iChat, why AIM?

**MacLegacy** · July 18th, 2002, 12:23 AM

I don't understand why iChat is only compatible with AIM accounts. Is that the most popular account for mac users?

Personally, OK i'm using MSN Messenger a *lot* and it's *cough* microsoft.. but all my friends have it, so no choice here. I think iChat should have support for MSN, ICQ, AIM and others I may forget all at once. I'm not planning to use iChat if it uses AOL only..

Are there really a lot of people using AIM out there? (mac users)

The use of AOL may appeal to many persons, i'm not saying it sucks, i'm just making personal comments about it.

Prolly just cause i'm a teenager and want to get support for what *I* use, lol

Well anyway, I don't have OS X, so I shouldn't bother too much about it yet. I'm sure my father will be forced to buy a new comp when even 3rd-party apps he uses will be X only

Forgive my less than perfect use of the English language. I'm used to talking French everyday.

**gibbs** · July 18th, 2002, 12:27 AM

I think its politics more than anything else , MacLegacy.

I use Proteus or Fire, so that I can talk to people no matter what service they happen to be on. Not that I talk to anyone much these days.

**MacLegacy** · July 18th, 2002, 12:35 AM

Yeah, apps like Fire seem cool because of their different service support.

I'd think AOL and Apple made a deal so Apple makes iChat AIM based only.

Does anyone know if the Bubbles chat is the only view available or if there is "normal" view like in MSN, ICQ and such..

**twister** · July 18th, 2002, 12:40 AM

I wish iChat was more like fire. It's sweet. Ohh and i'm not looking forward to iChat. I think it looks retarted with the bubbles. Maybe it'll be cool though. We'll see.

Twister

**simX** · July 18th, 2002, 03:15 AM

You can turn off the bubbles and have it look like a standard message-by-message interface, but I like the bubbles.

It makes it look like an actual conversation.

**ddma** · July 18th, 2002, 05:14 AM

I use ICQ, AIM, and MSN because my friends are using them... I have 2xx contacts in ICQ and 5 contacts in AIM and 2 contacts in MSN... I don't care about MSN too much... Well, but ICQ... I know AOL bought ICQ already... Why shouldn't iChat support ICQ too?

**vanguard** · July 18th, 2002, 05:27 AM

I use AIM every day (actually, I use Trillian or Fire). It has the largest userbase by far so it's probably the best choice for Apple (unless you consider the benefits of pleasing msft to have value). My prefence is the yahoo service because I can see if the other person is typing. However, it's not as popular amoung the people I know.

I hope that they add more services in the future. Or, maybe they will start to converge on a single standard and every client will work with every service.

Bottom line: If you have to pick one, AIM is probably the best choice.

**ddma** · July 18th, 2002, 05:32 AM

I know but AIM is only popular in the US... right? Because of the AOL Internet service... In Hong Kong, even many people don't know what is AIM! Sighs... But ICQ is a must for Hong Kong Internet users... so?