How to Set Up Facebook Chat in iChat

Feb 15, 2010 - 27 Comments

Facebook and iChat

Facebook opened Facebook Chat up to third party instant message clients by using the Jabber protocol, which means you can now use Facebook Chat seamlessly from inside iChat. That means if you have a Mac with iChat, you can easily talk to your Facebook friends without being logged into the Facebook site, and instead communicate through the iChat app to send messages. Cool huh? Yes, yes it is.

facebook chat Let’s learn how to set up Facebook chat with iChat, it only takes a few moments.

How to Setup iChat to Use Facebook Chat

  1. Launch iChat on the Mac if you haven’t done so yet
  2. From iChat, select the iChat menu and scroll down to “Preferences”
  3. Click on the “Accounts” tab icon and click the “+” sign in the corner to add a new account
  4. In the “Account Type” menu, select “Jabber” to enter information relative to your Facebook account
  5. Enter your Facebook Username (your username is in your vanity url, facebook.com/your_name), you can find or set your Facebook username by going here on Facebook.com
  6. Enter the password to your Facebook account
  7. Now under the “Server Options” settings, enter the server as ‘chat.facebook.com’ and the port as ‘5222’ (without quotes obviously)

Here’s what this looks like in iChat settings Account Setup:

facebook chat ichat

Facebook has an official Chat page on Facebook.com if you’re confused or need additional help setting up the Facebook IM clients, but the setup procedure is practically identical regardless of what IM client you are using.

Keep in mind you are not limited to iChat, with Jabber support you can actually use Facebook Chat with Adium, iChat, Pidgin, and just about any other multi-use instant messaging client that supports the Jabber XMPP protocol.

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Related articles:

Posted by: William Pearson in Mac OS, Tips & Tricks

27 Comments

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  1. jessica robles says:

    I have done everything on this page. Is it possible that my mac is to old? I even changed my facebook password and then deleted my account off iChat and then redid it as the comments said, over and over and then when I go to make my account available it says, “iChat can’t communicate with the Jabber account “username@chat.facebook.com”. Disconnected unexpectedly”

  2. Rishi says:

    is it possible to have my facebook lists in ichat?

  3. Kevin Kang says:

    Hey, Thanks, its working fine! :D

  4. TheHelper says:

    just change your facebook password and you will be able to sing in! simple as that, it worked for me.

  5. Jonathan says:

    Works PERFECTLY for me on Lion! :D

  6. randy says:

    work perfect … thanks

  7. The Answer says:

    Follow these steps and it’s guaranteed to work:
    1) Forget the steps listed on this page, and follow these steps instead

    2) Go to http://www.facebook.com/username/
    Make sure you have created a url for your account using that page

    3) Go to http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/chat.php
    Follow the steps on THAT page

    It will work – I had trouble at the beginning – part of the problem is the username they tell you to use is confusing. A correct example is, if you set up your url to be http://www.facebook.com/myname1/ then you would put myname1@chat.facebook.com for your username, and then your regular facebook password for the password. You’ll see all of this on the link in step 3 though.

    Hope this works for you – cool to have!

  8. Alex says:

    Thanks alot. Now, I don’t have to log on to facebook all the time.

    Thanks Again!

  9. Jonfen says:

    I couldn’t get it working, until I followed Jeremy’s solution, and changed my password (to the same password as the original!).

    Thanks Jer!

  10. Habib Alamin says:

    For those who it’s not working, leave port and server to automatic, mine set itself to 5223 and it works!

  11. Steve Far says:

    It was working fine until a month or so ago and now I have all the same problems are referring to here.

  12. kkkk says:

    haii um i just want to ask about the facebook icha. i tried the facebook ichat but does this mean that my friends must hav a mac inorder to chat with me?? Because on my facebook jabber thingy all my friends are offline but on facebook they arent!

  13. pony says:

    I did the same thing but it wont work still :( i deleted the account and re added it and still it just sits on connecting then says it cant connect :(

  14. VV says:

    I would suggest to completely delete your jabber/Facebook chat account. Start over and follow the steps that you were having trouble with.
    That worked for me

  15. Tyler says:

    I did all of the steps correctly-i double checked- and when i try to connect to the jabber on ichat it says “Ichat cant communicate with the jabber account ….@chat.facebook.com” any solutions? thanks

  16. Roxy Nguyen says:

    I don’t like FB chat , i juz want to fix Facebook on Mac Os!!!!!!

  17. Jo says:

    I followed all the directions to a T. and still it says my login id or password is incorrect. AARG! I went in and changed my url to include my name instead of numbers and yes I used the correct port. What is the problem?

    • Jeremy says:

      I have this same problem. I can get in if I go to facebook and change my password (even if I just use the same one again).

      It’s annoying to have to do this every time I turn my computer on.

  18. cringzkei says:

    ^_^ ahehehe

  19. SheriVan says:

    I was having trouble getting this to work (although I’m pretty sure I had already set up my “vanity” user name in Facebook). Got a “disconnected unexpectedly” error message. I finally deleted the account in iChat preferences, added it again (following the above directions), and everything works!

    Someone on another forum deleted the plist file for iChat (might be another last resort, as it will require you to set up all accounts again).

  20. xylo says:

    i don’t like facebook chat at all but this makes it actually useful, the web based client through facebook.com is a nightmare. ichat is definitely the best chat client on the mac and it fits right in, finally facebook chat has a home on the mac.

    the walkthrough is easy as pie, works troublefree here

  21. Bill Ambrose & Ruairi,

    Harpreet Bedi is correct, if you have not created a Facebook vanity url, you will need to do that before you can use the Facebook chat service inside iChat.

    You can create a facebook vanity url at:

    http://www.facebook.com/username/

    It is necessary to have the username followed by @chat.facebook.com

    If your Facebook username is DorothyFromOz, the login would be:

    DorothyFromOZ@chat.facebook.com

    Harpreet, did you specify the proper port #? I have not ran into that problem myself. Try deleting the account you added that isn’t working, and re-adding a new Jabber account making sure that all the settings are correct including the port number.

    Hope that helps!

    -William

  22. Harpreet Bedi says:

    Hi guys

    You will first have to create a username from facebook site tour link mentioned above.

    But my ichat keeps asking me for the password of the jabber account, regardless of how many times I type it in.

    Any solutions.

  23. Ruairi says:

    Doesn’t work. Recieved same message as Bill Ambrose, the directions are also slightly confusing.

  24. Bill Ambrose says:

    can’t get this to work.
    something to do with not recognising the account,
    my username i found from my accounts settings.
    “(your username is in your vanity url, facebook.com/your_name)” as stated above is a bit confusing ? similarly, the screenshot above shows the username suffixed with @chat.facebook.com. Is this necessary (I have tried with and without and get the same error message so think maybe not.

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