iChat for everyone?

[naftalim]

One improvement I would like to see is iChat for everyone. Right now, only AOL or .Mac users can chat. Most of the people I know use MSN Messenger or Yahoo. I know that I can use AMSN, but it would be nice if iChat was accessible for everyone

 

[SpaceMagic]

I agree. I would make iChat available on Windows too.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

I can see this happening if there is iChat on the iPhone, it'd be pretty sweet to have a video conference between an iPhone running on a 3G network and a macbook.

 

[shaunomacx]

I just read an article saying that tomorrow iChat is coming for Windows users also as well as iPhone (confirmed). This I believe is a huge push for an alternative to Windows Live anywhere!
.Mac email now FREE to rival Hotmail
iChat to rival MSN Messenger

iChat to launch Monday for Windows

Here is hoping the end of the Windows juggernaught!!

 

[bankshot]

That would be nice. For years, it's been extremely frustrating to have friends and relatives with Windows and a webcam, but no way to effectively video chat with them. I've tried many times, but have yet to get iChat to play nice with AIM for Windows over video. Since Apple's using AOL's network for iChat anyway, why haven't they been able to make this work?

iChat for Windows isn't the ideal solution, as you still have to convince your acquaintances to download and install it, but it's a huge improvement if it actually works.

Would also be nice, as the original poster says, to be compatible with other networks. Thankfully most of my contacts use AIM so it's not an issue, but it'd be great to have an easier way to keep up with those few who don't.

Of course, I'm not holding my breath for any of this...

 

[mashny]

Until now, if I wanted to videochat with a PC friend, I had to use Adium and its "MeBeam" plugin. It works very well across the different chat clients and it's what I will continue to use should Apple not introduce iChat for the PC. If you haven't tried it yet, and are frustrated about not being able to videochat with PC users, I suggest you give it a try.

 

[craigp]

I had a really good video chat with a friend the other day. He was on a Sony Vaio with Vista and the latest version of AIM, and I was using iChat. The video quality was approx 80% as good as iChat to iChat, I'd say. Very impressive.