Google chat uses Jabber, so any Jabber compatible client will work (ie all of th...

moe · on May 6, 2011

As much as I wanted to like jabber (I gave it a fair chance with openfire for almost a year), there are multiple problems, namely:

1. Audio and Video calls do not work with "any compatible client". I have in fact never gotten them to work at all.

2. Most jabber clients are awful and buggy.

3. Jabber support in multi-protocol clients is even more awful and buggy.

4. Nobody uses it, at least over here in europe.

5. Everybody over here uses Skype. If there was a reliable way to bridge jabber<->skype then I would bite and switch again.

joeguilmette · on May 7, 2011

1. Yea, for Audio/Video you need to go to the browser (but the browser is IMHO better than Skype for A/V)

2 & 3. ICQ, AIM (I think), iChat, Trillian... Etc. I like all of them.

4. At least in the States everyone uses Gmail (most everyone in SV that is)

5. Skype is prevalent in the work environment, I just don't know why. It sucks pretty hard and everyone hates it.

Just my opinion, I have had great success with Gmail/Google Voice and iChat (for chat with my Gmail Jabber account)