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Apple’s just rolled out a beta of their replacement for iChat, iMessages for Mac. Now you can message people across iPhones, iPads, iPods and Macs all from one unified messaging system – about time too.
Apple’s been sitting on the ability to do this for ages. I never did understand why iChat couldn’t hook into iMessages when it was rolled out for the iOS, it just made sense to me. Apparently it’s going to be part and parcel of OS X Mountain Lion, the next iteration of Apple’s desktop OS, but Lion users can download a beta version of iMessages for Mac right now.
Finally my fingers will never have to leave the comfort of my keyboard again, just to message my iPhone-touting friends. [Apple]
Thanks Jeff!
Awesome, a messaging system that allows you to only talk to other Apple owners….
Really come on….
LOL! What is your problem?
It’s like a postal service that can only deliver to 5% of the globe. In other words, totally useless…
You’re a dribbling mongoloid make no mistake, I have no idea how you got that star.
You could say that, or you could say it was like BBM except available on a wider range of devices.
and google talk users… and facebook chat users… and AIM users… and Yahoo users…. and any one using the Jabber Protocol…
Not like Skype, Facebook, MSN and plenty of other messaging systems let you speak to people outside of Apple’s walls.
Actually, like iChat, AIM, and G-Chat will hook up with it without any issues. Also compatible with Jabber protocol which allows lots of other stuff…
Bravo Apple, with every new coup you cement me and the rest of the world further into your ecosystem.
Speak for yourself.
Works well. The contact list for Google Talk (and I assume other non iMessage protocols) is essentially the same as iChat (separate contact list) but I don’t see how they could integrate it the same way they do iMessage.
Works well though, syncs everything nicely with iPhone and iPad, can’t complain about it!
Haven’t had a chance to test Google Talk functionality beyond text messaging because no-one is around at the minute, but I assume its basically the same as iChat.
The design isn’t bad, but it does use up a lot of space. I expect similar gripes to when Skype 5.0 launched on Mac, but although there is a lot more unused space than before, it doesn’t feel as cluttered as Skype 5.x does.
Minor Rant I just noticed this second – Full screen mode isn’t widescreen ratio! (looks to be 4:3) Hoping that gets fixed ASAP! It doesn’t look awful, but it doesn’t look right, and from a design perspective there is no reason it can’t fill the whole screen.
FYI, not tried google talk like you have, but I enabled Facebook Chat through XMPP and I can chat in the same windows as my iOS iMessages… for example when i type ‘Sarah’ in the ‘to’ field I get the same person on Facebook, iMessage (email), iMessage (iphone number) and AIM..
…so it looks to be integrated, but they kept the ‘buddy list’ view for people who prefer iChat
Yeah I noticed this too, I’ve taken to opening a few chats with people I talk to daily and leaving them in the sidebar and just closing the buddy list. Would be nice to be able to see online status in the sidebar though (only shows it at the top of the message history)
Kinda sad that they have dropped iChat. I prefer it over Facetime, and use it often, especially for video sharing capabilities, and built in VNC.
In the menu drop down there is an option for screen sharing still (have no-one to test it with though)
Cool, at least the functionality is still there! Thanks!
Oh how lovely, another platform for my iMessages to not get delivered too, but tell me they are!