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Friday, November 09, 2007

A/V for Adium!

During all our work on integrating audio and video into Adium, it seems that a company called MeBeam was way ahead of us. They implemented a cross-platform, protocol-agnostic videochat solution using Flash. The best of all: They allowed us to integrate with their service!

What this means is that starting today, Adium has support for videochat!

MeBeam has very compelling features:

Cross-platform
Cross-service
No installation necessary on the invitee side, except for some IM client, a web browser and the Flash plugin
Up to 15 people in a multiuser-videochat, not required to use the same IM network
Fewer issues with firewalls than other solutions

What do you have to do to make use of it? First, you need a webcam obviously, and a headset is recommended. Then, download the plugin and double-click it, so Adium can place it into the right location. Relaunch Adium, and you're good to go.

When you want to videochat with someone, ctrl-click (or right-click) them and choose "Initiate MeBeam Videochat". That's all!

Labels: MeBeam, plugins, VoiceAndVideo

# posted by Andreas Monitzer at 11:17 AM

Comments:

those are the best news for 2007 :D yey!!!!! at last video in Adium. Goodbye aMSN, Mercyry, MSN, and Yahoo :D

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:00 PM

Despite this, will the developers continue to work on a native A/V solution? This is nice and all, but it's so much nicer to have this kind of functionality built-in, without relying on someone else.

# posted by

Alan : 12:16 PM

Definitely.

# posted by

Zac West : 12:19 PM

Okay, that's an effort, but the real thing would be built-in integration to Adium, but you guys know that, don't you...

By the way, Adium rocks, muchas gracias for the work!

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:36 PM

this is cool i multichat 6 ppl with voice too and i can say this is really cool. the only drawback is tha we need to open browser :(

# posted by

Panagiotis speeking ... : 1:09 PM

flash? No offense, but I think most people would rather wait a little longer for a native one... Please don't stop development

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:38 PM

i hope it'll get integrated better into adium!

btw, will u continue working on the real videochat or will u try to include mebeam better?

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:46 PM

I was hoping that this was real integration, and not just opening a link. I appreciate the plug-in, since I already use MeBeam, its a great short-cut, but I was hoping that it would open in the chat window.

# posted by

Ustice : 2:33 PM

wow, very cool! strange though, the way devs have just woken up after years of users begging for a/v.

# posted by

ufopsi : 3:04 PM

Guys, listen, you're nuts if you think we're just going to drop all the work we've put in on the native video implementations. This was a side project that Andy was working on. He wanted to release it so he did. It won't in any way detract from the other work we're doing. It's not meant to replace the real thing, simply something fun in the meantime.

# posted by

Eric Richie : 3:14 PM

mika: We didn't "wake up"; we weren't asleep. We've always wanted VoiceAndVideo too. We just didn't say anything concrete until recently because there was nothing *to* say until recently.

# posted by

Peter Hosey : 4:02 PM

This comment has been removed by the author.

# posted by

Kevin : 6:56 PM

@richie
thanks for clearing that up. this is nice i guess, but i can't consider it a solution.
really looking forward to version 2.

# posted by

Kevin : 7:29 PM

To all complaining about this plugin. Stop!!! If you guys think you can do better then do it. THIS IS NOT THE FINAL SOLUTION. IT IS A SOLUTION TEMPORARY. I think people should be a bit more respectful to what these guys are doing in their spare time. YOU NEED TO REALIZE Adium doesn't put food on their table. They do this in their spare time. They have other things to do.

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:59 PM

Does this temporary solution work for adium -> window live messenger (msn on windows)?

# posted by

Mikael : 10:19 AM

I am not a mac user yet, my MBP comes in on Wednesday, but as I was downloading software in preparation for my new Mac I found Adium. I can't wait to start using this software. As a freeware developer myself I can sypathize with your team about the late nights, early mornings, and sacrifices to your social life you have to make when taking on a project of this scope, with this big of a user base. Reading thru the above posts maybe a little discouraging, however I hope you are also encouraged by their loyalty and the fact they care enough about your project to post with such emotion.

I look forward to using your product in a few days and I'm even more excited about the possibility of using adium with my iPhone after February :-)

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:13 PM

peter: thanks. For years, you gave the impression there was no way to do it or that it'd take eons anyway. hence my comment.

I'm just happy about recent developments.

# posted by

ufopsi : 1:20 PM

great you are the best, this is a good step to make greater solution

# posted by

Liut : 5:47 PM

spiken: yes, it'll work with anybody, as long as you can send them a URL and they have a web browser with Flash-support.

# posted by

Andreas Monitzer : 7:25 PM

this is cool, but honestly.. i hate flash.

# posted by

Patrick Rodrigez Gonzalez Hernandez Martinez : 11:37 PM

Haha thanks guys, it's a great half way solution. Keep up the work, Adium seems to be the best messenger client for mac, and you keep proving it! Good luck

# posted by

notsosly : 4:09 AM

Hey Guys, this seems a great tool and as I make my way over to my new MBP (it's been 11 days now!), this is one of the apps that is making that a seamless process. Keep up the good work, I look forward to the integrated solution when it arrives.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:58 PM

I'm a newbie to Macbook & crossing over frm Windows is hard enf already BUT at least my chatting is sort of spared.. Keep up the good work! I love Adium! :)

# posted by

sentire : 4:25 AM

I do not see such a link when I right-click.

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:34 PM