The first question you’re probably going to ask is, "Why would I need to know how to create a real-time chat room?" The answer is that, believe it or not, Facebook doesn’t offer it. Yes, they do offer instant messaging style chat, but that’s only one-to-one and not one-to-many.
Real-time chat is useful for those who conduct meetings where voice communication isn’t possible. If you were using voice, the solution is easy, use Skype. To the best of my knowledge you can still have a Skype multi-user session that supports up to 6 concurrent users. Where voice isn’t an option however, you will need to use the good ol’ text way of going about it.
A common recreation example of where real-time chat is more or less required is when PC gaming. If you’re on a particular gaming server and the text chat simply doesn’t work (which does happen periodically), you need an alternative text chat just to get things done – especially with group play.
Mibbit as far as I’m aware is the absolute easiest way to create a quick-and-dirty chat room that requires no software for you or anyone else that joins your chat, and can be shared out easily.
Here’s how it’s done:
- Go to mibbit.com, click the big "Chat now" button
- Type in "Nick" (nickname) as your name or screen name
- Type the channel (as in the ‘chat room’) as whatever name you want
- Click "Go", and you’re done. Chat then loads.
- For whomever else you want in chat, tell them to go to mibbit.com, click "Chat now", type in their desired name and use the same name you chose for the channel. They will then enter the same channel you are in and you start chatting away from that point.
Yes, it’s that easy. If you’re thinking, "No signup required? Seriously?" Nope. Just type in the appropriate info, and go.
Alternative not-so easy ways
If Mibbit isn’t your thing, here are some alternatives.
IRC
Mibbit is IRC, but you can access IRC servers the old fashioned way if you like. A free way is using Chatzilla for Firefox. A paid way is mIRC.
Meebo allows you to create public chat rooms easily, but it does require the signup of an account to get one. Admittedly, Meebo chat rooms are much friendlier in the way they look and function, so you may prefer using this method.
The biggest drawback to using AIM is that it requires software just to use their Group Chat function – and anyone else you want to chat with group-style must also have the software. Once it’s running however it’s easy to get going.
Click Options / New Group Chat:
Type in the usernames from your Buddy List you want to invite to the chat room:
Send, and that’s all there is to it. The chat room window opens and you start chatting.
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For users who want a free IRC client and don’t want to use Firefox, X-Chat 2 and HydraIRC are pretty good.
X-Chat 2: http://silverex.info/download/
HydraIRC: http://www.hydrairc.com/
you can do one->many or many->many real-time chat on facebook. it’s not just one to one anymore. You can create groups which people can join and talk to other members of the group and chat real-time with everybody that is online and a member of the group.
i used to really enjoy the content of your articles, Rich, but lately your research is slipping and statement of invalid facts is a growing problem..
If you’re referring to this: http://www.facebook.com/group.page.chat
or this: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2429723267
Those are not by the Facebook team. They’re seriously crappy independent apps that are seriously flaky. Facebook themselves does not offer group chat. The closest thing by the Facebook team to a group chat is Live Stream from the official plugin page here: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/ but that’s not Group Chat.
I’m sorry but you’re wrong. I had to install/allow no apps for this functionality to work.
Here’s the help page for this to show that it IS available on facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=18833
The only thing required for you to chat with a group of people is for you to belong to the group and they are online. Since most people are already on facebook, it makes it much easier to just create a group and have people go to facebook rather than explain to people to go to an unfamiliar site.
If you care about this sort of thing, Mibbit users tend to get laughed/flamed off of some IRC servers.
Some servers even block the client altogether.
That’s a good valid point, but for quickie private ‘chat rooms’, Mibbit is good for that sort of thing; it’s much easier and faster than telling someone to download IRC software, connect to channel, etc. Not saying it’s better, just faster and easier.