Facebook is the most popular social network out there. Unfortunately the chat client included on the site kind of sucks… or at least it did, until yesterday. That’s when Facebook enabled support for XMPP, an Open Source instant messaging protocol. So if you use a multi-protocol chat client like Pidgin, Adium, iChat, or Digsby you can now have Facebook chats within your instant messaging client (or, if you use Digsby, you can use the far more stable XMPP instead of Digsby’s hacked-together interpretation of Facebook’s own protocol).
How do you get in on the love? Just download and install Pidgin or Digsby (or, if you’re a Mac retard, use a Mac compatible XMPP client). Then go to this page on Facebook’s site, which has full instructions, complete with screen caps.
If you’re already rocking an XMPP client, all you need to do is add an XMPP account, and then enter the following details:
Username: [your Facebook user name]
Domain: chat.facebook.com
Jabber ID: [Facebook user name]@chat.facebook.com
Password: [your Facebook password]
Server: chat.facebook.com
Port: 5222
Use SSL/TLS: no
Allow Plaintext Authentication: no
A quick word: your “Facebook user name” is the name that appears in the URL of your Facebook profile, not the email address you use to log in. If you’re unsure what your user name might be, just click here and then click on “Other” under “Connect your Client” and Facebook will helpfully tell you what it is.