Good news from the Adium blog, the free multi-protocol messaging client will soon let you use the Facebook Chat feature, which was only implemented on April 6. The new feature will display your contacts with their little thumbnail image, status update and an availability icon. You’ll obviously need to have a Facebook account, but the good thing is you won’t have to have the website opened up in your browser to use it.
In my opinion, this goes to show why Adium still remains by far the best messaging client on Mac for personal users. It works with almost all the protocols out there, its interface can be customized and the client is very regularly updated. I also find Adium to be on the whole very stable and enjoy its design.
Facebook Chat is a popular new feature on the social networking website, as you can interact directly with your friends. The question now is, will other messenger client offer support for Facebook Chat? If Adium is GPL, there’s no reason why other GPL clients Psi, Coccinella or Spark couldn’t offer it. But it also all depends on whether Facebook wants to have the Chat feature available everywhere or just on a limited few. Obviously, if you’re using Facebook Chat in Adium, it means you aren’t on the site, downloading applications or clicking on ads.
