Chit Chat - A Facebook Chat Add On Review

Chit Chat is a standalone application that renders Facebook's own Facebook Chat archaic. Facebook Chat is a great idea, but its poor implementation makes it frustratingly difficult to use. The Facebook chat add on, Chit Chat integrates itself seamlessly into Facebook's instant messaging system offering more options, more customization, and superior functionality.

Signing In

In order to use Facebook Chat, you need to open a browser, navigate to the Facebook website and log in with your name and password. This is a lot to ask someone who has not had his or her morning coffee. The Facebook messenger app “Chit Chat” has the option to run automatically at Windows start up, streamlining this whole process. Chit Chat can get you connected immediately by remembering your login information and signing in for you.

Multitasking

Chit Chat for Facebook is far more effective than Facebook Chat when it comes to chatting while surfing the web, watching a movie or even getting some real work done. Rather than forcing you to keep a dedicated browser window open, Chit Chat keeps a tiny little icon on the bottom right hand corner of your task bar. It alerts you to both incoming texts and the comings and goings of your buddies with crisp and clean alerts. Notifications can be enabled or disabled with a click of the mouse and the sound alerts can be customized.

Functionality

Facebook Chat forces you to send and receive your messages in a small box on the bottom right hand corner of your browser window. Not only does Chit Chat allow you to customize the size and location of both your buddy list and instant message window, but it can also remember the location the next time you log in.

Customization

Facebook Chat allows for no personalization or customization whatsoever. All users are expected to prefer the same font and font size at all times, in all situations. Chit Chat’s customization options allow you to control font style, color and size. You can have one scheme set up for the message titles and another scheme for the messages themselves. You can even have completely separate settings for incoming and outgoing messages. Unlike Facebook Chat, Chit Chat allows you to bold or underline text and choose from a selection of emoticons. When it comes to customization, Chit Chat puts Facebook Chat to shame.

Other Features

Chit Chat is good for more than just instant messaging. It allows you to post on your friends wall and send private messages too. You can even post on multiple friends walls at once or send a private message to a group of friends at the same time. You can do all of this without ever loading up Facebook. For the advanced user, Chit Chat has a fully customizable hot key scheme. This allows for doing things like tabbing through multiple messages or minimizing windows with a simple keystroke. Chit Chat can even keep itself up to date. When new features come out, you can be sure to get them.

Chit Chat for Facebook

Instant messaging software has been evolving for a long time. Modern users expect a fully customizable, feature rich and truly instantaneous experience. One of the biggest problems with older mainstream instant messenger software was the number of choices available. You might have been on one network while a friend was on another, with no way to connect to each other. Now that Facebook has brought everyone together on the same network, the opportunity for an instant messaging tool to be more effective than ever has arrived.

Facebook came out with their own Facebook Chat to take advantage of this opportunity, only they bungled the attempt. Facebook Chat is lacking to say the least. Thankfully, Facebook has allowed outside developers to integrate their own software with the Facebook network, thus the birth of the FB chat download, Chit Chat for Facebook, and the obsolescence of in browser Facebook Chat.