Party chatting in style via Google Talk
Well if chatting was ever considered a party, then Party Chat is for you! Akshay, Google employee and inquisitive coder (hmm synonyms?), built a chat room bot running on Google Talk. Just to make sure we’re on the same page, this bot will give you the power to talk to groups of people at once. I understand the widget on Google’s personalized page (iGoogle) does this, but Party Chat is better. Not only can you chat with tons of people, you may also chat with people who aren’t on your friends list. A common interest could draw you in or maybe even a common friend. The point is, it’s like a chat social network (more like IRC) using something most of us already have: Google Talk (Gmail).
So here’s how it works:
First, add a partychat bot to your Google Talk list. So in the invitation section of Google Talk (in Gmail), invite “partychat#@gmail.com” (where # is any number from 0-9) to chat with you. For instance, you could add “partychat0@gmail.com” or “partychat1@gmail.com” or “partychat2@gmail.com” and so on. I’m sure you get the idea. Each one of these bots will allow you to join exactly 1 chat room (at a time).
After you’ve added that friend, start a conversation with the bot. First, create an alias by saying “/alias nickname” where nickname is what you want to be called. For me, I use either “/alias Will” or “/alias HoltkampW”. Once you send that message, the bot should let you know your name has been changed. This is an important step since the default name is your email address. It’s annoying to be talking to ReallyL33TGuy12345@gmail.com. I have no idea who that is! Change your alias to your name or something to uniquely identify yourself in a less obtrusive manner.
Next, you’re going to want to either join or make a chat. To make a chatroom, you type in “/make ChatRoomName”. For example, I made a room for AskLG using “/make asklg”. If you don’t want anyone to come on in whenever they feel like it, then you can also make it password protected. By sending “/make ChatRoomName RoomPassword”, the room becomes protected from me and all the other unwanted users. Now if you want to join someone else’s chatroom, you simple type “/join OtherChatRoom”. So to join our chat room, type in “/join asklg”. If the room is password protected, type in “/join OtherChatRoom RoomPassword”. Simple right?
Once you’re in the room, just type in what you want to say. Everyone in the chat will get the message. If you have your Google Talk setup to log your messages (as in not ‘Off the Record’) then you can get all the messages going on in the chat when you’re not online as well. Also, the bot will tell you when people join or leave the channel. Convenient.
Obviously you might not want to be logged in all the time, so you can leave the party. To do so, type in “/leave” and you won’t get any more messages. If you really don’t want to leave but want to end those pesky messages for a small amount of time, you can set the bot to snooze. Typing in “/snooze 45m” will make the bot stop sending you messages for 45 minutes and “/snooze 1h” will let you sleep for another hour. I’m sure you get the idea.
This is some really easy stuff to remember. If you ever get lost though or want to know more commands, just type in “/commands” or “/help” and information will come up to guide you.
As always, AskLG has a party room. Join up with the command “/join asklg” and come hang out. Hopefully some entertaining people (like myself) will be around to keep you company while you’re bored at work, or home, or wherever you are.
Be sure to hit up TechWalla (Akshay’s blog) for late, breaking news on PartyChat. I’d also like to give a shoutout to Eloy’s GTalk status (”PartyChat@gmail.com LIVES!”) for making me inquisitive.
Side Note: It is also important to note that you MUST have GTalk (Gmail) to get all this to work. If you’re not a GMail user yet, hit up Gmail’s website and make an account. You’ll be glad you did.
Tags: akshay, chat, gmail, google, google talk, irc, party, partychat, talk, techwalla
