Getting iChat to work

chalad07

Hey, sorry if this question has been answered, i've had a look and can't see it,

I'm new to Macs (1 week) but so far i've found it to be pretty intuitive. One thing:

I cant seem to get ichat to work. From my (limited) understanding, you need either a .mac account, or a AIM (aol instant messenger) account to use the video call feature. I've signed up for the AIM, but i cant seem to use it with a friend who has a .mac account. Any suggestions?

Also, is there a way i can use this app based on my gmail account, (most people i know use gmail chat),

Thanks,

Flashraziel

I just use my Gmail account

im...LOST

So did I. But I did Gmail to gmail so I don't know about a .mac address....

kulchie

Don't know much about iChat's video calling features, details on setting up iChat to deal with Gmail chat are here http://www.google.com/support/talk/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=24076

440Hz

gmail to gmail supports video in iChat. I use it all the time. what seems to be the problem?

johnk123

OP, you mentioned that you have friends on google chat, and you have an AIM account, maybe you should download Adium. I love it personally. I have my msn, Aim, jabber, google talk all synced it to the one application. I could definitely recommend it

Sad Professor

Adium is great but it doesn't support video calls which is what the OP is looking for. Can you give us anymore details on what might be wrong, chalad07?

chalad07

Adium sounds good but it's video calls that i'm really after,

On ichat, when i try and add a buddy, it comes up as 'waiting for authorization', but my friend cant see anything his end? Can my gmail be used to chat with his .mac account,

Do ye think it's worth the hassle of setting ichat up or should i just stick with something like Skype? I've never used ichat before, but i'd imagine, like most of the things i've found on the mac, that it would be the business.

440Hz

chalad07 wrote: »

Adium sounds good but it's video calls that i'm really after,

On ichat, when i try and add a buddy, it comes up as 'waiting for authorization', but my friend cant see anything his end? Can my gmail be used to chat with his .mac account,

Do ye think it's worth the hassle of setting ichat up or should i just stick with something like Skype? I've never used ichat before, but i'd imagine, like most of the things i've found on the mac, that it would be the business.

AIM to AIM only or Gtalk to Gtalk, they are not cross-compatible.

Setting iChat up with two gmail accounts for example is very simple and easy, but wont work from AIM to GMail.

chalad07

Thanks a lot, i'll ask my friend to set his one to gmail, hopefully catch him online tomorrow,

Cheers for the help lads,

PeakOutput

iv recently started using skype few mins to download quick to install and very quicl to set up an account

perfect voice and video chat and phone calls to land lines if u want to pay i dont know why more people dont use it

i use adium as well but the lack of video is a joke

im...LOST

Yeah, Skype really is amazingly easy to set up and use. Free Skype to Skype calls FTW.

zAbbo

In fairness lads, Skype is hardly unpopular with over 300 millions users...

Unfortunately the Mac version doesn't have the bloat extras that the windows version has.

On quality, I actually prefer iChat for Mac 2 Mac usage, even Mac to Windows on skype is just OK (mainly talking about Video quality)

The different a headset makes is also huge, especially a noise cancelling one

chalad07

I have been using Skype, which i'm pretty happy with. Mac to Mac quality is very good,

It looks like ichat has some additional features, being able to share each others screens etc. Not sure if i'd have much use for this but it might be handy,

Sad Professor

PeakOutput wrote: »

i use adium as well but the lack of video is a joke

I think they're planning to add video in v2.0. I haven't used it in a while for that reason but I may go back to it then.

I use iChat mostly at the moment. I keep meaning to set up Jabber so I can use MSN/Yahoo on it as well but it seems like a pain in the arse to do.

440Hz

Sad Professor wrote: »

I think they're planning to add video in v2.0. I haven't used it in a while for that reason but I may go back to it then.

I use iChat mostly at the moment. I keep meaning to set up Jabber so I can use MSN/Yahoo on it as well but it seems like a pain in the arse to do.

Not at all, just get a passport for MSN and you can use it on your jabber account. Its not great though, I had it set up and then disabled it, found it was a nightmare when it came to adding contacts and syncing things like that.