Q: Which other messaging services can iChat or Messages Log in to ?
Hi,
iChat 1 (not that it was ever called that) could log into AIM and Rendezvous (Rendezvous was later called Bonjour)
At iChat 3 the ability to login into Jabber servers was added which included Google (although back then you had to alter the Server Name in the settings)
iChat 4 add the ability to multiple accounts of AIM and Jabber accounts and Google is given it's own Add process.
It is not until iChat 6 that we see Yahoo added.
This requires that the Login ID is definitely a Yahoo one and not one of several other ID type that Yahoo allow with the Yahoo service. (However Buddies can be from all allowed types).
The option only allows text Chatting and does not make use of the AIM/Jabber In App Video and Audio Only chats.
During Lion (OS X 10.7.x) iChat 6 is updated a few times.
This has an impacts on which AIM Screen names will work.
The first version of Messages is in OS X 10.8 but continues the Numbering of the app as Version 7
This also adds the iMessages account.
Messages 8 in Mavericks (OS X 10.9.x) adds the ability to sync at a basic level from an iPhone.
The version is Yosemite (OS X 10.10.x) is also called Version 8 and add SMS forwarding to the abilities of the iMessages account.
AIM Screen Names
These can be registered as AIM or AOL and the part you need to add in iChat or Messages is the username part (not the @aim.com or @aol.com parts)
However some ISPs in the United Stated are also valid AIM Screen Names and require the full email ID to be entered as the name (i.e. @ is a valid characters).
Whilst not an ISP it also applies to Apple issued IDs such as all of the @mac.com ones (Paid for, trial and lapsed accounts).
When the service changed to MobileMe @me.com name could be used. They still work if it was a Paid for account that is now linked to iCloud.
You may also have an @me.com ID if you were early in adopting iCloud before they issued @icloud .com IDs later (in some cases you may have both)
If you have inked for email purposes @mac.com, @me.com and @icloud.com you may have all three as valid Name parts to your ID.
However for Messages and the late version of iChat 6 they will all act a separate IDs for an AIM login.
Jabber/XMPP IDs
You can add any Jabber ID to iChat or Messages in the add process.
The app then strips away the Username and @ symbol to be left with the server name.
A list of some servers (it is not exhaustive and does also keep old, shut down ones listed) http://www.jabberes.org/servers/
This process does not work for Google.
Google allowed their Mail IDs to become their Jabber IDs
However this gave use ID ending in both @gmail.com and @googlemail.com and google set up just one server and called is talk.google.com to get around this.
In iChat 3 you have to manually change the server setting
In later versions there is a Google option to use.
Jabber Transports
Many Jabber servers run what are called Gateways or Transports which link into other servers.
This Archived page tell you how (it is based on MSN but the principles can be applied to other services)
This is where the list above can help as it shows which services can be linked to together.
Whilst it does mean you use a another Jabber ID in some cases the type of Transports can mean you may not have to be logged in all the time (Coloured icons on the jabberes site) or have to be logged in (greyed out icons).
8:27 pm Tuesday; April 19, 2016
G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
Mac OS X (10.6.8),
iPhone and an iPad (2)
Posted on Apr 19, 2016 12:27 PM
