How to set up Facebook Chat in Messages app for OS X

How to add fb to messages 1About a week ago, we reviewed Astro, which is a third-party Facebook chat client for OS X that features native options that most other chat clients don’t offer. Some of our readers commented on the fact that you can just use Messages to chat with Facebook friends. A few others noted that they did not realize it was possible to connect to Facebook through Messages, so we thought we’d explain it with a quick how-to guide…

As a reminder, we offer these basic how-to guides for our readers who are not necessarily as tech savvy as others claim to be. We know that many of you have been using Messages to chat with Facebook friends for years and you don’t need a tutorial. This article is for readers who don’t necessarily know about the feature, and we know there are some of them out there. If you already know how to connect Facebook to Messages, don’t feel bad about skipping this article. It won’t hurt our feelings.

Apple’s chat client, Messages, showed up on the Mac in 2012 when the company launched Mountain Lion. If you don’t already know about Messages on the Mac, you are in for a treat. It makes it possible for you to connect with a variety of sources to chat seamlessly with other OS X or iOS users, plus you can connect to your Google, Yahoo, and AOL accounts to communicate without having to log onto their websites. Although not as well known, Messages makes it possible for you to add even more third-party chat clients through the instant messaging service Jabber. That is how we are going to connect to Facebook.

How to add fb to messages 4Step 1: Open Messages and select “Add Account” from the dropdown menu in the upper left corner of your Mac.

Step 2: Select “Other messages account…” from the available options and click “Continue.”

Step 3: Select Jabber from the dropdown menu under “Account Type.”

How to add fb to messages 3Step 4: Enter your Facebook user name with @chat.facebook.com as the suffix. For example, if your Facebook username is Joe Everyman, your chat username will be joe.everyman@chat.facebook.com.

Step 5: Enter your Facebook account password.

Step 6: Enter chat.facebook.com in the server options section for “Server.”

Step 7: Enter 5222 for the Port number.

Step 8: Click the “Create” button.

Now your Facebook conversations have been added to Messages. Every time someone on Facebook says hello, you will be notified as if it were one of your Messages chats on OS X.