--- title: 'iChat + gTalk = Universal IM Client' url: 'https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/ichat-gtalk-universal-im-client' markdown: 'https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/ichat-gtalk-universal-im-client.md' date: '2006-05-24' description: 'There have been tutorials about using the Jabber features in iChat to connect to many IM systems (AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, etc). I have tried to use this set up from time to time but always reverted to just directly connecting to AIM/ICQ because the gateways that I could find were just too flaky (they…' taxonomy: category: - Journal tag: - google - 'os x' - software --- # iChat + gTalk = Universal IM Client ## [iChat + gTalk = Universal IM Client](https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/ichat-gtalk-universal-im-client) 24th May 2006 [google](https://stevenjaycohen.com/tag:google#body-wrapper) [os x](https://stevenjaycohen.com/tag:os%20x#body-wrapper) [software](https://stevenjaycohen.com/tag:software#body-wrapper) There have been tutorials about using the Jabber features in iChat to connect to many IM systems (AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, etc). I have tried to use this set up from time to time but always reverted to just directly connecting to AIM/ICQ because the gateways that I could find were just too flaky (they kept logging me off or would fail to report that I was online to other IM users). Recently, a few of my friends have converted to using [gTalk](https://talk.google.com/) full time. I love its features, but too few of my friends use it. I figured that I should use Google’s instructions on [how to connect to gTalk using iChat](https://web.archive.org/web/20111130151844/https://www.google.com:80/support/talk/bin/answer.py?answer=24076). It worked fine. You see Google doesn’t offer gateways to connect to other IM systems from gTalk. But, after a while, I still longed to see if I could get all of my contacts on in 1 window without switching from iChat to [Adium](https://www.adiumx.com/ "Adium") or Fire. So, I followed google’s instructions [on connecting to gTalk from PSI](https://web.archive.org/web/20111105090656/https://www.google.com:80/support/talk/bin/answer.py?answer=24074). Once I connected via [PSI](https://psi-im.org/ "PSI"), I chose \[Service Discovery\] from the \[General\] menu. ![psi](https://stevenjaycohen.com/user/pages/files/2006/05/psi.jpg) On a whim, I decided to see what would happen if I chose to browse services offered by other Jabber servers instead of browsing the google server. Sure enough, it worked! I was able to register for gateways for all of the IM systems that I use. At this point, the gateways, had me approve each of my buddies from copies of my buddy lists kept on their servers. This part took a while. Then, I added my own screen names on each of these IM systems as a contact. I put my AIM/ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo IDs into a group called gateways. Then I enabled groups in iChat and changed the name of the default group to Online. Then, I enabled use Offline Group in iChat. ![list](https://stevenjaycohen.com/user/pages/files/2006/05/list.jpg) By doing this, iChat now reports which gateways are online by sensing the presence of my own screen names. If a gateway appears offline, I can often fix it by simply IMing myself a simple hello. This triggers a notification that the gateway is in use and immediately makes me appear online. ![gateways](https://stevenjaycohen.com/user/pages/files/2006/05/gateways.jpg) Having groups called Online and Offline helps because all systems aside from AIM support offline messaging. So, I have easy access to my friends’ user IDs to send them offline messages. ![server-msg](https://stevenjaycohen.com/user/pages/files/2006/05/server-msg.jpg) Other benefits of having this setup include Yahoo, AIM, and MSN are now able to send me server based messages like email notifications; and upon logging into gmail one day when I was away from my mac, I was able to IM everyone (not just gmail users) from directly inside gmail using it’s integrated gTalk client! One question that I am left with is why do these gateways seem more reliable than when my jabber ID was not on google? The gateways themselves are not on google’s servers. [ Previous Post](https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/iridium-a-universal-theme-installer) [Next Post ](https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/shellburne-falls-potholes-6) --- ## Navigation - Parent: [My Journal](https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal.md) - Previous: [Shellburne Falls Potholes - 6](https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/shellburne-falls-potholes-6.md) - Next: [Iridium: A Universal Theme Installer](https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/iridium-a-universal-theme-installer.md)