If you are a heavy instant message user, you now have the ability to chat with Facebook user directly from Pidgin! In addition to all of the IM happiness, you can also “send & receive messages, add or remove friends, receive notifications, search for Facebook friends and set your Facebook status”.

Download

There are two components to this walk through:

  1. Download Pidgin
  2. Facebook Chat for Pidgin

Optional download

You can also choose to download Facebook icons that will be displayed in your IM window when you hover over a contact (just like when you hover over a contact that’s on a different protocol).  Look for “facebook_icons.zip” in the downloads section. Windows users, extract the archive to:

c:\Program Files\Pidgin\pixmaps\pidgin\protocols

Linux users, extract to:

/usr/share/pixmaps/pidgin/protocol

How To

  1. Install Pidgin.
  2. Install Facebook Chat for Pidgin.
  3. In the main chat window and on the tool bar, click Accounts>Manage Accounts.
  4. Click the “Add” button.
  5. In the Add Account dialog, select “Facebook” as protocol.
  6. Enter in your Facebook user name and password.
  7. Accept the security certificate.

Now, your Facebook friends will show up in their own group!

There are some more options under the Advanced tab. These options include:

  • Hide myself in the Buddy List
  • Set Facebook status though Pidgin status
  • Show Facebook notifications as emails in Pidgin
  • Edit Facebook friends from Pidgin