Although iChat has awesome support for video, sound and screen-sharing on the mac, I had reluctantly put off using it as my IM client for a while because it was missing some functionality I couldn’t do without. Particularly combining IM services into the same contact list.
I decided to do a little search and stumbled upon a great add-on to iChat which adds most of what I wish had otherwise been built into iChat (apple should take a hint from this).
Chax is a collection of minor modifications and additions that make using Apple’s iChat more enjoyable.
Here are some of the features
- Unified contact list shows all contacts from all accounts in one window
- Growl notifications for new messages and users changing status
- Automatically resize the contact list to fit the number of visible users
- Built-in log viewer
- Activity log that displays your contacts’ status changes
- Auto-accept file transfers, AV chats, and screen sharing requests
- Toggle text status visibility of users
- Always on top option for contact list, message windows and AV chats
- Set font of names, status messages, and group separators
- Option to auto-accept text chats, skipping new message notification window
- Show status changes directly in the message window
- Additional unread message notifications in the Dock
- Automatically go away when the screensaver activates
- Properly use ICQ accounts without sending text formatting in messages
If you like it remember to support this app by donating.