How to Chat Online
Determine who you want to chat with., Use direct chat services to talk with friends and family., Use browser-based chats to talk with strangers., Use a dedicated chat client to connect with communities.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Determine who you want to chat with.
If you're just planning on chatting with friends and family, you'll have different needs than if you want to chat with a community or with strangers.
The individuals whom you plan to chat with will help you decide which chat platform(s) to go with. -
Step 2: Use direct chat services to talk with friends and family.
If you plan on doing a lot of one-on-one or group chats with you friends and family, you'll want a program or service that allows you to easily connect with them.
Chances are everyone you know has at least one of the following chat programs or services available to them:
Facebook
- Facebook is a social networking site that has also turned into a popular chat service.
This is a great chat program that most of your friends and family members likely have access to.
You can chat through the website on your computer or use the Facebook Messenger app to chat on the go.
Skype
- Skype is one of the most popular chat programs in the world, and has millions of users.
Skype is available for Windows Mac, Linux, and virtually any mobile device.
Skype recently absorbed MSN Messenger.
You can use Skype to video chat as well as text chant, and you can create group chats.
Mobile messaging apps
- If you spend most of your time on your mobile device, you probably want to chat using it.
There are a variety of popular messaging and chat programs available for mobile devices.
These include Snapchat, Kik, and WhatsApp.
Creating accounts for these apps is free.
AIM
- AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) is one of the older chat services that is still incredibly popular.
You can chat through the web interface on the AOL website, or you can download the dedicated AIM client. , There are tons of websites that offer chat services, many of which are aimed at pairing strangers with each other in one-on-one chats.
Many of these services offer video chats with strangers as well.
Chatroulette and Omegle are two of the most popular services.
You will not have any control over who you chat with.
If you have a webcam installed, you can use it for video chat on these sites.
There are a lot of anonymous chat rooms available through website services as well.
Yahoo! Chat, Tinychat, Spinchat, and many more offer anonymous chat rooms dedicated to a variety of interests.
Yahoo chat , Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is one of the oldest forms of online chatting around, and is home to thousands of communities dedicated to nearly every subject conceivable.
IRC can be a little daunting to new users but it is a very powerful chat protocol that allows you to join countless servers and even transfer files between users.
The most popular IRC client is mIRC.
You can also use a chat consolidation program like Trillian or Pidgin to connect to IRC servers. -
Step 3: Use browser-based chats to talk with strangers.
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Step 4: Use a dedicated chat client to connect with communities.
Detailed Guide
If you're just planning on chatting with friends and family, you'll have different needs than if you want to chat with a community or with strangers.
The individuals whom you plan to chat with will help you decide which chat platform(s) to go with.
If you plan on doing a lot of one-on-one or group chats with you friends and family, you'll want a program or service that allows you to easily connect with them.
Chances are everyone you know has at least one of the following chat programs or services available to them:
Facebook
- Facebook is a social networking site that has also turned into a popular chat service.
This is a great chat program that most of your friends and family members likely have access to.
You can chat through the website on your computer or use the Facebook Messenger app to chat on the go.
Skype
- Skype is one of the most popular chat programs in the world, and has millions of users.
Skype is available for Windows Mac, Linux, and virtually any mobile device.
Skype recently absorbed MSN Messenger.
You can use Skype to video chat as well as text chant, and you can create group chats.
Mobile messaging apps
- If you spend most of your time on your mobile device, you probably want to chat using it.
There are a variety of popular messaging and chat programs available for mobile devices.
These include Snapchat, Kik, and WhatsApp.
Creating accounts for these apps is free.
AIM
- AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) is one of the older chat services that is still incredibly popular.
You can chat through the web interface on the AOL website, or you can download the dedicated AIM client. , There are tons of websites that offer chat services, many of which are aimed at pairing strangers with each other in one-on-one chats.
Many of these services offer video chats with strangers as well.
Chatroulette and Omegle are two of the most popular services.
You will not have any control over who you chat with.
If you have a webcam installed, you can use it for video chat on these sites.
There are a lot of anonymous chat rooms available through website services as well.
Yahoo! Chat, Tinychat, Spinchat, and many more offer anonymous chat rooms dedicated to a variety of interests.
Yahoo chat , Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is one of the oldest forms of online chatting around, and is home to thousands of communities dedicated to nearly every subject conceivable.
IRC can be a little daunting to new users but it is a very powerful chat protocol that allows you to join countless servers and even transfer files between users.
The most popular IRC client is mIRC.
You can also use a chat consolidation program like Trillian or Pidgin to connect to IRC servers.
About the Author
Samantha Gonzales
Committed to making crafts accessible and understandable for everyone.
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