So, you’ve got a Mac, you’ve got friends on Facebook who use iChat, but after being spoiled by the gorgeous Mac OS X user interface it feels a little bit backwards to use Facebook in a browser tab, right? There is this huge debate taking place currently regarding what the best native application for Facebook is on a Mac. In my opinion, and that of my colleagues at Previous Magazine; The solution is iChat in place of Facebook Chat in the browser.
The easy way to use Facebook Chat is iChat
Interested in using Facebook chat via XMPP in iChat? Here is how:
- In iChat, open Preferences, and go to the Accounts tab. Click the plus sign at the bottom of the window to add a new account.
- Select Jabber Account from the Account Type drop-down menu.
- Enter your_username@chat.facebook.com in the Account Name field, and enter your Facebook password in the Password field. Replace your_username with your Facebook username, obviously.
- Click the triangle next to Server Options to reveal those settings. Enter chat.facebook.com in the Server field, and 5222 in the Port field. Make sure the Use SSL box is not checked.
- Click Done.
And here is what the settings should look similar to:
If you’re having trouble finding your username you can go to http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/chat.php, click on iChat then look at the third step.
And ta-da!
Nice and simple, right? Now there’s no excuse to avoid your friends and family on iChat!
Works a treat; I’ve been doing this for a few weeks and it makes the concept of Facebook a lot more pleasant now that Skype has gone down the pan.
So I just updated my Skype to the latest beta, and now Facebook is integrated in the OS X version. Just thought you should know, Hamual. Unsure how I feel about it. There are advertisements. Final nail in Skype’s coffin. I advise not downloading it as I know you hate the bloated UI of Skype already and this just adds insult to injury.
This doesn’t surprise me in the slightest, but seriously; Advertisements? That sucks horribly. I fear my days of Skype usage are coming to an end. I’ll probably just move over to iChat and FaceTime before too long, though I’m not sure if you can just voice chat on those. I don’t much like clients seeing me in my pyjamas. (- :