[chrismiller262]

There is actually a buddy list when you have other accounts installed (GTalk or Jabber). You have to go to the "Window" menu option. They are in there. They pull up identical to iChat's buddy lists.

[phillyman]

How about when the application is closed? Will I still get an "iMessage"? I like that feature on the iPad but I assume this would not make sense on a computer... Just imagine being in a meeting and constantly getting pushed messages pop ups...

Also agree with the beeping.... couple of idevices next to each other and it sounds like an out of sync orchestra :-)

[soulatrium]

I've been waiting for this, and now that I've tried the beta it's just what I was hoping for!

[jonmichaels]

I installed the beta and I did have several of my Buddies disappear from the Buddy List. This was discouraging at first until I figured out what was going on. Or at least my best guess at it.

The secret is that your Address Book entries are even more important than they used to be. I have a lot of Buddies who have mac.com email addresses from way back. I had their mac.com email addresses in the email field of Address Book but not in the Instant Message field. Many of those Buddies have since upgraded to iOS5 and are now using iMessage. Once I installed the Messages Beta, they all disappeared from this list. I could still use the Messages window, type in their name and send them messages but they wouldn't show up as Online or Offline in the Buddies List. As soon as I added their mac.com address to the Instant Message field in Address Book, they showed up again.

Hope that helps.

[bumpgalletta]

Where do you create an account to use it? Mine won't let me use it. Says I need to configure my account.

[Jason Snell]

petermillard1, on 16 February 2012 - 06:46 AM, said:

+1 more asking about screen sharing? It's an extremely useful feature for anyone trying to support/troubleshoot from a distance e.g. elderly parents, and it would be very disappointing if it wasn't supported.

Yes. Screen sharing. iChat Theater. iChat AV video/audio chats. All still there. Nothing was removed.

[TheFLP]

chrismiller262, on 16 February 2012 - 09:14 AM, said:

There is actually a buddy list when you have other accounts installed (GTalk or Jabber). You have to go to the "Window" menu option. They are in there. They pull up identical to iChat's buddy lists.

OK, then I'm willing to try it out. The lack of a buddy list would have been a non-starter for me — I use it to keep tabs on my coworkers' internet connections.

[rebus]

It seems dumb... I started a chat with my wife (I on my computer and her on her iPhone) and it made a second conversation (the original from my iPhone and a second from my computer). Additionally, I can't see the conversation I started on the computer on my phone. It would make sense to me if the service is cloud based, that is would sync the conversation between the two devices.

I hope that since it's beta, this is a 'feature' that has not been implemented yet.

[RanLiu]

phillyman, on 16 February 2012 - 09:32 AM, said:

How about when the application is closed? Will I still get an "iMessage"? I like that feature on the iPad but I assume this would not make sense on a computer... Just imagine being in a meeting and constantly getting pushed messages pop ups...

Also agree with the beeping.... couple of idevices next to each other and it sounds like an out of sync orchestra :-)

That would be cool if Messages for Mac does what FaceTime for Mac does, but no you have to keep the app running. Otherwise the sender won't be able to send messages to you.

[Steven Carter]

Perfect! I'll be able to start a conversation with an employee on my home office iMac, continue it on the iPhone on the way to the airport, and resume it on the plane using my iPad. This is powerful technology and it's available at no extra charge. I've been use the Mac OS exclusively since the Mac Plus desktop and every OS release impresses me more than the last.

Neither the article nor http://www.apple.com...n/features.html states if all of these things will be supported by OSX Server, but I presume that they will be since it is now basically Lion with additional functions.

[TheFLP]

I'm also happy to see that "Show as Boxes" is still available. I really hate the speech bubble look.

Not so enthused about the the engraved effect, though. Switching to white on dark colors makes it more readable.

[scottbayes]

meta, on 16 February 2012 - 07:33 AM, said:

Yeah, please check if it still allows screen sharing.

Also, please check it interoperates for video chat with the old iChat.

Between my 10.7.3 calling from Messages over Bonjour and my 10.6.8 iChat it tries to do video chats, but fails to make the connection after I click Accept (hangs for 2-4 minutes, probably a 2-minute network timeout and a retry, then gives an error).

I'm hopeful this is just a beta issue, since the intent seems to be clear.

But I'll say it sure has gotten confusing: Snow Leopard vs Lion app support limitations, iChat, FaceTime, Messages, Bonjour, AIM/Jabber/what-have-you, SMS vs network, iPad 1 (no video) and 2 (w/video), iPhone 3G in iOS 4 w/no video, iPhone 4S in iOS 5 with video, text vs audio vs video vs screen-sharing, one or multiple Apple IDs that are generally irreconcilable, messaging by phone number (but over the 'net, not the cell network) vs Apple ID, SMS…

Apple has not created this mess all by itself, but it's made its contributions, even though some problems are hardware-evolutionary in nature and practically unavoidable, most notably video and performance limitations.

[len5]

Can u change the format of the messages how they appear? I can't seem to find anyway of changing from the bubble to a more basic view.

[cpoff]

len5, on 16 February 2012 - 12:02 PM, said:

Can u change the format of the messages how they appear? I can't seem to find anyway of changing from the bubble to a more basic view.

View > Messages > Show as Balloons/Boxes/Compact