Google realized that one of the reasons Google Talk has such a small number of users is that you need to have a Gmail account to use it. And that wasn't too necessary. Of course, you had your Gmail contacts, mail notification, your chats were searchable in Gmail and the voicemail you received looked better, but the basic client doesn't need a Gmail address.
Google Blog reports that now anyone can try Google Talk, if they have a Google Account. So if you're in this situation, you just have to
sign up for GTalk, choose a nickname, and get
the client (1.5 MB, Windows 2000/XP). You'll notice that the interface still talks about Gmail and features like mail notification are visible, but don't work.
Google claims "there are millions of people around the world to chat with".
Update: Google also released Google Talk 1.0.0.98, fixing some bugs, and introducing others. Offline contacts and those who use Gmail Chat have non-working options like "Call" and "Send files".
Related:
Some reasons to try Google TalkGoogle Talk tips and tricksWhy Google Talk will be the best IM clientLabels: Google Talk
said on September 29, 2006 3:29 AM PDT:
Shameless plug: You can also use Google Talk from your mobile phone, check out
mgtalk-http (it works with almost every mobile operator, because it uses only HTTP, no sockets here)
said on September 29, 2006 11:35 AM PDT:
google talk needs public chat rooms. only then google talk can go near to compete with yahoo messenger.
said on September 29, 2006 2:05 PM PDT:
I don't know about public chat rooms, but definitely chats between multiple people. At least text chats, conference calls would be nice, too.
If you want to suggest features for Google Talk,
this place is for you.
Some of the most suggested features:
Rich text for outgoing chats
Multi-user chats
Conference calls
Video conferencing
Appear invisible or offline
Offline message delivery
Mac or Linux versions
Call and message encryption
Calls to regular phone numbers
Spellchecker
said on September 29, 2006 6:19 PM PDT:
there's one thing i don't understand. When I chose a nickname, it made it into a gmail address.
My google account was ...@hotmail.com. When i chose my nickname, it also became sougbiz@gmail.com. However, i can't log into gmail through this, only GTalk and other Google services. Any idea why?
Here's the deal. Your Google account uses the mail account@hotmail.com. You choose a nickname in GTalk called nick. Google assigns a virtual Gmail account called nick@gmail.com. You can't use this mail address in Gmail (that is, you don't actually get a Gmail account), but you can login in Google Talk with one of these:
* nick
* nick@gmail.com
* account@hotmail.com
If you log in with with account@hotmail.com, you'll see next time you load Google Talk, nick in the username field.
I think that when Gmail goes public, you'll actually get a Gmail address with that username. Until then...
Singpolyma said on September 30, 2006 10:47 AM PDT:
The false Gmail account is necessary because hotmail.com does not provide a Jabber server yet, and so you cannot use XMPP-based IM with an @hotmail.com address.
said on October 4, 2006 9:08 PM PDT:
yre: "call" option for offline contacts and Gmail Chat.
Voice mail does not work unless you can call offline contacts.
said on November 13, 2006 8:32 PM PDT:
I use gtalk daily for talking with my parents....I'm really thankful to google talk....I would love to see google talk with the following features...
> Invisible to users
> Support for Graphic emoticons
> Video Chat
> Audio Conferencing
AJ said on October 7, 2007 10:17 AM PDT:
Google always talks about user privacy but I unable to grasp that despite such a large hue and cry for being invisible in Gtalk, nothing has been done.
Lena said on October 8, 2007 12:46 PM PDT:
Please anybody convince google to develop google talk for macs. I absolutely love it and i cant use it. I have a mac laptop and i'm overseas right now, and i cant talk to my friends and boyfiend. Using skype is not hte best option. PLEASE we, mac users, desperately need google talk for macs!!!
Josh said on October 12, 2007 8:02 PM PDT:
Lena, Google Talk has been supported forever on the Mac, just not officially by Google. Just use adium (adiumx.com). It's supported Google Talk since it came out. It also supports MSN, MySpace, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, and more. If you don't want to install the client, you can also use Google Talk in your Firefox browser.
Richard said on December 28, 2007 8:06 PM PDT:
I still cant find any one to chat with
though Google Talk currently doesnot supports, invisible mode, however, there some hacks in other OpenSource IM clients that can make you invisible and then still you can chat with your freinds and family. To know how, have a look at the following page..
http://codecontrol.blogspot.com/2007/10/invisible-mode-for-google-talk-xmpp.html
said on March 2, 2008 6:54 AM PDT:
GTalk really doesn't need all those features someone listed above. One of the reasons Gtalk is so fresh, is because it's a BS free chat program, much "lighter" than most of it's counterparts.
No stupid graphic smiley's, flash animations or nudges.
There are really
so many other programs that do all the things requested such as calling regular numbers... why burden Gtalk with this, when it's the lightness of the program that makes it so appealing.
Also programs that specialize in multi-chat platforms usually enable a lot of these extra features.
The only suggesting I would sort of enjoy is the multi-user chat, but I can live easily without it.
vhawk said on November 6, 2008 8:23 AM PDT:
oit won't work on my friend in txas' mac
said on January 12, 2009 7:19 PM PDT:
Anyone know how to recover chat history on google talk,via your hotmail account? meaning if you have a hotmail account and using in gtalk, can you save your chat history somewhere?
