TMO Quick Tip – iChat: Showing Buddy Info

iChat is great for sharing information with your friends and co-workers, and it’s also great for showing you some extra information about your contacts. Each contact in your iChat Buddy list includes extra information like what chat capabilities they have.

To see the chat capabilities for an online Buddy, do this:

• Click on a contact’s name in iChat’s Buddy list.
• Now choose Buddies > Show Info or use the Command-I keyboard shortcut to display the selected contact’s iChat info.
• Click the Profile tab to show the contact’s iChat communication capabilities.

  The capabilities field shows all of the different ways your friend can communicate over iChat. It will show whether or not they can display their Buddy icon, participate in multi-person conferences, participate in audio or video chats, share their screen, participate in iChat Theater sessions, and send and receive instant message images, text chats, and files.
  iChat can serve up all kinds of information about the chat services your friends can use.

  The Profile tab also shows the contact’s iChat icon, their screen name, whether or not they have alternate screen names, and their current online status. iChat’s info dialog also includes an Alerts tab that lets you set custom alert sounds for each contact, and an Address Card tab for viewing or modify contact card information.

  I use the Buddy Info dialog when I’m troubleshooting iChat issues like missing audio in voice chats. If I don’t see Microphone in the capabilities list, I know it’s time to start looking outside of iChat for the problem. Jeff Gamet is TMO’s Managing Editor and Reviews Editor. He lectures, teaches and speaks on Mac OS X and design-related topics, and is the author of The Designer’s Guide to Mac OS X from Peachpit Press.