How to live chat on Facebook
Facebook allows people near and far to connect by sharing stories, pictures, video and more. Facebook also allows two friends who are both logged in to the social-networking site to chat through text messages -- a service introduced in April 2008 to bring more immediacy to the interaction. You can only chat with your Facebook friends, meaning strangers cannot randomly message you. You can have multiple chat windows open at once, carrying on several individual conversations.
Instructions
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Sign into your Facebook account at facebook.com.
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Locate the "Chat" bar in the bottom right corner of the Facebook window. Click once on the bar to expand the window. If you are online, you will see a list of friends available to chat with. Otherwise, click the "Go Online" button to make yourself available for chatting.
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Look through the list of friends who are online. People with a green dot next to their names are currently active on Facebook. People with a gray half-moon next to their names have been idle, although still logged into Facebook, and may not respond to your chat request.
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Choose a friend to chat with by clicking on their name. This will open a small window at the bottom of the Facebook page.
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Type you message into the box, and press "Enter" to send it. When your friend responds, that message will appear in the dialog box and a notification will sound.
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Continue sending messages as long as you like. When you're finished with the conversation, say goodbye, then close the dialog box using the "X" in the upper-right corner.
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Tips & Warnings
If you are updating your Facebook page, or working in another program on your computer, you can minimize the Facebook chat window and listen for the notification sound when a new message arrives.
Go "offline," which allows you to continue to work in Facebook, but be invisible to your friends when you don't want to be bothered. Open the "Chat" bar, and choose "Go Offline." When you're ready to talk again, go online again.
You can ignore a chat message if you're not in the mood to talk. Just close the chat window that appears using the "X" button in the upper right corner.
Facebook does not keep a permanent record of chats, so your conversations are relatively private.
Always be cautious when sharing personal information on Facebook. Someone else could be using your friend's Facebook account.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit David Sacks/Lifesize/Getty Images
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