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Chat program of choice?

Maayan

Maayan

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 11, 2004
15
0
I've stuck with MSN for ages -- now I've just heard of Adium X, and I was wondering what you guys use as an MSN/AIM/ICQ "official software" alternative. :-]

For that matter, what other cool, third-party apps have y'all discovered? :)
 
I use AIM. When I switched from X.1 to Panther, I used iChat (default) for a while. I couldn't stand it! The only nice thing was that it did in-message spell checks. But other than that, it was a pain to use. I went back to AOL's build of its messenger and I'm glad I did.
 
I'm on AdiumX too. I used iChat for quite a while but I don't want to run multiple chat programs at once, and friends use MSN and Yahoo. :( If they all used AIM though, I'd *screeching sound* prolly be back on iChat.
 
themadchemist said:
I use AIM. When I switched from X.1 to Panther, I used iChat (default) for a while. I couldn't stand it! The only nice thing was that it did in-message spell checks. But other than that, it was a pain to use. I went back to AOL's build of its messenger and I'm glad I did.
Click to expand...

Story of my life! :cool:
 
I would use Adium X except for two things: It doesn't allow me to broadcast my songs through iChatStatus (or a similar program that I'm not aware of), and it doesn't allow drag-and-drop transfers. So I use iChat.
 
King Cobra said:
I would use Adium X except for two things: It doesn't allow me to broadcast my songs through iChatStatus (or a similar program that I'm not aware of), and it doesn't allow drag-and-drop transfers. So I use iChat.
Click to expand...

You mean even when you're there? I know you can put iTunes status into your away/idle messages. You can even put them in your name. But I've seen other people where I get automatic status messages from their IM client saying whenever their song changes, even if they're not away. EDIT: You cannot set the "available" status as custom as of yet in Adium. Is this what you meant? I'd like to see that added....

But you can use scripts like %_artist (see Edit->Insert Script) to put iTunes info into your profile, away msg, etc.

Also, random happy for AdiumX 0.60 -- they added a pref so you can define what keys switch tabs...I'm always switching tabs in AdiumX and Safari at the same time, and it's apple+shift+arrow on Safari and it was apple+arrow on AdiumX. Now I can make it the same. I'm such a dork. :)

Wowser, you shouldn't see doubles of your msgs. Not sure why you do tho'. :(
 
mkrishnan said:
Wowser, you shouldn't see doubles of your msgs. Not sure why you do tho'. :(
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seems ok. When i am talking to a contact, it is normal, but swicthing to the 'MSN Chat' thing, it doubles my messages. No Biggie.
however, 5 minutes after using it, it crashed, but i'm quite keen on it. The contact list thing is too fiddly / small, though
 
wowser said:
seems ok. When i am talking to a contact, it is normal, but swicthing to the 'MSN Chat' thing, it doubles my messages. No Biggie.
however, 5 minutes after using it, it crashed, but i'm quite keen on it. The contact list thing is too fiddly / small, though
Click to expand...

0.58 crashed on me fairly often...maybe once every 6 or 7 chats? The comments on 0.59 said lots of crash fixes were implemented, so we'll see what 0.60 does, I guess. ;)

Do you mean you see your msgs both in MSN Chat and in Adium, or that you see them twice in one program or the other? I don't have MSN Chat installed at all so I dunno it might be something funny with that software if that's where you're seeing it.
 
yeah - it's when i am talking to more than one person in the same window with my MSN account. i guess it is only geared up for 1 on 1 chats.
the crashes are like every 10 minutes at the mo, not good
 
Yep. I used iChat for a long time until I gave Adium X a trial run. I'm really liking it a lot. I believe this will be my AIM client from now on.

But...


...I really don't believe anything beats iChat's emoticons. :rolleyes:
 
mkrishnan said:
EDIT: You cannot set the "available" status as custom as of yet in Adium. Is this what you meant? I'd like to see that added....
Click to expand...
iChatStatus can display a user's (my) current song when my status is Available, Idle, or Away...though I never allow iChat to set my status to Idle. Adium is lacking that custom Available stauts, though iChat isn't. Not to mention, I can put a line of text in iChat like "No file transfers right now" in case I'm doing some heavy internet activity through my slow connection so that others know they can chat, but not send me files. That's one great thing about iChat.


mkrishnan said:
But you can use scripts like %_artist (see Edit->Insert Script) to put iTunes info into your profile, away msg, etc
Click to expand...
Problem is: I want buddies (on iChat) to see what song I'm playing without having to look into someone's profile. In other words, there's some flicker in someone else's iChat buddy list...the person looks over and sees what I'm playing. That's another great thing about iChat...though there is a limit to how much text one can put in an iChat Available status (and Away status, as well, I think).
 
ToastCabbit said:
...I really don't believe anything beats iChat's emoticons. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
check out the adium xtras, theres an iChat emoticon pack for adium

and /me adds another vote for Adium
adium r0x0rz ;)
iChat i only open for videochats.
 
I use iChat, its clean, simple, and does what I need it to without a lot of extra fluff. But since you want to use MSN as well I think fire, adium, etc are all fine.
 
I did use Proteus but have gone back onto MSN now that 4.0 is out and stops the time-out problem. I also use iChat for AIM but have that on menu bar only so it automatically switches on whenever I'm online and connected. I don't really have to worry about it.
 
King Cobra said:
Problem is: I want buddies (on iChat) to see what song I'm playing without having to look into someone's profile. In other words, there's some flicker in someone else's iChat buddy list...the person looks over and sees what I'm playing. That's another great thing about iChat...though there is a limit to how much text one can put in an iChat Available status (and Away status, as well, I think).
Click to expand...

Yeah, I hope Adium adds this feature tool. I agree that its would be way cool.
 
I like Fire, it does most things that I want it to, I even like Fire over Adium X.

I don't like Adium X's buddy list management.
I like Fire's handling of emoticons (uses the right emoticons for the service you chat in).
I like Fire's text-speech features better.

At the rate Adium X is developing, I can see myself using Adium X in the future.

I have Fire, Adium X & Proteus installed but I only use Fire. The messaging services that I connect to are Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, MSN and Jabber.

When it comes to IRC I like 'Conversation' the best (its also free).
 
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