Jabber is an open instant messaging system which is set up somewhat like email—anyone can run a server, and as long as the servers are exposed to the Internet, people can talk to people on different servers. It is not centralized and owned by a gigantic corporation (AIM, MSN), and no one owns what you say (AIM). The core protocols of Jabber (called XMPP) are currently Proposed Standards in the IETF (the group which created standards for e-mail and web site downloading).
How can I use it?
If you have a Jabber account, simply start up iChat, go to “Preferences…” then “Accounts”, and click the “+” to create a new account. Select “Jabber Account” as the Account Type and enter the details.
Once you’ve added the account, your Jabber List will be a separate window from your AIM Buddy List (and your Bonjour/Rendezvous List). That window is accessible from the Window menu, or by pressing ⌘-3 (command-3).
How do I get a Jabber account?
Find out if you already have one first. A lot of university campuses have actually set up Jabber servers and Jabber accounts for enrolled students without telling them. Search your university’s web site and ask around. Many companies are also beginning to offer internal Jabber accounts.
The best bet for people looking for a public Jabber account is to sign up for a Google Talk account. Even though Google Talk does not support offline messaging, it does connect to other Jabber servers, meaning you can still send me messages from Google Talk’s servers. Don’t miss Google’s page explaining how to set up iChat.
iChat does not support registering a new Jabber account, so the final option is to download another Jabber client and register an account with a public server using that client. As this is different with every client, I will not do so here. Yes, it’s actually more difficult than it needs to be in many clients.
Should I just get an account on jabber.org?
No. Jabber.org’s Jabber service is intended for developers. It’s unstable and tends to go down every couple of days. That’s why I recommend just getting a Google Talk account.
What about my Windows-using friends?
Google Talk is a very simple, but usable, Jabber client. It does not support a lot of advanced features yet, but it does do voicechat. Alternatively, you can look at the list of clients and pick one. Trillian Pro (which many Windows users already have) supports Jabber and many of the extra features iChat has. Pandion is a nice client, but unfortunately lacks file transfer and other extras that people expect.
How do I join a multi-user chat (or group chat)?
Choose “File”, then “Go to Chat…” and enter the name of the chat. Jabber multi-user chats are usually in the form of user@server. See the next question.
Where can I meet other Jabber users?
One way is to hang out in a multi-user chat (or group chat): After logging in to Jabber, choose “File”, then “Go to Chat…”. Select “Jabber” as the service and enter a Jabber group chat name. “jabber@conference.jabber.org” is a good starting place. Jabber Developers hang out in “jdev@conference.jabber.org”, but they don’t generally appreciate regular user questions there.
How can I set my profile or view other users’ profiles?
Unfortunately, Apple has not implemented those features. Yet. Submit an enhancement request and maybe we’ll see that ability in future versions.
I heard that I can talk to MSN users with Jabber. How?
Many Jabber servers have what often called Gateways or Transports to other instant messaging systems. These are pieces of software which translate from a foreign instant messaging system to Jabber, allowing Jabber users to communicate with other users of other IM systems.
Most Gateways are not feature-complete—they only support the most basic things users might want to do: send text messages, see presence, set away messages. Most do not even support file transfer.
If you still want to use a Gateway instead of something like Adium, you will need to download another Jabber client and set up the Gateways from there. Once that is done, you can use iChat.
Morris Packer has posted a guide to setting up a gateway using Psi.
How can I run a Jabber server on Mac OS X?
That’s a little more complicated than this FAQ is intended to be. If you’re running Mac OS X Server, James Davidson has posted a quick introduction to running jabberd 1.4 on Mac OS X Tiger Server.
Wrap-up
Feel free to ask more questions in the comments, and I’ll add them to this post. Also feel free to send this link around to Tiger users!