's not a difficult feature, not sure why they don't enhance this. Odd.

 

[jive turkey]

The problem is that Adium uses the core from the guys who do Pidgin, and none of them use MSN, so they could care less about it. I used Pidgin on my PC (and now Adium on Mac) and the offline message feature has been in the works for about 2 years. Supposedly they are really close to activating it, but that is the same line we were told in 2006.

My solution (and I hated to do it) was to add my MSN buddies to my Yahoo! contacts, since the two services have interoperability. You can then use your Yahoo! account to send offline messages to your MSN friends, and ask them to send you messages at your Yahoo! account if you are offline when they have something to say.

 

[ICEBreaker]

The problem is that Adium uses the core from the guys who do Pidgin, and none of them use MSN, so they could care less about it. I used Pidgin on my PC (and now Adium on Mac) and the offline message feature has been in the works for about 2 years. Supposedly they are really close to activating it, but that is the same line we were told in 2006.

My solution (and I hated to do it) was to add my MSN buddies to my Yahoo! contacts, since the two services have interoperability. You can then use your Yahoo! account to send offline messages to your MSN friends, and ask them to send you messages at your Yahoo! account if you are offline when they have something to say.

Thanks for your advice! That's a clever solution. While on the subject of Yahoo! accounts, why doesn't Adium support Yahoo!?

 

[jive turkey]

I'm not sure I follow. Adium supports Yahoo fine on my computer

 

[ICEBreaker]

I'm not sure I follow. Adium supports Yahoo fine on my computer

Sorry! Me being stupid, that's all. I have no Yahoo! account, so obviously the option to add Yahoo! contacts is not there. My bad.