[Techtalk] Simple replacement for AIM with Pidgin

Christine Puk christinemp217 at gmail.com
Fri Mar 3 21:09:33 UTC 2017


​​
I use google hangouts (google talk is a bit different but intergrated with
hangouts) for most things since I do not like using a phone and find it a
suitable replacement to when everyone used to be on AIM.  I have a google
talk number (which is usually the one I share publicly) and it allows me to
text my friends back via the hangouts client (which is just a browser
extension, so you can use it easily on Linux if you are using
chrome/chromium). I also use hangouts itself which is similar to facebook
messenger or AIM in which you can have an away message, display your
status, etc.  I have linux 14.04 and use chromium, and for work I have
windows 10 and chrome, and when I sign into both browsers with my
gmail account it installs the extensions I have linked to my google
account, thus giving me the same hangouts client. Additionally, you can
integrate this with Pidgin if that is the desktop messenger client they are
used to, however if you use pidgin and not the chrome/chromium extension
you can not utilize the SMS feature of hangouts, which may not be relevant
to your intial question anyway (but I can provide you ref/instructions on
how to get started with that for your own interest). :) It may be a bit
tricky getting set up and I can provide more instructions but I will wait
for your reply because this is the first time I am posting to this email
and I don't to seem like I am endorsing a certain tool :O lol

CMP

On Fri, Mar 3, 2017 at 1:41 PM, David Sumbler <david at aeolia.co.uk> wrote:

> On Fri, 2017-03-03 at 17:43 +0000, Poppy Lochridge wrote:
> > My experience has been...
>
> And on Fri, 2017-03-03 at 13:00 -0500, Little Girl wrote:
> > I agree with Poppy...
>
> Thanks, both of you, for your reassurance!  I'll stick with Google
> Talk, then, since it seems to meet my requirements.
>
> As far as Google is concerned, although I use some of their services
> and apps (notably Keep and, of course, Maps) I find that most of their
> software is extraordinarily user-unfriendly.  My brother finds exactly
> the same.
>
> On 2 or 3 occasions I have tried to figure out how to send an SMS
> message using Hangouts, which is the "default messaging app" on at
> least some versions of Android.  I every case I have failed to work out
> how it is done, and end up downloading something less impenetrable!
>
> But I'll be happy to use their IM service via Pidgin.
>
> David
>
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