chat posts

BeeJive iPhone app gets AIM chatroom support, sort of

by Jay Hathaway Nov 6th 2009

I once called BeeJive the best chat client for the iPhone, and for good reason: it supports several different chat services, offers push notifications, and has a user interface that makes chatting on the iPhone about as easy as it can feasibly be. BeeJIve just keeps getting better, too. The latest version, 3.1, now supports group chats in AIM ... almost.

Group chats are a great feature that I'm sure Beejive will fully implement soon, but I'm not a fan of the way they work now. To start a group chat, just click the plus button and add multiple contacts. So far, so good, but here's where things get sticky: the only option is a private chatroom. You have to invite contacts to allow them in.

There's also no control over the name of the room. It's just Beejive plus a random string. Also, you'll want to turn notifications off if your room is very active, because having your phone beep or buzz for every message in a fast and furious chat is a wee bit obnoxious.

I know these are all minor quibbles, but it would be great to have a separate "start group chat" button, with the ability to create and name a public room. For now, though, I'm not complaining too much when an already-excellent chat client adds a useful feature it didn't have before.

Tags: aim, beejive, chat, chatroom, group chat, GroupChat, IM, iphone

Filed under: Developer, Social Software

Facebook Chat gets XMPP, catches up with AIM, Google Talk and MSN

by Jay Hathaway Nov 6th 2009

Facebook Chat has been a bit slow to catch on. Since it's been relegated to being opened from the web in a Facebook Tab, it hasn't been able to compete with chat services that have their own dedicated clients, like AIM, MSN and Yahoo. Although some third-party apps - like Adium - have made the extra effort to support Facebook Chat, it's not widespread. That's about to change, though, when Facebook adopts XMPP and becomes compatible with tons of existing chat apps.

XMPP is most famous as the protocol behind Google Talk. That means any chat program that currently includes Google Talk will be able to include Facebook Chat too. Facebook, like Google, is starting out in the chat market with the advantage of huge pre-existing contact lists - for Google, it was your Gmail contacts, and for Facebook it's, well, Facebook. If you've ever wished you could just automatically add all of your Facebook buddies to your favorite IM program, you're in for a treat.

[via GigaOM]

Tags: AIM, chat, facebook, google talk, GoogleTalk, IM, jabber, xmpp

Filed under: Social Software, AOL, Beta, web 2.0

AIM's latest beta lets you post to Facebook and Twitter

by Jay Hathaway Sep 8th 2009

AOL has been experimenting with Twitter and Facebook integration in AOL Instant Messenger for a while now, letting you read your updates from those services, along with other feeds, from the AIM client. In the latest beta version, integration is going a step further, allowing posting from AIM to Facebook or Twitter. The big jump from read-only to read/write is just the latest in a bunch update to AIM's social networking features. It's all part of AIM Lifestream, and you can add your accounts at AOL's Lifestream page.

A long time ago, Twitter used to support updates via IM, but that's fallen by the wayside and is no longer a priority, so it's good to see the idea being picked back up from AIM's end. AIM Lifestream has quietly added a bunch of other features this summer, too: you can now see whose buddy lists you're on, share your Diggs and Flickr photos, and sign up to receive Lifestream updates via SMS.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: aim, aol, beta, chat, facebook, lifestream, twitter

Filed under: Video, Windows, Beta

Yahoo announces Messenger 10, with better video chat

by Jay Hathaway Aug 27th 2009

Yahoo is getting ready to roll out the latest version of its Yahoo Messenger chat app, and a beta version of Yahoo Messenger 10 is already available for Windows users. This time around, the focus is on new features for webcams. Now you can start a high-quality video call (with audio) from within an IM window, which is a step up from the low-quality video calls with no audio that Yahoo had before.

These improvements are only for 1:1 calls to other buddies who have Yahoo Messenger 10, though. If you're using Yahoo Messenger to broadcast video to multiple people, you're still stuck with no sound and lower video quality. Video calling also gets some of the features you might be used to from apps like Skype: putting calls on hold, entering full screen mode, and repositioning your video windows.

Yahoo's also jumping on the "activity stream" bandwagon: you can put your buddy list in update mode, and see what your friends are doing on other social sites, like Twitter and Last.fm. You can start a chat from the updates view, and the update you're talking about will show up inline in your IM window, so your friends know what you're responding to. Yahoo Messenger 10 also finally has the ability to sort your buddy list by availability, so the contacts who are actually online and available will show up at the top.

[via Life Rocks 2.0]

Tags: chat, video chat, VideoChat, yahoo, yahoo messenger, YahooMessenger

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Social Software

Pidgin 2.6 adds audio/video support for Gtalk

by Jay Hathaway Aug 19th 2009

Pidgin, a popular, crossplatform, multi-protocol chat app, just got an important update to version 2.6. It's important because this is the first time Pidgin has supported audio or video chat over Google Talk. Even my favorite chat client for the Mac, Adium, doesn't yet support those features. Unfortunately, audio and video chats don't yet work in the Windows version of Pidgin, but they should be available soon.

The other very important update better (read: actually working) file transfers on Yahoo! and Google Talk. There's also some preliminary theme support, for those of you who enjoy building themes, but it's that feature is too new to have a selection of themes to choose from.

If you're not comfortable compiling an app, you can wait on Pidgin for a little while until the pre-compiled native apps show up. Speaking of native apps, Pidgin doesn't look bad on a Mac, per se, but it can't compete on looks against a Mac-like app like Adium.

[via Lifehacker]

Tags: chat, google-talk, gtalk, im, pidgin, yahoo

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Web

Trillan Astra chat client leaves beta

by Brad Linder Aug 15th 2009

After years of private testing, Trillian launched a public beta of its updated multi-protocol chat client earlier this summer. This week, the company took off the beta label, and Trillian Astra replaces the company's older chat client.

Trillian Astra lets users chat with contacts on a number of services, including AOL Intant Messenger, Windows live Mesenger, Google Talk, ICQ, and Yahoo! Messenger.

It also lets you update your Facebook and Twitter status messages, which makes Trillian Astra a direct competitor to Digsby. So if you were annoyed with Digsby's heavy-handed revenue generating techniques, you might want to take a look at Trillian Astra. To Digsby's credit, the company did roll out an update that makes the "Support Digsby" section easier to spot and configure, along with a link to a Wiki entry explaining how the Digsby Research Module works.

Trillian Astra is available as a free download for Windows. Mac and iPhone versions are in the works. There's also a web client, which pits Trillian Astra against web-based chat service Meebo.

[via CNET]

Tags: chat, digsby, im, instant-messaging, trillian, trillian-astra

Filed under: Web services, Social Software

Savor Chat creates chat rooms for Facebook and Twitter contacts

by Jay Hathaway Jul 14th 2009

Most people's Facebook and Twitter contact lists differ drastically from one another, but occasionally, you'll have a reason to get those Facebook and Twitter friends together. Savor Chat is a way to do that, allowing Twitter friends to sign in with OAuth, and Facebook friends to use Facebook Connect. Either way, you're all chatting, and nobody needs to create a new account.

It's nice to see an array of privacy settings when an app requests access to accounts on two major social networks, and Savor Chat delivers. Stealth mode" hides the room on your Facebook feed and keeps it from being indexed by search engines. You can also set a duration to keep the room open, or just open it indefinitely. Rooms can also be turned on or off, or password protected.

My biggest concern about Savor Chat was that chat messages would be posted to Twitter users' accounts to annoy people who aren't in the chat and don't care. You can post your chat messages to Twitter, and even have Savor Chat automatically add a hashtag for your room, but it's not the default option. Savor Chat isn't something I expect to use every day, but when you have a meeting and you don't have time to get everyone on the same network, it could be very handy.

Tags: chat, chat-room, facebook, savor, savor-chat, twitter

Filed under: Social Software, iPhone, Mobile

BeejiveIM, now with Push, is the best iPhone chat client so far

by Jay Hathaway Jun 27th 2009

I wrote the other day about the iPhone version of AIM, and how it takes advantage of push notifications in iPhone 3.0., but since then I've been testing a different chat client that really takes things to the next level: BeejiveIM. You might be put off by the $10 purchase price, but if you're an avid IM fanatic, it will be worth every penny. BeejiveIM supports AIM, Google Chat, MSN, Yahoo!, Facebook and MySpace in a smart layout that makes it the most usable chat app I've tried on the iPhone yet.

The key features that make BeejiveIM a killer app are its support for push notifications, its horizontal keyboard, and the elegant way it organizes open chats. Rather than forcing you to dig through submenus on your buddy list, BeejiveIM puts the buddy list on one screen, and a list of your open chats on another. If someone IMs you while you have a chat open, you can tap once on the number of unread messages to switch between chats. This is right in so many ways, and avoids the clunky feeling of having to go back to your buddy list to switch to another conversation.

Sure, $10 is on the high end of the App Store price range, but there's nothing going that beats BeejiveIM at what it does. It's replaced both the AIM app and the Meebo web app on my home screen.

Tags: AIM, AIM-client, beejive, chat, IM, iphone, multichat

Filed under: Macintosh, Social Software, Beta

Adium releases 1.4 beta with IRC and Twitter support

by Jay Hathaway May 18th 2009

My favorite chat client for OS X just keeps getting better. Adium 1.3.4. has been released, and it offers some major performance improvements, especially where Facebook Chat is concerned. It's also likely the last Adium release that will work on OS X 10.4 Tiger. As nice as it is to get stable updates to Adium, 1.3.4 is overshadowed by the release of 1.4 beta, which includes support for Twitter and IRC.

1.4b also has a ton of other improvements and fixes, especially in the area of group chats, including the ability to use separate styles for individual and group message windows. Why do group chats matter so much? Well, for one thing, Twitter for Adium runs in a group chat window, so the devs likely had to get that part of the interface running smoothly to roll out Twitter support. The impressive full list of changes and a download of the latest beta can be found at beta.adium.im.

Tags: adium, chat, IM, IRC, OS X, OsX, twitter

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh

Get TwitterIM in Adium early, with a plugin

by Jay Hathaway Apr 13th 2009

Adium, the popular multi-protocol chat app for OS X, announced a while back that version 1.4 will support using Twitter via IM. If you don't want to wait for 1.4, you can turn on Twitter in Adium using the TwitterIM plugin. It lets you add your Twitter account to Adium, just like an account from any other service, and you can use it to post to Twitter and reply to other people's messages.

TwitterIM is not an official release by the Adium team, but it works well enough to hold you over until theirs comes out. Basically, your Twitter stream comes in like regular IMs, all in one window, and you can click a link to send a reply. To set up Twitter once the plug-in is installed, just create a new account in your Adium preferences, and put in your Twitter username and password.

Tags: adium, chat, IM, twitter, Twitter-IM

Filed under: Video, Web services, Social Software, Web

Meeting24.tv: video conferencing with quick setup, but lots of lag

by Jay Hathaway Apr 6th 2009

Meeting24.tv is a great idea in theory. It's sort of a Yahoo! Live-style video chat (remember Yahoo! Live?), where you can have up to 24 people in a meeting at once. There's a big upside to the service: it's free, it's easy to use, and it doesn't require signup for anyone but the host of the meeting. The downside is that you might run into major lag. When I tested the service, each user's audio and video was lagging by several seconds.

A free account comes with the ability to host a meeting room for 24 hours at a time. The time limit is basically irrelevant, because the number of rooms you can start isn't limited, so you can get around it by starting over. I'm not sure I'd use Meeting24.tv for an actual meeting, as the ability to throw illustrated heart icons at other people is a bit unprofessional.

Tags: chat, meeting24, meeting24.tv, video, videoconferencing

Filed under: Macintosh, Social Software

Twitter IM support coming to Adium

by Jay Hathaway Mar 13th 2009

What a joy to see the two apps I have open all day coming together! I'm an IM and Twitter junkie, and Twitter hasn't had IM support in some time. Fortunately, the developers behind my IM client of choice, Adium, are working to put together their own version of a Twitter IM service.

Your Twitter contacts would show up in your Adium list, and you can follow, unfollow and presumably group them from there. Opening a new chat will allow you to exchange direct messages. Displaying your timeline will be handled through Adium's existing group chat interface, with @replies to you highlighted. All in all, this looks like a promising project to restore a Twitter feature that a lot of people found useful. Now, if only they could figure out how to bring back tracking ...

[via TUAW]

Tags: adium, chat, IM, twitter

Filed under: Web services, Social Software, AOL

AIM Blast: finally, you can IM multiple buddies at once

by Jay Hathaway Dec 3rd 2008

AIM Blast is a new AOL Instant Messenger feature that makes me feel old, because I just realized that it's been a decade since I first wondered why there was no way to IM multiple buddies without opening a chatroom. Well, it's finally here, and it works pretty well. You can't make a Blast Group from within AIM, but if you go to blast.aim.com, you can set up and edit a group from there. Blast seems to work with third-party AIM clients, although AOL says that Meebo may have some problems with it.

The Blast Group will then show up on your buddy list, and any IM you send to it will go to everyone in the group. The group acts like a normal AIM account, it just puts people's individual screennames in front of their messages, so you know who's talking. When you invite people (using your group admin page), they'll get a message in AIM asking them to accept or decline. Once they're in, they can IM the group, unless you make it admin-only. That makes your group more like a notification system than a chat, but that may work better for some people.

Tags: AIM, AIM Blast, AOL, chat, IM, instant-messaging, instant-messenger

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Google

Lively from Google going the way of the dodo

by Victor Agreda, Jr. Nov 20th 2008

Not that we were huge fans of Lively to begin with, but I'm sure someone out there loved it. Right? No? Perhaps that explains Google's announcement that, "despite all the virtual high fives and creative rooms everyone has enjoyed in the last four and a half months, we've decided to shut Lively down at the end of the year." So grab those screenies before 2009 and your avatars and rooms go dead.

One or two of you may cry out in anguish as a few million vertices are silenced with the click of a mouse: "why Google, why?" Well, I'm sure it wasn't the fact that it was PC-only (and Firefox or IE7-only). Or that it wasn't the most stable thing Google has produced. Or that it was, ya know, like Second Life Lite but for chat. Because, clearly, the world needs a few zillion more Second Life-style chat clients, right?

If you are to believe Google, it's because they want to focus on their core business. You know, search and ads and apps that don't look like Animal Crossing. Besides, they can always roll this into Sketchup, so you could have a virtual barn raising. We can dream, can't we?

Tags: 3d, chat, google, lively, second life, SecondLife

Filed under: Internet, Social Software, Ask DLS

Ask DLS: Business Week declares IM dead - what do you think?

by Lee Mathews Nov 18th 2008

On Sunday, Business Week published an article stating "It's the end of instant messaging as we know it." In columnist Douglas MacMillan's mind, integrated chat features on sites like Facebook and GMail have signed the death warrant.

Oh really? That's kind of interesting, because there's a lot of evidence that IM is alive and kicking.

Taking a quick look at some stats on Download.com, I notice that these apps still seem to be pretty damn popular. Pidgin has more than half a million downloads to date. Since Trillian was added to the site, it's been downloaded almost 37 million times.

The latest release of Live Messenger 14 is well over 400,000 in just two months - and these numbers don't take into account the numerous other mirrors for these (and numerous other IM) apps.

Tags: chat, im, instant-messaging

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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