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iChat, what's the deal ?

fab5freddy

fab5freddy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 21, 2007
1,206
7
Heaven or Hell
can anyone explain to me what the deal is with iChat ?

i am from europe, but live in the US.......what kind of
chat, email accounts can you use with iChat ??

is it just AIM and .MAC ?

in europe, nobody has those 2 chat or email accounts....

it just seems like Adium & Skype are much more compatible,

why would anyone deal with iChat ??
 
iChat uses the AIM protocol, so if you have an AOL screen-name or a .mac name you can connect to the AIM protocol.

AIM is the most popular IM protocol in the US, whereas Windows/MSN is more popular in europe.


Edit: iChat also uses the Jabbar protocol, which with some hacking will allow you to connect to GoogleTalk.
 
swiftaw said:
iChat also uses the Jabbar protocol, which with some hacking will allow you to connect to GoogleTalk.
Click to expand...

Just a note...only text though. Since that's the case, I personally just stick to Camino/Firefox and use the chat within the browser since I have my Gmail open all the time.
 
Aim is really the most popular client in the US, unfortunately, which sucks because I would much rather use MSN or Yahoo, but none of my friends have that. Just so you know, iChat in Leopard will support all standard IM protocols, like MSN and Yahoo.
 
This has always bugged me too..

Years ago AOL was the king, but seriously, I know one person that uses aol...

of course they still get on the internet through aol's browser, client crap..

it makes me want to throw up when I'm over there...
 
swiftaw said:
iChat uses the AIM protocol, so if you have an AOL screen-name or a .mac name you can connect to the AIM protocol.

AIM is the most popular IM protocol in the US, whereas Windows/MSN is more popular in europe.


Edit: iChat also uses the Jabbar protocol, which with some hacking will allow you to connect to GoogleTalk.
Click to expand...

hacking? Nah, more like simply using iChat for what it was made.

edit:

and as for the text-only thing:

It's text-only to users of the Google Talk client, but if you go iChat to iChat (both using GTalk), then you get the full benefits. In my experience GTalk handles it better than AIM, too.
 
I think iChat is pretty much useless unless you have alot of friends using AIM or .Mac. I don't know why they can't make it multi-protocol like Gaim or Kopete in Linux. Everyone I know has switched to Skype anyway. Most features and blends in well with OSX, plus it works on Windows and Linux so none of my friends are out of the loop. :D
 
i dream for the days ichat supports msn

everything else is pretty much useless in the uk/europe

heres to hoping its a secret feature of leopard

but i highly doubt it:mad:
 
I'm new to the Mac and I've also been trying to figure out IChat. I am using it for AIM, but somehow I thought there was more to it....maybe not. In the upcoming version of OSX there are some new advertised features....I'm guessing the new effects can be seen when you're connecting to others that use clients other then IChat.

A few questions....Are most of you using IChat to connect to AIM users? My daughter and a few co-workers use AIM, so that's who I chat with the most. I have also heard quite a bit about Skype, but don't know much about it and why it's so popular. I don't actually know anyone with a Skype account, but I'd like to learn more about it.
 
GTalk

Ok, I figured out how to GTalk with iChat..

Cool, I feel like I have now joined the living...
 
stockcerts said:
I'm new to the Mac and I've also been trying to figure out IChat. I am using it for AIM, but somehow I thought there was more to it....maybe not. In the upcoming version of OSX there are some new advertised features....I'm guessing the new effects can be seen when you're connecting to others that use clients other then IChat.

A few questions....Are most of you using IChat to connect to AIM users? My daughter and a few co-workers use AIM, so that's who I chat with the most. I have also heard quite a bit about Skype, but don't know much about it and why it's so popular. I don't actually know anyone with a Skype account, but I'd like to learn more about it.
Click to expand...

I have mine set up for AIM, but for the most part, I use it with my Google Talk account.
 
Do Google Talk users communicate with AIM users, or only other Google Talk users? I don't know anyone using Google Talk, so I'm curious. What do you like better about Google Talk over some of the other chat clients? Thanks!
 
It is possible to connect iChat to Yahoo and MSN through the Jabber protocol, although you will only have text features. The instructions are available on this page. I have tried them and they work perfectly. Although I still use Adium to connect to multiple services because it supports file transfer, etc.
 
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