iChat

iChat
Developer(s)	Apple Inc. ; AOL (partial)
Operating system	macOS
Type	Instant messaging
License	Proprietary

iChat (previously iChat AV) is a discontinued

Bonjour

protocols.

In OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, iChat was replaced by Messages for chat and FaceTime for video calling.

History

iChat was first released in August 2002 as part of

Mac OS X 10.2. It featured integration with the Address Book and Mail applications and was the first officially supported AIM client that was native to Mac OS X (the first-party AIM application at the time was still running in Classic emulation).^[1]

One episode of the first season of the

Entourage had Eric Murphy having an iChat conversation with Ari Gold

, marking the first time that this application was used on a television series.

Interface

iChat incorporated Apple's

speech bubbles

and pictures to personify the online chatting experience. With iChat, green (available), yellow (idle), and red (away) icons could be displayed next to the name of each connected user on the buddy list. For color-blind users, this could be altered to show different shapes, circle (available), triangle (idle), and squares (away), to illustrate status with shape rather than color.

iChat AV

In June 2003, Apple announced iChat AV, the second major version of iChat. It added

Mac OS X 10.2.^[2]

iChat AV 2

In February 2004,

AOL Instant Messenger

(AIM) version 5.5 for Windows users, which enabled video, but not audio, chats over the AIM protocol and was compatible with Apple's iChat AV. On the same day, Apple released a public beta of iChat AV 2.1 to allow Mac OS X users to video conference with AIM 5.5 users.

iChat AV 3

In June 2004,

Facebook Chat, and Yahoo! Messenger.^[3] However, support was limited as it did not support several common XMPP features such as account creation, service discovery and full multi-user chat support. iChat 3 included the Bonjour protocol (previously called Rendezvous^[4]) which allowed iChat to automatically find other users with iChat Bonjour messaging enabled on the local network.^[5]

In October 2005, iChat received support for encrypted communications, but only for paid subscribers of

.Mac (later MobileMe and currently iCloud

) service. These features were part of iChat 3.1, released as part of the Mac OS X v10.4.3 update. This version also added support for XMPP multi-user chat.

In March 2007, Apple released the Mac OS X v10.4.9 update, which allowed USB video device class (UVC) cameras to be used with iChat, rather than FireWire cameras only. This allowed a wider range of cameras to be used with iChat AV.

iChat 4

iChat 4, the first version release under iChat's current name, was introduced as a part of Mac OS X 10.5 and received new features including: iChat Theater (inspired by ChatFX^[6] a product from Plum Amazing), Backdrops, and Screen Sharing. iChat Theater allowed users to share any file supported by Quick Look, including photos, Keynote presentations, and movies, over a video chat session.^[7] Backdrops allowed users to insert movies or photos as a backdrop in video chats. Screen Sharing allowed two users of Mac OS X Leopard to have control of the same desktop and work collaboratively. Minor features in the new release included multiple logins, animated icons, use of Photo Booth effects in live video chat, and tabbed chats.

iChat 5

iChat 5.0, released with Mac OS X 10.6, reduced the bandwidth required for 640×480 video chats and upgraded iChat Theater to the same resolution.^[8]^[9]

iChat 6

iChat 6.0, released with

Mac OS X 10.7, added support for Yahoo Messenger account and allowed iChat users to have text, voice and video chats using their Yahoo Mail accounts. It also supported third-party plugins, eventually allowing other protocols to be compatible with the software.^[10] iChat 6 was the last iChat version; in OS X Mountain Lion

, it was replaced by Messages. The final release, iChat 6.0.1, was published on February 1, 2012.

Messages

As part of the OS X Mountain Lion preview, Apple announced on February 16, 2012, that its OS X messaging client would be Messages,^[11] and that it would support the iMessage protocol, making it compatible with the iOS client. Messages also incorporates FaceTime support. Apple made Messages immediately available as a downloadable beta version for use on Mac OS X 10.7.

Supported protocols

iChat's AIM support was fully endorsed by

XMPP. iChat could also integrate Google Talk

contacts into the XMPP pane.

References

^ "Apple Previews iChat Instant Messaging for Mac OS X". Apple Newsroom (Press release). Retrieved July 22, 2023.
^ Johns, Ralph (October 2008). "iChat Information Pages Version 2". Ralph Johns. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
^ Johns, Ralph (November 2008). "iChat Information Pages Version 3". Ralph Johns. Retrieved July 30, 2010.
^ Marc Krochmal (April 12, 2005). "Rendezvous is changing to..." rendezvous-dev (Mailing list). Archived from the original on July 28, 2014.
^ "iChat". MacRumors. Archived from the original on March 2, 2010. Retrieved July 30, 2010.
^ "ChatFX developer on iChat Theater". August 6, 2006. Archived from the original on August 11, 2007. Retrieved August 6, 2006.
^ Johns, Ralph (November 2008). "iChat Information Pages Version 4: A Brief review and What's changed". Ralph Johns. Retrieved July 30, 2010.
^ "Refined from installation to shutdown - More reliable, higher-resolution iChat". Apple. June 8, 2009. Archived from the original on July 22, 2010. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
^ Johns, Ralph (June 3, 2010). "About iChat: iChat 5". Ralph Johns. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
AppleInsider
. Retrieved February 12, 2012.

^ OS X Mountain Lion Preview — The Verge

^ Rivera, Melvin (October 17, 2009). "iChat to MSN Through Jabber". All Forces. Archived from the original on August 5, 2010. Retrieved July 29, 2010.

External links

Official website (archived)

XMPP Standards Foundation

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IChat&oldid=1210083558"

[1] "Apple Previews iChat Instant Messaging for Mac OS X". Apple Newsroom (Press release). Retrieved July 22, 2023.

[2] Johns, Ralph (October 2008). "iChat Information Pages Version 2". Ralph Johns. Retrieved July 29, 2010.

[3] Johns, Ralph (November 2008). "iChat Information Pages Version 3". Ralph Johns. Retrieved July 30, 2010.

[4] Marc Krochmal (April 12, 2005). "Rendezvous is changing to..." rendezvous-dev (Mailing list). Archived from the original on July 28, 2014.

[5] "iChat". MacRumors. Archived from the original on March 2, 2010. Retrieved July 30, 2010.

[6] "ChatFX developer on iChat Theater". August 6, 2006. Archived from the original on August 11, 2007. Retrieved August 6, 2006.

[7] Johns, Ralph (November 2008). "iChat Information Pages Version 4: A Brief review and What's changed". Ralph Johns. Retrieved July 30, 2010.

[8] "Refined from installation to shutdown - More reliable, higher-resolution iChat". Apple. June 8, 2009. Archived from the original on July 22, 2010. Retrieved July 29, 2010.

[9] Johns, Ralph (June 3, 2010). "About iChat: iChat 5". Ralph Johns. Retrieved July 29, 2010.

[10] AppleInsider
. Retrieved February 12, 2012.

[11] OS X Mountain Lion Preview — The Verge

[12] Rivera, Melvin (October 17, 2009). "iChat to MSN Through Jabber". All Forces. Archived from the original on August 5, 2010. Retrieved July 29, 2010.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]