How-To Geek
Easily Add Facebook Chat to Pidgin
Want to keep in touch with your Facebook friends throughout the day? Here we’ll show you how to easily add Facebook chat to the popular multi-protocol chat client Pidgin.
Facebook has recently added support for XMPP chat, which means you can easily add it to popular chat clients such as Pidgin. Previously you could only add Facebook chat to Pidgin through a plug-in that didn’t always work correctly. Here we’ll walk you through setting up your Facebook account in Pidgin.
Getting Started
First, make sure you have a username for your Facebook account (link below). This is a relatively new feature for Facebook, so if you’ve had your account for a while you may need to choose one.
If you already have one, you should see it listed instead.
Now, open Pidgin, and click Manage Accounts.
Click Add…
Then select XMPP from the Protocol list.
Now, enter your Facebook username without the facebook.com part (e.g your.facebook.username, not http://www.facebook.com/your.user.name). Then, enter chat.facebook.com for the Domain, and enter your standard Facebook password. You can check the “Remember password” box if you’d like Pidgin to automatically sign in to Facebook chat.
Now, click on the Advanced tab, and uncheck the “Require SSL/TLS” box. Also, make sure the Connect port is 5222. Click Add, and your Facebook account is added to Pidgin.
Now Facebook will show up in your list of accounts, with the username your.facebook.username@chat.facebook.com.
Your Facebook friends will show up directly in your Buddy list, complete with their full name and Facebook profile picture. Any users that are not in a group will show under your standard list, while ones in a Facebook group will be shown in a separate group. You can move which groups your Facebook friends show up in, just like you can with other chat contacts.
And no matter if your friend is logged in on the standard Facebook website or through another chat application, it will work the same as always.
This is a great way to keep in touch with your Facebook friends throughout the day. If you like Facebook chat and already use Pidgin, now you can keep from switching between programs and just chat with all your friends from a central location.
Links:
Got Feedback? Join the discussion at discuss.howtogeek.com
Comments (89)
Matthew digs up tasty bytes about Windows, Virtualization, and the cloud, and serves them up for all to enjoy!
- Published 03/10/10
Not working for me..
just search “facebook chat in pidgin” on google and look for the link to the plugin which adds an facebook option to the account type box
Facebook’s xmpp doesn’t allow using port 80 does it?
Cool! This option works in the portable version too, the plugin doesn´t.
@matt – yes, you can do it with a plugin, but now that XMPP is supported it is the preferred method of using FB chat with Pidgin. This method is much more reliable than the plugin was.
@Corey – FaceBook XMPP chat requires you to use port 5222
not working for me…
when i tried to connect it says;
bryanlamchihoong @ chat.facebook.com/ 已断开连接
help me pls
THIS WORKS GREAT. For some reason the “facebook” plugin or whatever doesn’t work but this work perfect.
@Jeahavee Good, glad it worked good for you. I had the same experience with the old plugin, and have enjoyed this new trick myself :)
This is not working for me, doublechecked the settings. If I have SSL/TLS on, Pidgin says “You require encryption but it is not available on this server”. If I turn it off it says “xyz@chat.facebook.com/ requires plaintext authentication over an unencrypted connection. Allow this and continue authentication?” If I say “YES” I get “503: Service Unavailable”. any thoughts?
FYI: This didn’t work for me until I added chat.facebook.com as the “Connect Server” under the Advanced tab. Now it’s working fine.
I like using an application for pidgin called pidgin-facebookchat. As you can see the users pictures and status. plus when you hover your mouse pointer of a username it shows a bigger window with a bigger picture and show all the users status
Hmm, not working for me. Keeps giving the 503-error.
Also been getting a 503 error
503 me too.
I’ve never seen the errors with FB chat in Pidgin, but make sure that:
- you have a Facebook username.
- you’re using port 5222
If this is set correctly, and Pidgin already works with other chat networks, then you FB chat should work fine, too.
I did your setting before March and it worked fine. But now it seems something changed in Facebook chat and can’t get your setting work for now. Error 503 and need plaintext authentication.
When ever I try and sort my “buddies” it resorts them on the next log in.
Is anyone else having this happen?
it works for me. cool. take a bit longer at first but finally …:)
to people having trouble – try entering the following information in addition to everything in the howto:
Resource: Pidgin
Local alias:
and under the advanced tab
Connect server: chat.facebook.com
this fixed the 503 error for me
Ahhhhhhhhh!!! Thank you sooooo much!!!! Finally fixed it!!!!! Yay!!!!!
If you enter a Local Alias instead of seeing xxxx @ chat.facebook.com/xxx11111x1x11x11x1x11x1 you will see a pretty name ‘My name’
This was very helpful. Thanks so much!
my god… what exactly does he mean when he says you must enter Your.Facebook.Username ????
does he mean we must enter Your.Facebook.JohnDoe or does he mean that we must enter just JohnDoe ??? Why didn’t he just fill it up with a Complete Example Using Fake Info instead of hiding/shading out some parts of the pics and using incomplete examples :(( what exactly is Your.Facebook.Username ???
Or is he simply trying to say “Type your Facebook Username Here” ?? i am lost cuz THIS IS NOT WORKING FOR many folk above including MYSELF and i am NOT sure if the reason could be this your.facebook.username thing . . . :(((
Hi
@Victor and anyone else getting the “requires plaintext authentication over an unencrypted connection” thing.
It will keep failing to connect until you uncheck “Allow plaintext auth over unencrypted streams” in the advanced tab. Probably if I had just said NO in the first place the problem may not have come up but give a go and see if it works.
C
This is perfect! now i don’t have to worry about fussing with all the crap that goes with getting that plugin to work on linux… thanks xD
OK guys, it seems it won’t work for allot of people until you go here:
http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/chat.php
Go there, click pidgin, it will ask you to log out of Facebook, then log back in. Then reactivate the pidgin account, it should connect this time.
THx works perfectly!
Wooooow!
thankx, it works
if you get this message, “You require encryption but it is not available on this server”, make sure you UNCHECKED “require SSL/TLS under the advanced tab.
otherwise, delete account, then setup again following these instructions:
http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/chat.php
thanks a lot
I’ve finally got it running
Thank you!
David, thanx a lot, tried everything else, this fixed it for me.
yeah, and then group chat came along and they didn’t think about making that work with XMPP.
Excellent, thanks!
I’m using Windows…. from what I can see the “Require SSL/TLS” checkbox no longer exists under the advanced tab. I can’t get this to work.
i like alot
i think the problem is that you have to be signed into facebook in a browser while you’re trying to set it up … at least i’m speculating since after i was on fb in firefox for about 10 minutes my 503 error went away
@ Curt:
Go To the Advance Tab, and find ‘Connection Security’, and drop down the new drop down menu. Choices are ‘Require Encryption’, ‘Use Encryption If Available’, and ‘Use Old-Style SSL’. The Choice you want to pick in order to connect to facebook chat is ‘Use Encryption If Available’. Select that, Save settings, and it should connect. Hope That Helps.
I’ve followed every instruction to the letter and this is what I get in response
“You require encryption, but it is not available on this server.”
@ DonoJoshu
I’ve done this as well and it simply tells me “Not Authorized”
“Not Authorized” is what i get as well. I have checked the username, domain, password, set the encryption, set the allow plaintext, set the port, the connect server and it still just says
“Not Authorized”
Thanks! It works for me :)
works per David’s fix, good man :)
The XMPP really does work!
The problem now is:
Since XMPP is used for both, How does one differentiate between someone who is on Gmail and who is on Facebook?
Is there a way to make custom icon based on who you are connected to?
Or better, make dupes of XMPP, re-do the icon and ‘name’ them with the service used?
ok guys, it works
but, you know, facebook has another new feature right now, Groups
how we connect with the chatbox?? can someone help ???
thx
Wow..!
Thanks for this…
But my facebook group wasnt created..
whole lot of my facebook friends were under buddies list.
I had to create a Facebook group manually.
You should really update this “howto” since it obviously needs some updating. You should tell people that they have to enable chat via their facebook account, XMPP doesn’t work at all unless you enable it for your username.
very thank of u
very good teaching i sow and tank u very much:d
i have done every single thing in here, i also do not have the check box, i click use encryption if availble and i get not athorized, i see some ppl saying i need to turn it on, on face book? how do i do this ? this works FINE for adium on my mac but PC is really fighting me here
i installed the facebook plugin that seems to be working fine
Any idea about having secure Facebook chat ?
works perfectly, no annoying plugins
voillla it works!!
Thank you. It works great
Awesome Man……… It works like a Charm……….. Awesome…….. thanks buddy…….
Doesn’t work for me. “Not authorized” :-(
Your instructions did not work for me.
I installed the Facebook plugin from here:
http://code.google.com/p/pidgin-facebookchat/
That works.
@Matthew Henry
I was having the same “Not authorized” problem and I found this:
http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/13200
After I changed my password everything worked perfectly.
Hope this helps.
Thanks man ……………………… it will help a lot .
Go to this link http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/chat.php and click on the pidgin…. then try again.
It worked for me… Hope it works for you too.
Managed to get this to work after following David’s instructions on going to http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/chat.php. Thanks.
Works for me. Thanks, to whomever put this here.
Make sure to follow the instructions, step-by-step.
Thanks, that was great!
my version of pidgin has no button to uncheck the “Require SSL/TLS”
It just is not there….period. do I not have the newest version of pidgin???
IT WORKED!!!!!!…… hurray
Works perfectly
:)
Great stuff – thanks for explaining. Am new to Ubuntu and think this all-in-one chat is better than anything else!
Hey..thanks a lot..it worked perfectly for me :D
Thanks! it worked on my ubuntu 8.10 :D translated it to spanish to my blog
perfect
Simply wonderful!
Nice that facebook uses XMPP as well!
As soon as m$n and icq switches to XMPP as well (I wish), there will be no need for a multi-protocol IM client!
MUCH thanks! this should be part of their RTFM
how do u use it if u dont have the facebook ID yet…!?
hi,,,
very very thnx,,,i’m trying this from last 4 months,,,,,thnk you
it worked…:)
Thanks for this really big help. Im definitely sharing this to my friends.
ewh how can i chat in chat group on facebook?
someone pliss help
Go to face book to enable pidgin as David and Chan said. It says enable your client. It will make you log out and log back in after you select pidgin.
“Go to this link http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/chat.php and click on the pidgin…. then try again.
It worked for me… Hope it works for you too.”
After this it worked! Thanks!
Matthew, if possible update your guide with this part!
Thank you!
…hey i have been trying for past few months…
i ahve tried the same(I guess) before aswell…but was unsuccessful
but this time …..it did work…
thx
Hi
its fixed….
Thanks a lot !!!!
Ok , it’s working perfect thanks …
Works like a charm !!!!! thanks man.
Works greAT…Thanks man good job.
help guyz I am an admin of a group but in group chat in I have clicked on ”hide chat from this group” and I am not able again to chat in this group can I chat again plz guyz I need help!
I couldnt get it to work at all. Where do I go and setup my user name??
A new guide is needed. No matter what I do, I always end up with the authorize problem. Even if I use the facebook tour thingy.