The instant messaging I’m referring to is the traditional old-school way, that being you download a proprietary client, sign up for a free account and then run the client, add buddies/contacts as need be, etc. Such examples are AIM, Yahoo! IM and Windows Live Messenger.

The main reason why people aren’t too fond of IM’ing anymore is mainly because less people are using it. The days of having long "buddy" lists are long gone on a single proprietary IM service. And sure, when you use a multi-protocol messenger, you’ll get those long lists back, but then you have to deal with random service disconnects (Windows Live and Yahoo are infamous for that on third party clients), wonky client issues, etc. It’s simply not worth the hassle most of the time.

Enter Facebook

I know there are several of you out there that can’t stand Facebook, but there is one very good thing about it: Nearly everybody has an account. It is the #1 social network on the internet, and as luck would have it, it has an instant messaging service built right in.

What this means is that you can centralize your IM experience to Facebook. This is very good because all you need to do is configure a single IM service. Even better is the fact you have two distinctly different ways to go about it, and can be logged in several times at once from computer to computer.

Method 1: The Facebook site itself

Simple enough, just login to the site and enable chat. When a new IM comes in you’ll hear a sound. The Facebook site also allows pop-out browser windows for easier chat management.

Method 2: Using an IM client

ICQ, AIM, Trillian, Digsby and a few other clients can connect to Facebook IM easily. When you do you’ll be prompted by Facebook to authorize the application for a "persistent connection", allowing you to stay connected to Facebook IM without having to re-login to the site every hour or so.

This is what it looks like when you configure Facebook instant messaging in AIM 7:

You get a new category called "Facebook Friends". For whoever is online, just double click and chat. When people IM you through Facebook, it acts just like it would any other IM.

It should also be noted that for AIM it’s easy to sign out of Facebook chat:

The reason this is important is because you can still get Facebook updates without being in chat using the Lifestream function. More on that in a moment.

The best part about the client is that once configured, you don’t have to login to the facebook.com web site if you don’t want to. On several of the IM clients listed above, things like status updates from your Facebook friends are listed in a separate column on a tab. With AIM and ICQ in particular, this is shown on the "Lifestream" tab (seen above). It will even show reply threads and allow you to join in on conversations easily all from within the client.

In other words, you can use Facebook without dealing with the annoying facebook.com interface – a big plus.

My personal experience using Facebook IM in a client has been a good one thus far. And to be perfectly honest I get more actual chatting on Facebook than I have with any other IM service in several years.

I should also note that the Facebook IM service is actually pretty darned reliable, surprisingly. Can’t say the same for the actual facebook.com web site itself, but the IM service they have is stable.

Is instant messaging dead?

As far as the AIM/ICQ/Yahoo/WLive way of doing it is concerned, yes, so you can say the "traditional" method of instant messaging is dead as a doorknob. I remember years ago on my AIM account alone when I had quite the buddy list. Now it’s just 4 people. I removed all those who were on my AIM buddy list that abandoned the service years ago.

Is Facebook saving instant messaging from going completely obsolete?

Possibly. I won’t give a definitive yes or no because who knows what will happen with Facebook in the future. But for now it’s top dog in social interactivity.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t heard any news of traditional IM use growing by leaps and bounds. If anything it’s stagnating at best.

Facebook on the other hand continues to grow. And even if it peaks (if it hasn’t already), I consider it the best way to IM these days.

What do you think? Is traditional IM dead? Is Facebook saving it?