Facebook Chat on Your Desktop

Facebook chat works well enough on the web site, but it has one major drawback: you keep missing messages because you’re reading a site in another tab.  By the time you notice you’ve got a message your friend has quit!

Fortunately there’s a few ways of using Facebook chat on your desktop.  This is much more convenient, although it is a good way of totally killing your concentration so I don’t recommend doing this at work!

Facebook Chat for Mac

Adium is the easiest way to use Facebook chat on your Mac.  They added Facebook support last year, and it seems to work more reliably than the real Facebook chat.  Just go to File, Add Account, Facebook and enter your Facebook login details.

Another solution is Gabtastik.  This application also supports Google Talk.  Gabtastik simply wraps around the web interface.  You can also do this yourself with Fluid: this article details using Fluid to bring Facebook chat to your desktop.

Facebook for iPhone

The official iPhone Facebook client works with chat.  It’s ironically much nicer than using the web site itself.  Plus it has a handy “go offline” button for covert operations.

Facebook Chat for Windows

Digsby works with Facebook chat and a load of other social networks (including Twitter).  The interface is clean and easy to use, and works with Windows notifications (like Outlook).

Facebook Chat for Linux

There’s a Pidgin plugin for Facebook Chat: Pidgin Facebook Chat.  Read more on Ubuntu Unleashed.

Facebook Chat for Firefox

To view Facebook chat in the current window (without popping it out into a new window) you can add it as a sidebar.  Go to Bookmarks, Organize Bookmarks then create a new bookmark for http://www.facebook.com/presence/popout.php.  Make sure Load this bookmark in the sidebar is checked: