iChat AV allows you to communicate in real-time with people who use mac.com or have an AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) account. You can use it to hold text-based conversations with friends or, with the proper equipment, even to have audio or videoconferences.
To make full use of iChat, you will need an AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) account or a .Mac username. You can sign up for a free AIM account at www.aim.com or a free .Mac username at www.mac.com, which comes with a 60-day trial of .Mac benefits. (After the .Mac trial expires, the username is still usable for iChat.) Even if you plan to use iChat AV only for its audio/videoconferencing capabilities, you’ll still need one of these accounts; they are used to establish a connection.
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If other users on your local network use iChat AV, you won’t need to use an AIM or mac.com account to chat with them. Rendezvous-capability has been incorporated into iChat so that it can automatically generate a buddy list of users within your local network. This list appears in a Rendezvous window separate from contacts you add to your buddy list.
The first time you start iChat AV, you are prompted for either your AIM or .Mac iChat username, as shown in Figure 16.1. To register for a free .Mac username, click the Get an iChat Account button.
Next, you are prompted for whether you want to use Rendezvous for messaging. If you have a relatively contained local network, turning on Rendezvous probably isn’t an issue. If you’re part of a subnet with hundreds of clients, however, your Rendezvous list may be overwhelming.
Finally, iChat provides a preview of your audio and video input. (If you want to take advantage of audio- or videoconferencing, make sure that you have a camera and/or a microphone attached to the inputs and that they are recognized by iChat before continuing. We’ll talk more about audio- and videoconferences with iChat later in this chapter in the section “Using iChat for Audio or Video Chats.”)
If you need to add or change settings after the first time iChat AV runs, choose Preferences from the iChat application menu and open the Accounts pane, as shown in Figure 16.2. Enter your AIM screen name or your full .Mac account (including the @mac.com) in the AIM Screen Name field, and enter your password in the Password field.
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You can quickly fill in the fields in the Accounts pane with your system-stored .Mac preferences by choosing Use my .Mac Account from the AIM Screen Name field’s pop-up menu.
If you’re using an alternative AIM server or require a proxy, click the Server Options button to provide connection or proxy information for iChat AV. (If you don’t know what settings to change, just leave these as they are.)
Rendezvous messaging, which allows people within a local network to communicate, can be enabled or disabled by clicking the Enable Local Rendezvous Messaging check box.
After configuring iChat AV, you can log in to AIM or Rendezvous using the Log Into menu options found in the iChat AV application menu, or by setting your availability in the Buddy List window (there’s a pop-up menu directly under your username). You can also log in by choosing Buddy List from the iChat AV menu extra, in the right side of the menu bar.
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The iChat AV menu extra is displayed as a “speech bubble” on the right side of your menu bar. You do not have to have iChat AV open to log in to or out of AIM, or to initiate a chat session. This menu is always active and can be used to set your availability or choose a buddy to start a conversation.
When you log in to AIM through iChat, the full Buddy List window appears onscreen to show whether your friends are online (not grayed out), available to chat and what conferencing capabilities (Audio/Video) are available to them, as shown in Figure 16.3. (If your buddy list is empty right now, don’t worry; we’ll talk about adding buddies to your list in just a moment.)
The video camera icon shows video availability, whereas the telephone represents an audio-chat ready contact. You can customize what details are displayed in the Buddy List and sort it by different criteria using the iChat AV View menu.
Rendezvous chatting, if active, opens a virtually identical window displaying the active iChat users on your local subnet.
When you are logged in to iChat AV, other members can see whether you are available for a chat. By default you can set two states for your account to use: Available and Away—accessed from either the iChat AV menu extra or the drop-down menu under your name at the top of the Buddy List window. If your computer has been idle for several minutes, it automatically kicks into an “idle” state to show that you haven’t been using your computer.
To create additional states, use the two Custom options found under the Buddy List availability menu. You will be allowed to type your own custom label to be displayed in your buddies’ chat clients.
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Your status, as well as the status of your buddies, is typically indicated by green (available), red (away), and orange (idle) dots next to each name (including yours) in the Buddy List window and iChat AV menu extra.
If you have trouble differentiating between the colors or just want a change of pace, the availability “dots” can be changed to shapes using the General pane within the iChat AV preferences panels.
Because your buddy list is stored on the AIM servers, you must be logged in to manage the list. To add a buddy, click the + button at the bottom of the iChat Buddy List window.
A sheet containing entries from your Address Book (covered in Chapter 8, “Working with Address Book, Keychain Access, iSync, and Ink”) appears, as shown in Figure 16.4. If the person you want to add to your buddy list has an AIM or mac.com listing, highlight the person and click Select Buddy.
If the person doesn’t show an instant messaging name, you are prompted for the information. If the buddy-to-be isn’t currently in your Address Book at all, click the New Person button to create a new entry. Enter the person’s AIM or .Mac screen name, as well as his real name and email address in the window that appears.
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You can drag an image file (if available) into the image well in your Address Book to set a custom buddy icon. Click the Add button to save your new buddy. (We’ll talk more about buddy icons later in this chapter in the section “Setting Your iChat AV Buddy Icon.”)
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Address Book and iChat are integrated such that adding a new buddy to iChat automatically adds a new card in Address Book. However, because your buddy list is stored on the Instant Messenger server, you can’t remove a buddy simply by deleting an Address Book card. Instead, you must select the buddy in the Buddy List and choose Edit, Delete from the menu.
Also, keep in mind that deleting a buddy from the Buddy List does not remove the person’s card from the Address Book.
To edit any information for a buddy that is already stored, select the buddy in the list and then choose Buddies, Get Info from the menu, or Control-click on the buddy herself and select Get Info. The Info window, shown in Figure 16.5, provides quick access to your Address Book buddy information.
As with the initial setup, here you can set all the contact information for your buddy, as well as a custom buddy icon. If you do set a custom icon, you can choose to always use it in your buddy list. If this option is not set, your buddy icon can be overridden by any custom icon set on the remote system.
A unique feature of the AIM service is the ability to set custom thumbnails of all your contacts and yourself. These are known as buddy icons (or buddy pictures depending on what label Apple decided to use where). Your buddy icon is automatically transmitted to your friends so that they can see whatever you’ve set your icon to be. Similarly, if they’ve set custom icons, the icons automatically show up on your system.
By default your personal AIM buddy icon is be the image set in the Address Book application or the icon used for your account image. To replace it with one of your choosing, drag a new image into the image well beside your name at the top of the Buddy List window. An editing window appears to allow you to position and scale the image, as shown in Figure 16.6. Drag the image so that the section you want to use as an icon is centered in the bright square in the middle of the window; then use the zoom slider underneath the image to zoom in and out. The center square shows the icon that will be set, albeit larger than its final size in iChat AV. When you’re satisfied with the image, click Set.
If you want to choose another image from a file, click the Choose button, and a standard file selection dialog box appears.
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Users with a camera attached will notice the Take Video Snapshot button at the bottom of their window. Clicking this button displays a live video preview, gives you roughly 3 seconds to primp and preen, and then automatically takes a snapshot that you can use as a buddy icon. This provides an easy way to create a new icon for your mood du jour.
In iChat AV, you can switch to any icon you’ve used recently by clicking your thumbnail image in the Buddy List window. A palette of frequently used icons is displayed, enabling you to quickly switch to icons to match your current mood, as shown in Figure 16.7.
Use the Edit Picture selection within the pop-up palette to reposition or recrop the selected icon.
From the Get Info window, you can also access Buddy Actions by choosing Actions from the Show pop-up menu. A Buddy Action, displayed in Figure 16.8, is simply something that “happens” when one of your contacts becomes available or does something interesting.
In this example, I’ve chosen to speak the text “Anne is here!” and bounce the dock item repeatedly when my buddy becomes available. Additionally, by checking the box Perform Actions Only Next Time Event Occurs the action automatically is removed after the first time it is used. I have something important to say to Anne, but usually could care less if she is online, thus the setting. (No Anne, that isn’t true, I’m simply putting on airs for the reader.)
Seven possible events can be used to trigger a buddy action:
Buddy Becomes Available—. Your buddy has become available for IM’ing.
Buddy Becomes Unavailable—. Your buddy is no longer available for IM’ing.
Message Received—. Your buddy receives an IM that you sent.
Text Invitation—. Your buddy sends you a text chat invitation.
Audio Invitation—. Your buddy sends you an audio chat invitation.
Video Invitation—. Your buddy sends you a video chat invitation.
Buddy Accepted A/V Invitation—. Your buddy accepts an A/V chat invitation that you sent.
As you set actions for events, a megaphone icon appears beside the event that contains an action. This lets you keep track of what events trigger actions without having to select and inspect each one.
If you have many friends, you may quickly find youself with a long-scrolling list of buddies in your window. To better manage your buddy list, you can arrange them into groups such as People I Know, People I Like, and People I can’t ignore. After creating the groups, you can choose which group (or groups) are displayed at once.
To access the groups feature of iChat AV, choose View, Show Groups from the menu. A window drawer appears, as shown in Figure 16.9. Initially, a default Buddies group contains all your buddies.
To add a new group, click the “+” button at the bottom of the window drawer and type a name for the group. A Group name can be edited at any time by double-clicking its name in the list. Groups (and the buddies they contain) can be removed by selecting the group name and choosing Edit, Delete from the menu (or by pressing the Delete key on your keyboard).
After adding a group, populate it with buddies by dragging their names from the Buddy List onto the group names. To remove a buddy from a group, make sure that the group name is highlighted in the drawer and then drag the buddy back into the default Buddies group.
Watch Out!
Make sure that you delete buddies from groups only when you no longer want them anywhere in your buddy list!
To show only the buddies within a specific group or set of groups, use the check boxes to the left of the group names to select which groups are displayed in your buddy list at a given time. The All Groups check box is a shortcut for selecting all the groups simultaneously.
To close the group drawer, click the arrow in the upper-right corner of the drawer, or choose View, Hide Groups from the menu.
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If this seems like an awkward way to display groups, I agree. Thankfully, Apple added an awkward-to-find preference that makes groups much more manageable. To add a permanent drop-down group menu to the Buddy List window, visit the General pane of the application preferences and click the Use Groups in Buddy List check box.
In iChat AV, you can choose from three types of “messaging” to communicate with your friends: text, audio, and video—represented by the “A”, Phone, and Video camera icons, respectively, at the bottom of your buddy list. To start a messaging session with one of your buddies, just select the buddy’s name in the list and click the appropriate icon at the bottom of the Buddy List. (Only the type of messaging your buddy can participate in will be available.)
Alternatively, you can double click the buddy’s name to start a text chat, or click the telephone or video icon by the buddy’s picture to start an audio or video chat. (We’ll cover audio and video chats more later in the chapter in the section “Using iChat for Audio or Video Chats.”)
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The iChat AV menu extra can also be used to start a chat session by choosing a buddy name from the menu. If the buddy has multiple means of communicating (besides simple text), iChat displays a window with three buttons (Text, Audio, Video) and allows you to choose your preferred chat method.
For those with who prefer to use menus, the Buddies menu also allows you to initiate a chat session, including two “special” chat types—one-way audio and one-way video. These are useful if you want to send audio or video to someone without a camera. They will be able to type their responses to you and watch/hear your audio/video stream.
Starting a text messaging session opens an empty chat window, as shown in Figure 16.10.
Type your message in the message field at the bottom of the window and press Return on your keyboard. If you’re into sending “emoticons” (smiley faces), there is a convenient pull-down smiley menu on the right side of the input field. Basic formatting controls (Bold, Underline, Font, and so on) are found under the Format menu and can be used to style your text.
After you send your message, it appears in the upper portion of the window, along with whatever reply the other person sends, as shown in Figure 16.11.
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The text of a conversation can be saved by choosing File, Save a Copy As from the menu.
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If you find the conversation bubbles displayed by iChat annoying, you can use View, Show as Text in the menu to disable them (and View, Show as Balloons to turn them back on).
Further chat window View settings include the option of choosing how buddies are identified in a chat (using their pictures, names, or both), the ability to set a customized picture as the chat background, and finally to clear the background picture if you find it distracting.
If you receive a message while not already engaged in a chat session with the sender, you are alerted, and a message window appears. If you click on the window, it displays an area for you to type a response (immediately accepting the invitation). You also have the option of clicking Block to block the request and further messages from the buddy, Decline to turn down the chat with your buddy, or Accept to start chatting. Again, if you enter a response and press Return, it is assumed that you have accepted the chat.
You can add the person you’re currently chatting with to your buddy list by choosing Buddies, Add Buddy from the menu.
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If, during the course of a conversation, your chat buddy temporarily closes the connection or gets bumped offline, your chat window stays open. If the buddy comes back, a message to that effect appears in the already open window, and you can resume the conversation where you left off.
AIM messages are not (usually) a direct line of communication between people. Instead, all IM traffic is routed through instant messaging servers—in the case of AIM, AOL’s servers. Although this conveniently avoids many connection problems with firewalls and inbound traffic, it also leads to privacy concerns about who could potentially be watching your chat. In addition, the extra time required to transmit through a central server can slow file transfers between individuals. To avoid this, users can activate a Direct instant messaging session where all information is passed directly between the participants’ computers.
To do this, choose the buddy to send a direct IM to and choose Buddies, Send Direct Message from the menu (Command-Option-Shift-M). If both you and the recipient are connected directly to the Internet, an IM session starts, exactly as it would through the AOL servers.
In addition to sending ordinary text messages, iChat allows you to send files. To send a file, drag its icon from your hard drive into the message area of a chat window and press Return on your keyboard. The recipient can then drag the file onto his desktop. If you send image files, they will appear inside the chat window as part of the conversation, as shown in Figure 16.12. (For maximum compatibility with people using AIM programs other than iChat, it’s recommended that you stick with JPEG and GIF image formats.)
Hyperlinks can also be sent as a special iChat object. To send a hyperlink, type a URL (including the “http://” part); drag the bookmark from your browser; or choose Edit, Attach Hyperlink to enter a clickable URL. When your buddy clicks the link, it opens her default Web browser to the page you’ve referenced.
You can participate in chats with different people simultaneously, each contained in its own separate window (the default). You can also start a chat session with multiple people where all participants can see messages and type simultaneously.
To start a group chat:
Highlight the buddies you want to invite to chat; then Control-click on any of the names to open a contextual menu, as shown in Figure 16.13. From the menu, choose Invite To Chat.
Type a message inviting the participants. When the invited buddies receive the chat request (shown in Figure 16.14), they can choose to accept or decline. If they accept, they can send and receive messages as part of the group.
If you start a multiperson chat and want to switch to a single-user IM, you can use the Chat Options menu selection under the View menu. You are prompted for what type of IM session you want to switch to.
The chat options can also be used to view the Chat Name, which, in turn, can be used by any AIM user to join the chat, even if he is not on your buddy list. In iChat AV, choosing File, Go To Chat allows any iChat user to enter the chat name and join your chat. Other AIM clients should offer the same feature, but how it is accessed varies.
You can start a group chat that remains open and allows others to join whenever they wan. To do this, select File, Go To Chat (Command-G) from the menu and type a name for your chat room. The iChat AV chat window appears with no participants. (If you typed an existing chat room name, you will join a chat someone else has created.) Others can join your chat room using the Go To Chat feature on their copy of iChat AV.
As you found out at the beginning of this chapter, iChat AV can be used for audio or video chats as well as instant messaging. Figure 16.15 shows an example of a video chat session in progress.
With very little setup, it allows ordinary users to hold high-quality full motion videoconferences with their friends and colleagues.
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iChat is not compatible with other videoconferencing applications. If you need a solution that works with people using the Windows operating system, Yahoo!’s IM client for Mac OS X supports video (and has supported it for some time). Download the Yahoo! client from http://messenger.yahoo.com/messenger/download/mac.html.
iChat works with recognized Mac OS X video sources: Firewire camcorders, Webcams, and analog A/V conversion devices. Apple’s own iSight camera (www.apple.com/isight/) produces a high-quality image. If the $150 price tag is within range, I recommend the iSight purchase. If not, the iBot camera is available for the $50-$75 range on eBay and works fine with iChat AV.
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Apple’s iChat AV package includes drivers for popular cameras, including the iBot. If you’ve already installed third-party camera drivers, you may see the message “Your camera is in use by another application.” Removing the third-party drivers and rebooting seems to solve the problem.
Of course, if you get the error message and are using the camera in another application, you may just need to quit the application.
If you do not have a video camera, you can use iChat AV as an audioconferencing solution with any system-recognized microphone.
It should be pointed out that iChat AV requires at least a 600MHz G3 for video-conferencing. If you attempt to use video on a slower machine, it reports that video is not available on your computer. Whether this is an issue with the beta remains to be seen; other video chat software provides similar functionality with much less restrictive processor requirements.
Also, no matter what high-end CPU platform or video hardware you may own, you’ll need network bandwidth to accommodate audio or video streams. The low-end requirements are 56Kbps for audio, and 128Kbps for video. Realistically, 56K modem users may be able to audioconference if they have a stable and noise-free connection, but the best experience comes from a dedicated digital connection. xDSL, Cable, and LAN users should be able to carry high-quality audio/video streams easily.
To initiate an audio chat, choose a buddy with audio capabilities, as represented by a phone icon next to the buddy icon and click the phone button at the bottom of the Buddy window. (Alternatively, you could double-click the phone icon, but that’s just too easy!)
After an audio chat has been initiated, a small window, shown in Figure 16.16, is displayed.
The input level meter can be used to guage whether your microphone is positioned correctly, or whether you need to adjust the input level (gain) within the Sound System Preference panel. During a chat, you can adjust the volume using the chat window’s volume slider, or quickly mute the conversation by clicking the “crossed out” microphone button.
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If the volume is too high, you may experience feedback as the microphone starts to pick up the speaker sounds. You can fix this by lowering your gain, lowering the volume, or positioning the microphone farther away from your speaker.
Laptop users may notice that only a single speaker is active during A/V chats in iChat AV. This is a purposeful attempt to reduce feedback by disabling the speaker closest to the microphone.
If you are on the receiving end of an audio chat request, you are prompted with an incoming chat alert (similar to an incoming text message) and, after the alert window is clicked, given the option of accepting or declining the chat—or making a text reply. If you choose a text reply, you effectively open a new text chat with the remote party, and the audio chat is cancelled.
A video chat works virtually identically to an audio chat—except that you start it by clicking the camera icon and can see as well as hear the remote person.
When a video chat is initiated, you see a preview of yourself until the chat is accepted. At that point, your image shrinks to the lower-right corner of the window, and your buddy’s smiling face fills the rest, as shown in Figure 16.17. You can resize your mini preview by moving your cursor over it and then dragging the resize handle that appears. You can also click and drag the mini preview to any of the four corners of the window.
At the bottom of the video chat window is a microphone button for muting the audio portion of chat and a button with two opposing arrows for expanding the view to fill the whole screen.
When in full-screen mode, moving the mouse displays several button controls above your preview image: an “X” to close the chat, a microphone to mute, and double arrows to shrink back to a windowed view. Again, use the drag handle that appears in the upper-left corner of the preview to resize your own image onscreen or click and drag the entire mini preview window to move it to another corner.
To pause the video display at any time, choose Pause Video from the Video menu.
When recieving a video chat request, clicking the alert window gives you a preview of your own video feed so that you can make sure that you’ve dressed yourself properly before clicking the Accept button to start the chat. Like the audio chat, you can also decline a chat request or send a text reply rather than video.
If your friend has no video camera connected, you can still give him the pleasure of watching you by starting a one-way video chat using the Buddies menu.
Depending on your and your buddies’ connections, video and audio chats may be a bit choppy or sporadic. To get an idea of the throughput of your connection, choose Connection Doctor from the Video menu. Figure 16.18 shows the Connection Doctor (which doesn’t really make anything better).
Some choppiness problems can be rectified by limiting the amount of data being streamed to your chat partner. Usually iChat AV determines the proper streaming rate automatically, but in some cases, you may want to try setting the value yourself. To do this, use the Video preferences panel within the iChat AV preferences, shown in Figure 16.19.
The bandwidth limit is initially set to none, meaning that iChat attempts to stream data as quickly as possible to the remote site. You can limit the bandwidth to anywhere from 100Kbps to 2Mbps. Low-end (ISDN) connections should restrict the bandwidth to 100Kbps, whereas cable and xDSL users may be able to get away with 200Kbps or possibily 500Kbps. Only local or high-bandwidth (T1/T3/ATM) connections should attempt the higher settings.
In addition to the bandwidth settings, the Video preferences panel gives you access to a preview of your video and audio input and lets you choose which of your audio input sources will be used as the microphone.
Users with an iSight will appreciate the option to Automatically Open iChat When Camera Is Turned On. This launches iChat when the iSight iris is opened.
Finally, there is a check box to repeatedly play a ringing sound when you’re invited to an A/V chat. Why this isn’t located under the Alerts preferences panel is beyond me.
iChat A/V’s video features work extremely well as long as one side of a connection is not behind a firewall or connection sharing device. To use video/audioconferencing behind a firewall, speak to your system administrator. (Apple’s tech notes on this topic are available at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93208.)
Although most of the iChat AV options can be controlled from the Buddy List or menu bar, a few options for fine-tuning the application must be accessed from the preferences.
Use the General control panel to enable or disable the iChat menu extra (Show Status in Menu Bar), switch to shape-based status, and control what happens (log in/log out) when you start and quit iChat AV.
A nice feature found in the General pane is the option to control what your computer does when you return to it after it has been set to Away status. Rather than automatically make you available, you can choose to remain away (and not be bothered by your friends), or have it prompt you to ask whether it should change your status.
The Accounts pane is used to fill in the username and password for your .Mac or AIM account. If there are special proxy or login host requirements, the Server Options button can be used to set them.
You can make additional changes to the appearance of the chat windows under the Messages section of the iChat preferences, shown in Figure 16.20, including font color and balloon color. Because remote users have control over the fonts and colors that appear in your window, iChat AV gives you the option of reformatting incoming messages to a specific balloon and font color.
Rendezvous users can choose to show messages as they’re being typed (after a short delay) by clicking the Send Text As I Type check box. You can also choose to confirm file transfers and save chat transcripts for blackmailing your friends later.
Under the Actions preferences, choose what iChat will do when you or your buddies log in or out. Use the Event pop-up menu to choose an event to modify; then click the check boxes for the actions you want to apply, such as playing sounds, speaking text, and bouncing icons. This is similar to the individual Buddy Actions discussed earlier but applies to everyone, not just a specific person.
The Privacy preferences allow you to choose who in the AIM/.Mac community can send you messages. Choose categories of users, such as those in your buddy list, or name individual users using the Edit List buttons who can or cannot contact you.
If you don’t want other people to know that you’re idle and that your computer is available for stealing, click the Block Others from Seeing That I Am Idle check box.
The iChat menus can be used to access a few additional features.
The iChat application menu can be used to access the application preferences as well as log in and out of AIM and Rendezvous.
The File menu offers options to start chats or go to an existing chat. It also lets you save a transcript of a currently open chat session.
Under the Edit menu, you’ll find the standard editing functions—such as undo/redo, cut, copy, and paste—as well as the Check Spelling option. Also in the Edit menu are the options for inserting a Smiley, attaching a file, or adding a hyperlink.
The View menu can sort your buddy list based on availability or other attributes, and can even set or clear a background image used in all your chat windows.
Under the Buddies menu, you’ll find all the actions you can perform when you’ve selected a person on your buddy list, such as sending messages, emailing, getting info about, or even ignoring.
The Video menu proves quick access to full-screen video, sound muting, video pausing, and the Connection Doctor bandwidth statistics.
Use the Format menu as you would with a word processor to control the font, color, and style of outgoing text messages.
Apple’s iChat AV can be used for instant messaging as well as for computer-to-computer video and audio chats. In this chapter, you learned how to set up iChat and add other people to your buddy list. You also learned how to initiate and join one-on-one instant messaging sessions, group chats, and chat rooms. We then looked at iChat’s audio/video options, which require a microphone (or microphone-equipped computer) and a camera, respectively. Finally, we toured the preference options and menus.