1 <page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
6 <link type="guide" xref="index"/>
7 <revision pkgversion="3.7" version="0.1" date="2012-11-30" status="draft"/>
9 What instant messaging is and how you can use it.
11 <credit type="author">
13 <email>aruna.evam@gmail.com</email>
15 <credit type="editor">
16 <name>Ekaterina Gerasimova</name>
17 <email>kittykat3756@gmail.com</email>
20 <p>Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0</p>
24 <title>Overview of instant messaging</title>
27 Instant messaging, sometimes abbreviated to IM, is a text-based means to
28 communicate instantly over the internet and the local network. While some
29 IM applications work with only one type of account, others, including
30 <link xref="introduction">Empathy</link>, provide IM facilities by using
31 <link xref="add-account">accounts</link> from different service providers.
32 Some of these even support audio and video calling.
35 <table frame="all" shade="cols">
37 <td><p><media type="image" src="figures/video_overview.png" mime="image/png" style="right" width="150" height="150"></media></p></td>
38 <td><p><media type="image" src="figures/conf_overview.png" mime="image/png" style="right" width="150" height="150"></media></p></td>
39 <td><p><media type="image" src="figures/croom_overview.png" mime="image/png" style="right" width="150" height="150"></media></p></td>
42 <td><p>Video Conference</p></td>
43 <td><p>Group chats</p></td>
44 <td><p>Chat rooms</p></td>
49 Some instant messaging applications can be used to connect to chat rooms,
50 online places where like-minded people meet to talk. One popular means to
51 connect to several chat rooms is the Internet Relay Chat, also known as
52 <link xref="irc-manage">IRC</link>. IRC provides
53 <link xref="irc-join-room">public</link> chat rooms, which are open to
54 anyone who creates an account on the IRC Server, and private chat rooms,
55 which are <link xref="irc-join-pwd">password protected</link>
56 and open only to a select few.