what happened to iChat in mountain lion?

Messages really is the worst feature in OS X since.....wel, ever.

I used iChat for years with my Google Talk account until the update to Mountain Lion. I've now switched to Adium completely. I've even switched off sending and receiving iMessages in OS X. It's easier to just send messages from my iPhone instead.

just wanted to say that.

This is ridiculous.

I'm setting up a friend's new MacBook Air. He's never had an AIM / iChat account and is new to Apple.

We have set up his AppleID, he's connected now to the App Store, etc.

But Messages? What have they done to you? I use Messages on my MBP with my old AIM account, no problem.

But setting up a Messages account from zero gives you -insofar as I can tell, and having reviewed all of the helpful info here- no way to see something akin to a Buddy List.

How are you supposed to see which of your buddies are online? I see that you can invite to video chat from a menu item if you already have a conversation (text) going, but... this is just DUMB.

Command-1 gives me nothing. Under the "Window" menu, after the line with "Messages ... Command-0", there's a line, and then "File Transfers" and "Contacts". Command-1 isn't tied to anything.

Under the MESSAGES menu, where it says "My status" - all the options are greyed out.

I've quit and relaunched Messages, did a reboot, all updates... I'm a Mac Guru, and this has me stumped.

Or is it simply that there is no Buddy list in Messages?

Hi,

There are Buddy lists

Start with Enabling the Bonjour account as a test.

Thc "Buddies" item in the Window Menu with it's CMD + 1 keystrokes will now be listed.

If you then Add AIM or Jabber Names or IDs then the Buddy List becomes a Combined List.

These can be unconnected by the option in the General Section that "gathers all accounts in to one list" (it is in fact only talking about non iMessages accounts)

The Alternative that you are in fact presented with by default is the Messages window. (CMD +0)

The New Message icon top Left add a New Message item to the List on the left of that window.

The top right now has a Blue + icon

This gives at least two options (Contacts and Buddies) If your Contacts (formerly the Address Book) has Groups you will also get this as a Choice.

The Buddies options shows you those Buddies that are Available but does not tell you which are AIM or Jabber

You can the use Contacts to select a Contact and iMessages them (it add them to the "To" Spot top left of center)

This is turn becomes a drop down to show you their other choices (AM and Jabber ID if those have been added to the Contact card)

Once a Chat is Started the Blue icon is replaced with A Video icon.

You can have Buddy Lists (plural) and the messages window open

9:25 PM Tuesday; October 23, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Message was edited by: Ralph Johns (UK)

Yes, and then when you have a contact on iMessage as well as Gtalk and you want to switch (by clicking on the persons name and choosing a differt protocol) you get **** like this:

HI,

7:43 PM Wednesday; October 24, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

I know how it's supposed to work. It just doesn't work. As soon as I click on the name to choose a protocol (imsg or Gtalk) the name turns red and throws a load of errors at me, like the one in the screenshot above. And this one:

Also, when I've had a conversation with someone from iPhone to iPhone while Messages is offline and I switch Messages on, later on. I get a million notifications for a bunch of messages that I've already read (and responded to) from my iPhone. Then when I get a new iMsg in Messages it goes and starts a new conversation instead of adding to the existing one. Even though both sender and recipient are using the same address/number.

It just makes no sense whatsoever. Steve Jobs used to fire the people responsible for this type of rubbish.

HI,

Showing me the error messages again isn't telling me what you are selecting.

It does nothing to convince me that you have another account in Messages that might support a Buddy list (If changing from iMessages to Jabber say).

The sycning in Messages is about displaying the iMessage on All devices that are using that Apple ID (And /or iPhone Number)

The Syncing does not include what you may have done with that message already. So if you delete them on the iPhone they will still turn up on the Mac.

I would suggest all parties double check the Send As settings on both iPhone and Mac.

Also if the link between iPhone Number and Apple ID has not been fully integrated then iMessages can appear as if they are "New" messages when received on a different device.

9:15 PM Wednesday; October 24, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Ralph, yes, activating Bonjour does then present me with the Commnd-1 option and shows the buddy list for Bonjour. What I want - but which Messages apparently doesn't have, is a buddy list for Messages - right?

What I think many of us are looking for is the same at-a-glance info of which of our buddies are available / idle / offline, like we had under iChat.

Hi Mark,

It does not happen.

From the Messages Window, which is both Chat window an Interface, you can start a New Message with the icon top left.

The top right then gains the Blue + icon

This is a drop down for Contacts or Buddies and also shows Groups if you have them in the Contacts List (Formerly the Address Book).

From the Contacts List you can select a Contact and the iMessage iPhone Number or Apple ID

They then get added to the "To" Spot.

They will go Blue if the ID or Number is "registered" with iMessages or red if it is not.

I have seen a iPhone Number that was Off Line (run out of charge) go red.

However as most people have linked iPhone Numbers and Apple IDs the chances are you cannot rely on this method to show who is On Line. (But then with SMS messages between two phones you don' t really know when the person is going to get it).

9:40 PM Wednesday; October 24, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hey Mark,

I'm clearly very late to this discussion, but thought that I may be able to shed some light for you and/or others that may still be confused as to this whole buddy list issue.

The biggest thing to understand about iMessage on iOS 5/6 is that your iMessage account that is attached to your Apple ID is not an IM account like AIM, GTalk, Jabber and Yahoo!. iMessage is more like text messaging, but through iCloud and Apple's servers (a la BBM). Therefore, when you send a message via iMessage on an iOS device, you're sending something more like an SMS/MMS message. When you send a "normal" text message, you would never know if the recipient is online or not, because normal text messaging does not indicate as such. Whenever they are connected to the Internet or have a cellular connection, they will receive the message at that time, be it a minute, hour or day later. Text messaging doesn't have Buddy Lists.

Howver, Messages on the Mac is a combination of iMessage on iOS and iChat on Snow Leopard. It sends old school-style "text" messages (via iMessage), and can also be used as a traditional Instant Messaging client for services such as AIM, GTalk, Yahoo!, Jabber, etc. These are the services that utilize Buddy Lists. Not iMessage.

Summary:

1. when you use Messages on a Mac to communicate with other iMessage users, there's no traditional buddy list to see who's online and who isn't. You're really just sending free text and picture messages, therefore no Buddy List is really needed. If they're on online (connected to the web) they'll get the message right away. If they're not online, they'll get the message once they are connected to the interent again (be that by cellular connection or wifi).

2. when you use Messages on a Mac to communicate with other IM users on AIM (also used for us old-school iChat users during the dot Mac era), GTalk, Jabber, and Yahoo!, you will see a Buddy List because IM services utilize Buddy Lists.

iMessage on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad may look like an IM service (a la AOL Instant Messenger), but it isn't. When you use it on your Mac, don't get it confused with AIM and those other services.

Hope this (long post) helps. Again, sorry I was so late to this discussion, but hopefully this helps other (likely) frustrated users to better understand the transition from iChat.app to Messages.app.

Hi Ralph, just one question..

Screensharing doens't work at all.. not even when in 'system preferences/sharing' screen sharing is enabled.😟

How do you get it to work?

Really, I don't understand why iChat was killed.. 😐

I did a lot of support thru iChat over the past year.. now I have to explain to people how to install Team Viewer first.. That's a great tool but not the best solution in my opinion.

Your help is welcome.. 😉

Regards,

Frederic

Hey Frederic,

This issue is a bit confusing. I just finally got screen sharing working again last week after reading and participating in this post.

The trick is to have an IM account, like AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), set up as an account in Messages.app, alongside your normal iCloud/iMessage account.

If you previously used your Apple ID for iChat when it was powered by AIM, then it is likely recognized as an iMessage/iCloud account in Messages.app now. What you'll need to do is go back in to Messages > Preferences > Accounts and add your Apple ID/iCloud a second time (if it was previously used for iChat/AOL IM) as an AIM account as well. If your Apple ID/iChat account was not the same username and password as your AIM account, then you'll want to add your AIM account in this section.

From what I can gather, an Instant Messaging account is necessary to get screen sharing working again (I know an AIM account will work, but I'm unsure about Yahoo! or Jabber, as I don't use those services.) In essence, having just an iMessage (iCloud) account in Messages.app will not allow you to do Instant Messaging. You need an IM account as well.

Why the IM account? I believe it's because the IM service is what establishes a persistent connection between your Mac and someone else's to enable screen sharing.

Once you do that, you can follow Ralph's fantastic directions (which I followed) to get your Buddy list showing, and then you can right-click as usual, choose screen share, and proceed.

After following that, I now have my iMessage, AIM (with screen sharing), and Bonjour accounts running simultaneously. (Thanks to Ralph.)

Please let us know how things go, and if you're still in need of help.

Robert

HI

Apple IDs

Used with iMessages and AIM logins (You can have two)

Screen Sharing is tied to Video Chat (It actually an Audio Chat +)

But is is iChat to iChat (Messages to Messages or mixes).

As AIM Login and Jabber Logins can Video chat then they should be able to Screen Shrare.

Yahoo Logins can not do Video or Audio and cannot Screen Share.

7:50 PM Thursday; December 20, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

i hope you (Ralph) recevie some sort of compensation for all your time/effort to help people with issues like these. sometimes it seems like you wrote the script for messages. and if you did.. thanks for the upgrade. haha. regardless. i mean, you go to messages ~>buddies.. and on the drop down it clearly shows you where you can, Share Screen, Ask to Share Remote Screen, etc... SIMPLE things to find if you just played around with it. Kinda werid that you have to do all the work. Anyway... I'm kinda baffeled is all.

messages is like anything else that's new. you have to play around with it for a little while and it's REALLY REALLY easy to use.

once again, you're creating very good karma around here. ➕

HI,

Apple once sent me a T shirt.

At the time there were about 300 (just about) who had access to the Lounge (now Level 6 though the points needed are the same) who also got one.

iChat always had these things.

In some ways Messages hides them. (Buddy Lists for AIM and Jabber, Bonjour and Yahoo are not on view)

Some Menu items only go dark (and Accessible when the right window is "Front".

In some cases the menu items have disappeared but the function is still there (Sending SMS to a Phone Number in an AIM Buddy list - the restrictions on this, to phones in the United States severely limit this function)

Thanks for your comments.

Merry Christmas.

8:02 PM Saturday; December 22, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously