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How to log into Yahoo! IM with iChat on Mac OS X via a Jabber account

I bought my wife a MacBook for Christmas this year and with it comes the embedded iSight web camera. Mac OS X comes with iChat which natively supports audio & video chatting with the built-in iSight camera. With our new arrivals of twin babies earlier this month, video chatting is becoming a hot commodity in our household between her and I as well as extended family who all live out of state.

Adium out, iChat in

Previously, I used Adium, which is a nice IM client for Mac OS X which allows you to log into virtually all IM platforms with a single application. The biggest downside with Adium is that it doesn't support video. I always found myself having to quit Adium to use iChat when I wanted to video chat with friends/family. This was acceptable for me, but not as convenient to teach to my wife who is not as tech savvy and has multiple IM accounts on AIM, Yahoo!, and MobileMe.

I'd prefer to keep things like IM simple for her so she can worry about figuring out other things on her new computer -- plus, the convenience of having one IM app that handles text, audio, and video chatting across all IM services is very convenient.

The Challenge: iChat doesn't natively support Yahoo! Instant Messenger

iChat out-of-box supports AOL Instant Messenger, MobileMe, Mac.com, Bonjour, Google Talk, and Jabber Instant Messaging services:

Using a Jabber account, you can log into Yahoo! IM via iChat

Jabber is a free IM service and functions much like email service. You must find a Jabber provider and setup a Jabber account with them. Once you have a Jabber account, you can communicate with any other Jabber user.

The unique thing about Jabber is that it supports "transports." Transports enable Jabber IM servers to communicate with other IM services such as Yahoo! IM, MSN, IM, AOL IM, Google Talk, etc.

The key, which was not obvious to me as I searched online for tutorials on how to do this, is to find a Jabber server that has Yahoo! IM transport capabilities. There are many Jabber servers out there which do not have Yahoo! IM transports.

Setting up a Jabber account to access Yahoo! IM via iChat: the definitive guide

1. Assuming you don't already have a Jabber account, you must create one. To do so (on Mac OS X), download the Psi application at: http://psi-im.org (as of this writing, Psi version 0.12 is what I used).
2. Install and launch Psi
3. From the "General" menu, select "Account Setup"
4. Click "Add" to add a new account
5. The name of the account can be whatever you'd like -- this is used for referencing the account in your account list.
6. Choose a Jabber server from the drop-down list. This server list will populate from Jabber.org's service listing at http://www.jabber.org/web/Services.
   1. I used im.apinc.org as they were the only one of several which I tried with Yahoo! IM transport capabilities.
7. Choose any login and password you like for your Jabber account. This doesn't need to match your Yahoo! screen name. Leave all other settings as-is. You may get a certificate validation message -- just hit continue (this means that they have not purchased an SSL certificate and are using a free certificate).
8. After creating the account, it will show up in the Psi window. From the "Status" menu, choose "Online" to log into your Jabber account on im.apinc.org.
9. Right-click on your Jabber account name in Psi window and select "Service Directory" and click the "Browse" button on the window that appears. You will see the following window:
10. Right-click on the "Yahoo! IM Gateway" and select "add to roster". This will add the Yahoo! IM Gateway (labeled as "im.apinc.org") to your list in your Psi window.
11. Right-click on the newly-added item in your Psi window:
12. Select "Add/Authorize to contact list"
13. Right-click on the item again and select "Log on".  This will prompt you for your Yahoo! ID and password. Enter them here.
14. You're all set with the Psi application. You've now established your Jabber account and linked your Jabber account to the Yahoo! IM Gateway via the Jabber service. Quit Psi and launch iChat -- we must now setup iChat to log into your new jabber account.
15. With iChat opened, select the "iChat" menu and choose "Preferences." Click the "Accounts" tab.
16. Click the "+" button to create an account. Select "Jabber Account" from the Account Type drop-down menu.
17. Enter the Account name and Password you chose in step 5. Note that your account name will be in the format: username@im.apinc.org  (you must include the "@im.apinc.org" or whichever Jabber server you created your account on).
18. You must now add all of your Yahoo! IM buddies to your Jabber buddies list. Unfortunately, the Yahoo! IM buddies in your Yahoo! buddy list don't automatically transfer over. To add a new Yahoo! IM buddy to your Jabber list, you MUST enter them in the following format: yahooid@yahoo. In other words, if your friend's Yahoo! IM username is johndoe, you would enter this as johndoe@yahoo in your Jabber buddy list. The "@yahoo" tells the Jabber server to utilize the Yahoo! IM Gateway for routing instant messages to Yahoo! users.