fTalk 3.0

Overview

fTalk is an alternative for facebook’s chat feature, which sometimes can be slow, buggy and just plain annoying. You don’t have to open facebook in order to chat anymore; just open fTalk and start chatting. It has various features for its users: you can get notified when friends come online, update your status right from within the application or use cool emoticons to make the conversation more expressive.

Installation

The installation is pretty much simple, but you should be careful in the beginning since it asks you to set and keep Adoresearch.com as your browser’s homepage and new tab page, as well as make Search-Results.com the default web search engine. There is also an add-on it wants to install called Searchqu Toolbar. By default those changes and the toolbar are checked, so you should untick their checkboxes if you don’t want to install them. After that installation begins and finishes in an instant.

The program can run perfectly under any Windows XP, Vista or 7 OS.

Interface

The interface is very similar to an instant messenger’s interface like MSN or Yahoo! Messenger. When you login you can see your profile picture and name at the top, which you can click to access a menu with features like View my profile, Sign out or go to the preferences menu. Below your name there is a search box where you can search for a friend’s name for easier finding. Then there is the main area, where all your friends are displayed. They are split in two categories, offline friends and online friends. At the bottom there is a text box, where you can type your status and publish it in your facebook profile. As soon as you double click on a name, a new conversation window will open and you can start chatting.

Pros

After giving this softie the permissions it asks, you won’t need to visit the facebook page again to chat. It is a completely standalone program.

The chat window has many features and options. For starters, it is a lot bigger than the normal chat window in facebook and shows both your profile picture’s in their normal sizes. In addition, there are buttons that direct you to the other person’s facebook profile and photos, while there are buttons that start and end a video call. Last but not least, there is a variety of animated emoticons to choose from and use while chatting.

A small notification window comes up with a sound playing when someone comes online to notify you of the event. You can change the way the notifications appear in the preferences menu.

Updating your status through the program is also possible, just by easily typing your text in the bottom textbox of fTalk’s main window.

Cons

Not really a minus, but something to be aware of is that in order to start a video call or for the animated emoticons to be properly viewed by the other person in the conversation, he/she has to be using fTalk as well, otherwise the video call will fail and the emoticons will be displayed like the normal facebook emoticons.

Alternatives

Two alternatives with more or less the same features are Chit Chat for Facebook and Facebook Messenger (Windows, iPhone, Android). The second one is developed by Facebook and is just a desktop version of its current chat. Chit Chat for Facebook is a popular shareware with several features, including notifications for when friends come online, tabbed message window, creation of usergroups for easier finding of particular contacts and saving of your chats in your computer.

Conclusion

If you find Facebook’s chat interface boring, then fTalk is a decent alternative with features that can make chatting with friends more entertaining. It is more accessible and faster, so next time you want to talk to your best buddy or your partner, use fTalk for a change.