Chatting with Friends

If messages, notes, and digital pokes aren’t enough ways to communicate on Facebook, you can also talk directly to friends using the Chat tool. If a friend is logged on at the same time as you, you can have real-time conversations. If you’ve chatted with other Chat programs, such as Yahoo! Messenger, you’ll find that the Facebook Chat tool works the same way. You can even invite more than one person to chat in the same conversation window.

The first thing to do is check your online status. Look for the Chat bar at the bottom of the browser window. If you’re already “online” for chatting, the bar just says Chat. If you’re offline, or unavailable for chatting, the bar says Chat (Offline). To toggle your offline status on again, click the Chat bar, click the Options button, and then click the Available to Chat option to unselect it. You can toggle this command on and off. When it’s on, a green dot appears on the Chat bar. If it’s off, the dot changes to gray. After your status is green, you’re good to go.