Seeking an Alternative to Facebook Messenger? Look No Further than Chit Chat

Over the past three years Facebook has extended its dominance of social networking from that of being a medium of news and picture exchange to web-based chatting, more commonly known as instant messaging.

So quick has Facebook managed to establish Facebook chat as a dominant network that it has caught many of the established players such as AIM, MSN Messenger and Digsby off guard. In fact they have been caught so far off guard that these networks are now shadows in terms of popularity of their former selves. Indeed, MSN Messenger is closing down next month (May 2013).

Using the Facebook Chat Network

Whilst Facebook chat is indeed a dominant chat network, and Facebook does now offer the ability to chat on your desktop there are alternatives to the Facebook Messenger program.

There are many reasons as to why you might want to change from using Facebook’s own desktop Messenger application:

• Signing in problems: Often due to the “web” phrasing connection nature strategy of the Facebook Messenger application, sign in problems can and do occur.  

• Privacy concerns: Now that Facebook has become stock market listed there is a growing pressure to monetize apps to a greater extent to achieve greater share-holder value year on year. There is a conflict in interest between the Facebook users and the Facebook shareholders. 

• Advertisement intrusion: Even though at the time of writing Facebook Messenger is free of advertising, we’ve found that Facebook has with no notice randomly added advertising in various places of their online assets once market dominance has been established. 

• Missing features: Though Facebook Messenger does indeed offer the utility that you would expect from a Messenger application – chatting, there are many features such as auto-responding, text formatting and status changing that you may feel like you are missing out on from your desktop.

Chit Chat for Facebook is an independently developed desktop Facebook Messenger download that connects to the Facebook chat network. This unofficially developed application includes some features that many have come to expect from instant messenger networks over the years including status change notifications and a tabbed instant messenger interface.

More recently the developers of this Facebook messenger download have included a clever chat history database system which makes it easy to find messages that were sent a long time ago.

Advantages That Chit Chat Provides Over Facebook Messenger

• Robust Connection: This Facebook Messenger alternative offers two methods by which it connects to Facebook chat, if one doesn’t work the system will automatically try the second methodology. This is all in the background of course. 

• Sign In Notifications: This clever chat app lets you know when your Facebook friends and foes have logged in and out with a toast bar in the bottom right hand side. 

• Database Chat History: Facebook’s chat history isn’t exactly the easiest to sift through online. If storing your conversations is important to you, then you’ll love what Chit Chat has to offer. 

Independently Developed– There is a growing area of concern over the dominance of Facebook in the area of social networking and the extent of personal data and information with which Facebook have access to. Including a Facebook application on one’s computer offer an additional opportunity for Facebook to connect personal information that you have elected to share with information that you have not explicitly opted to share. Chit Chat being independently developed mitigates this issue.

Chit Chat - Free Download Facebook Messenger

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Trusted Contact, Get Help From Your Friends If Your Facebook Account Password lost or Hacked

As we know Facebook is the largest social networking site around the web, therefore will be some hacking, A week ago Facebook introduced new trusted contacts to help make your account more secure. Another feature also announced that 2-step verification security almost 2 years ago. Facebook still testing this feature in 2012 with the name Trusted Friends but later it renamed into Trusted Contact and increased security. Now it made available for All Facebook users.

What Is Trusted Contact Feature ?

Trusted Contact is new feature introduced by Facebook to make the user's account more secure.It gives three to five trusted friends access to your account, if your account can't be login. This feature help you, when you forget your Facebook password or hacked by someone or forget security question, then you don't need to worry about recovering your Facebook account back, with the help of your true friends you can recover, like you giving your home key to neighbour. This is the new way of recovering Facebook account.

The trusted friends will get a code when your forget you Facebook password. So they can message or mail you, the code they got when you forget your password. Then you can access your account with that code.

How To Setup trusted Contact 

For Setting this new feature trusted contact to account, All you have to go Facebook Setting Pageand click Security tab on left panel. Now click Trusted Contacts under the Security Setting to add your trusted friends on the Facebook list.

You will see a popup box with information about the feature and you have to click Choose Trusted Contacts for adding true friends to help you in future.  

Now its is the time for choosing 3 to 5 true friends, which may help you this true friends in future if there's ever a problem with your account. Remember that you should add only the friends who is trust able in such situation, do not add unknown friends.

Once you setup trusted contact, Facebook will notify all your selected friends, with that your selected as a trusted friends in your account to recover password in future.

Hence, when you forget your Facebook account password or hacked by someone, just you have to call all those trusted contacts to help you to access your Facebook account, so each of them will get a get security code, then you have to those code on the Facebook recovery page to recover you Facebook account back.

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20 Facebook Tips/Tricks You Might Not Know

If you surf Facebook on daily basis or occasionally, chances are you’re already familiar with regular stuffs like add/delete friends, update statuses, walls and profile, add and explore pages & applications, etc, but there’s more..

This week we want to cover some interesting things you can do on (or with) Facebook; inclusive of tricks that are not documented or unknown to many, as well as tips to stay connected better with your friends. Without further ado, here’s 20 Facebook Tips/Tricks You Might Not Know. If you have interesting tips/tricks related to Facebook, please feel free to share in the comment box below.

1. How To Place Facebook Chat On Firefox Sidebar

   If you are using Firefox, you can place the Facebook Chat at the sidebar.

2. How To Download Facebook Photo Albums

   FacePAD: Facebook Photo Album Downloader allows you to download your friends’ facebook albums, Events albums, and Group Albums, en masse, with the click of a button.
   

3. How To Share Flickr Photos To Facebook

   Flickr2Facebook is an unofficial Flickr to Facebook uploader(bookmarklet) which allows you upload photos to Facebook from Flickr.
   

4. How To Update Facebook Without Using Facebook

   hellotxt and Ping.fm both introduced features that let Facebook administrators update Facebook Pages.
   

5. How To Schedule Facebook Messages

   Sendible lets you schedule Facebook messages ahead of time so you can send messages to your friends, customers or colleagues in the future.
   

6. How To "Friend" Someone On Facebook & Hide It From Your Status Updates

   A short tutorial on Makeuseof to guide you how to hide Facebook status updates and keep that fact confined to your closer friends.
   

7. How To Create A Photo Collage Using Pictures Of Your Facebook Friends

   Click on Friends tab. Proceed to More tab. From "Choose an option" dropdown, choose any of the dashes "—" . Your Facebook friends collage is right on your computer screen.
   

8. How To Know When Facebook Friends Secretly Delete Or Block You

   This service has been discontinued. X-Friends is a unique tool for tracking friends that disappear from Facebook.
   

9. How To Display Selected Pictures Only On Your Facebook Profile Page

   A little-known feature in Facebook that lets you decide who shows up in that Friends box. Click that "edit" pencil in your Friends box and type the names of your best friends in the box that says "Always show these friends"
   

10. How To Remove Facebook Advertisements

    This Greasemonkey script – Facebook: Cleaner removes many of the annoying ads and updates that unavoidably appear on your Facebook pages.
    

11. How To Syncs Photos Of Facebook Friends With Contacts In Microsoft Outlook

    OutSync is a free Windows application that syncs photos of your Facebook friends with matching contacts in Microsoft Outlook. It allows you to select which contacts are updated. So you can update all contacts at once or just a few at a time.
    

12. How To Display Facebook Statuses On WordPress Blog

    The following method make use of Facebook status feed and WordPress RSS widget to display Facebook Statuses on WordPress blog.. It will also work for self-host WordPress blogs.
    

13. How To Post Your Blog Posts To Your Facebook Wall Automatically

    Wordbook allows you to cross-post your blog posts to your Facebook Wall. Your Facebook “Boxes” tab will show your most recent blog posts.
    

14. How To Access Facebook Chat On Desktop

    Gabtastik and digsby let you keep Facebook chat sessions open on your Windows desktop outside of your regular web browser, using minimal screen real estate and system memory.
    

15. How To Create Quiz On Facebook Easily

    LOLapps provides quiz creator that can be employed to conjure up these popular personality quizzes that are so widespread in Facebook.
    

16. How To Hide Your Online Status On Facebook Chat From Select Contacts

    Facebook has integrated friends list with Chat and you can also choose which of these list members get to see you online.
    

17. How To Get Facebook Updates On Email

    NutshellMail consolidates your Facebook accounts through the inbox you use the most.
    

18. How To Update Facebook Status From Firefox

    FireStatus is a status update utility for multiple social networks, including FaceBook.
    

19. How To Get Facebook On Your Desktop

    Seesmic Desktop, Facebooker, Xobni, Facebook Sidebar Gadget, Scrapboy and Facebook AIR application are desktop applications that allows you interact with your stream just as you would on Facebook, but without the browser.
    

20. How To Delete, Cancel And Terminate Facebook Account And Profile

    A simple guide to terminate, delete or cancel Facebook account, together with the Facebook profile easily.
    

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How To Rename Facebook Page Vanity URL

Have you ever created a Facebook Page but found it necessary to change the page name after? Well, you are not alone, in fact many businesses face the same situation in the midst of figuring out the best name to put on their Facebook Page.

If you do not already know, Facebook Pages only allow name changes to be made to your Facebook page as long your fans or ‘number of likes’ is not more than 100. The general idea is that on the 101st Like onwards, no more name changes are allowed, no matter how big a spelling error you have made on your Facebook Page name.

However all is not lost. There’s a chance for you to change your Facebook Page name even with more than 100 Likes to your page, but it’s subjected to Facebook’s approval.

Renaming Facebook Page (With Less Than 100 Likes)

Since the FB Timeline for Pages was only launched recently, some of you may still be using the old Facebook Page for your businesses. Therefore in this tutorial, we will guide you on how to rename your Facebook Page in both classic Facebook Page as well as the new FB Timeline for Pages.

1. If you are still using the classic Facebook Page, go to your Facebook Page and click on ‘Edit Page’.
   
2. If your Page is on Timeline, go to your Page and click on the button ‘Admin Panel’.
   
   Then click on ‘Manage’ and go to ‘Edit Page’.
   

Now on the left menu, go to ‘Basic Information’.

Renaming Facebook Page (With More Than 100 Likes)

For whatever the reason you may need to change your Facebook Page, but find it unable to do so since you have amassed more than 100 Likes. Head over to this link and fill up the form. Fill up the ‘Current Page name’, ‘Desired Page name’ and provide the ‘Link to Page’ of your current Facebook Page.

On the dropdown menu, please select the best reason why you want to change the Page name. Click on the ‘Send’ button to submit to Facebook.

Take note that there is no promise that Facebook will immediately make the changes for you, but logically, provided that you gave them a valid enough reason for the changes to be made, Facebook will make the change.

Conclusion

Changing your Facebook Page name is not as hard as you may think, but please also be reminded that the ease of it all is only applicable to pages with not more than 100 Likes. When you have reached 101 likes on your Facebook Page, the changing of the page name will require approval from Facebook. When all else fails, you may need to sacrifice this page and create a new Page.

What is your experience in renaming the Facebook Page? Have you tried submitting the form before?

Update:

A week after we posted this article, Facebook has revised their acceptance in vanity URL change request, and now you can no longer request for a change, however, you are allowed to request to change your page name i.e. if your current page name is ‘MyWeb Technology’ and you want to change it to only ‘MyWeb’ as part of your company’s branding strategy, you may send a request.

To request for change of page name, go to your Manage > Edit Page > Basic Information page. If you have more than 100 likes, you will notice there’s a new link next to your Page name that says ‘Request Change’, click on that link.

Now you will be redirected to the change request form, fill up the form with the current page name, desired page name and the reason why you want to change your page name.

Once the form is submitted, Facebook will send an email requesting you to provide supporting document if required.

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How To Listen To Music With Friends On Facebook

Listening to music and singing along together with your friends can be a wonderful and memorable experience but you can only do that when you are physically together. But here’s some good news. The whole experience is about to change because even from home, you can now listen to music, new and old, with your friends, on Facebook.

With the new Facebook ‘Listen With’, you get to listen to music on Facebook and share the experience with your friends in real time. No status updates are required, instead the music you play will automatically be reflected on your chat sidebar on Facebook and your friends will be able to join in, and even chat about it. With more friends listening, the chat can even turn into a group chat.

Playing Music From Facebook

To listen to music from Facebook, first log in to your Facebook account.

1. Go To Facebook Music

When you have logged in, head over to the Facebook Music page (http://www.facebook.com/music) and you will see a list of trending albums with music tracks powered by Myspace and Saavn. There’s also Spotify and Rdio but currently the use of these two are only supported in a few countries.

You can also open the music page from your Facebook wall by accesing it from the left menu under the “Apps” category.

2. Add Application To Facebook

When you are in the Music page, pick any music you’d like to play and a pop-up window will ask you to add the service to Facebook. Simply click on the “Add to Facebook” button.

Note that the pop-up window above is to add the Myspace application only. You will be asked again to add new apps should you want to play music from Spotify, Rdio or Saavn.

3. Play!

Once added, the music application will open a new tab on your browser (or new window, if not supported) and you will be redirected to the Myspace or the Saavn player page. No action is required, simply wait for the page to load and the selected song will be played automatically when it is ready.

Just so you know, the next time you want to start playing a song from Facebook, you will see a pop-up window asking if you would like to open a new tab/window to start playing the song.

Find Out Who Is Listening To Music

Facebook Music updates itself automatically, and you will be able to check who is listening to what, in real time. This also means that your friends will be able to know if you are listening, so they can join you or comment on your activity, or start a conversation.

There are several ways to find out if your friends are listening to music.

A. Facebook Wall

On your Facebook Wall, check out the status updates on the right. If your friend is playing music, you will be able to see the traction. Click on the traction status to see the playlist in detail, comment to start a conversation and click “Play” to start playing the music.

B. Facebook Timeline

On the Facebook Timeline, you will be able to check recently played music statuses and this will be updated automatically. Simply click the play button to play the music or hover for more details.

C. Facebook Chat Sidebar

On your Facebook chat sidebar, there will be a music symbol updated next to your friend’s name if they are listening to music at that point of time. This feature is however currently only available for music played on Spotify and Rdio. If you listen with Myspace or Saavn, you may need to wait for this feature to be available.

Listen To Music With Friends

Now you can already listen to music on Facebook, and check if your friends are listening too. What about listening together with your friends and also chatting about it in real time? Right now, you will only see this feature if Spotify and Rdio are available in your area.

When this is available, simply hover over your friend’s name (one with a music symbol next to it), and a new pop-up will show with music details. Click on the “Listen with” button to listen to the music, and just start chatting. When there are more friends listening together, the chat will automatically become a group chat.

Conclusion

The new music feature on Facebook connects people with and via music, and brings a whole new experience to the Web. No manual updates are required since every status is updated automatically. Nevertheless you could still change who will be able to listen together with you, and also change who will be able to see your music traction.

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How To Browse Your Facebook Like It’s Pinterest

I’m sure you know by now about Pinterest, which is just about one of the fastest growing social networking sites ever. It connects people not only based on their friend’s network, but by their shared interest. While Facebook has great virility, Pinterest offers greater content exposure to its targeted audience, and this enhances the content-sharing experience. Timeline for Brands on Facebook may have its benefits and appeal, but if you secretly wished that it was just as easy to use as Pinterest, then we have good news for you.

In this quick-tip, we will guide you on how to use Pinvolve, a Facebook app that will automatically rearrange and polish your content presentation to mimic the styles of Pinterest. On top of that, the app will add a pin button to each of your shared content to make it easier for your fans to share your featured contents to Pinterest.

Convert Your Fan Page Into Pinterest Style Layout

To get started with the Pinterest-like layout, go to the Pinvolve Facebook app page and click on the button ‘Add to my page’.

You will be given an option to select which page you want to add this feature to. Assuming you have more than one Facebook Page, then you need to select the pages you want to convert, and click ‘Add Page Tab’.

That is all you need to do, and now your page is ready to be viewed in Pinterest-style. You can view our page which went through the Pinvolve treatment here.

At this point, you will notice from the main Facebook Brand Timeline page, a new icon tab just below the cover photo like so:

Any time you need to view your Timeline in Pinterest-style, just click on the Pinvolve tab.

Conclusion

Facebook already has the virility to reach large audiences, but with the Pinvolve app, you could expand your reach to Pinterest users as well, and increase your brand awareness across two booming social networks.

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Why Facebook Home is a Bad Idea and Doesn’t Make Sense

Facebook Home was launched in a rather muted event in Menlo Park a couple of days ago. The invite to this event teased a “new home for Android”, and was thought to be just about a new Facebook Phone. Instead, we got Facebook Home, an app that isn’t actually an app, but as close as a Facebook OS you’re going to get, at least for now. As outlined in our Facebook Home preview, it basically takes over your phone and replaces the homescreen with well, Facebook. I’m sure it looked pretty darn cool in the presentation, with friends pictures and updates popping up, but realistically it hardly makes sense.

Let’s first address everything good about Facebook Home. The way it integrates Facebook messaging and text messages into one is quite convenient. Chatheads, although weirdly named, are quite useful when you’re multitasking, so you can communicate without having to switch to another app. Then there’s the “people centric” approach, which lets you put your friends and family on the forefront rather than apps. Does all of this ring a bell yet? That’s right, this is basically the USP of Windows Phones. There was seamless integration since quite a while, although admittedly not with so many pictures like the Coverfeed.

Now for the shortcomings, which is why I’m really writing this. Facebook Home is a great idea if your whole life revolves around Facebook. Your smartphone, a device for communication in general, suddenly becomes an expensive device to…..use Facebook. Mr. Zuckerberg’s introduction about Facebook Home included something about having to go through a homescreen and app selection screen before getting to see your social updates, which was apparently not cool. So basically, even the few minutes in the elevator or a queue should be used for Facebook.

So using Facebook all the time is cool and all, but you have to be rocking a premium smartphone. The rest of you with non expensive smartphones, tough luck, no Facebook Home for you. The first devices that support Facebook Home are the HTC One X, HTC One X+, HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S3, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Although it’s been promised that Facebook Home will be made available for other devices in the coming months, we doubt every device will be capable of running it, and running it smoothly. Let’s face it, even if it does make it to all Android smartphones, you’re not going to get the best experience. All those fancy transitions, chat overlay and stuff is going to require some horsepower. Not to mention, it’s not going to be easy on the battery or network either.

And finally, for an experience that’s supposed to be centered around “people”, Facebook Home will feature ads in the near future. The man himself, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that ads will come to Facebook Home, so it will be People…and Ads first. Facebook Home is undoubtedly a bad idea, it aims to cater to everyone, yet is limited in its approach. It aims to bring people forward but in the process takes over your smartphone. In short, it doesn’t really make any sense. To those who’ve already got Facebook Home up and running, they’re doubtless going to see more of spam, useless shares and those “like if you love your mom” pictures more than content from friends. So what are your views on Facebook Home? Is it a good idea or just another way to make us mindless zombies by trying to stuff Facebook into every single waking moment of our lives?

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Facebook Home and HTC First Preview – New Facebook Experience

Menlo Park, California was abuzz with excitement because of the big announcement from Facebook today. Previously rumored to be only the “Facebook Phone”, the invite in fact spilled the beans by mentioning a new home on Android. The main reason for this event was Facebook Home. Mark Zuckerberg seemed to brush away all talk of an exclusive Facebook device by saying that it wouldn’t be fair to make a new experience for a single phone, no matter how good it is. It does make sense, and so Facebook Home was introduced.

Facebook Home

So what exactly is Facebook Home? It’s technically an app that takes over most of your Android UI. Facebook Home puts your online social life at the forefront. Instead of having to unlock your phone, go to an app to check our social updates, Facebook Home alters the default phone UI and replaces the lock screen with updates. The main homescreen is called “Coverfeed”, which is a scrolling version of your newsfeed, complete with status updates, pictures, videos, shares, you name it. Now, instead of having to use an app to interact with these stories, you can simply tap, swipe and use simple gestures to like or comment. Double tapping a picture maximizes it, single tap likes it, clicking the comment key lets you comment, so on. Even notifications pop up on the same screen and can stack up, you can swipe individual ones away, or just stow them away for later introspection. Tapping on them takes you to the Facebook app.

Another key element of Facebook Home is messaging. According to the developers, switching back and forth between different apps just to message someone is far too cumbersome, thus the rather nifty but horribly named “Chatheads”. This features lets you continue with IM or Chat conversations no matter what you’re doing on your phone, by way of a round icon overlay with your friend’s profile picture on it. Conversations can be had by simply tapping and expanding the chat window, while whatever else you’re doing remains in the background and can be returned to by either tapping the Chathead icon or simply swiping the conversation away.

What of the original UI you ask? The default homescreen and launcher is effectively gone, but you can add your favorite apps to an app launcher screen by tapping your profile photo on the Coverfeed for quick access. This also lets you upload a photo or update your status right there. Basically, Facebook Home is Facebook, everywhere. It’s like your whole phone is just a Facebook device, effectively a Facebook Phone if you like. Probably a boon for the younger crowd, but it isn’t going to make much sense for most users, and even a lot of the younger crowd might not want their online lives occupying every part of their phones. It’s probably not going to make much sense using it if you’ve got friends that keep spamming with malicious links and sharing annoying pictures. Keep in mind that to access your profile, you still have to use the Facebook app.

Oh, and here’s the kicker. Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed that ads will make their way to Facebook Home in the near future.

HTC First

Looks like the rumors were both right and wrong. There is indeed a Facebook Phone called the HTC First, with almost the exact specs that were leaked, but it isn’t anything special. It’s just going to be a phone that comes with Facebook Home out of the box, and will be optimized for it. Going by the specs, it isn’t going to impress most techies, but hey, if you’re really buying a phone just so you can use Facebook every waking moment you wouldn’t really care for specs. Not to take anything away from the phone itself though, because it is a fairly good looking device that should do just fine as a communication device. Here’s the complete specsheet:

• SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
• CPU: 1.4 GHz dual core Krait
• GPU: Adreno 305
• RAM: 1 GB RAM
• Storage: 16 GB, non expandable
• Screen: 4.3 inches Super LCD 2, 1280 x 720 px (341 ppi)
• Camera: 5 MP rear facing, 1.6 MP front facing camera
• Connectivity: Bluetooth v4.0, NFC, Wi-fi, MicroUSB 2.0 slot, 3G, 4G LTE
• Battery: N/A
• OS: Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2

The HTC First will be the first (see what I did there?) smartphone that runs on the new Snapdragon 400 SoC, and will be available on April 12th with AT&T as an exclusive in North America. In the UK, it will be carried by Orange and EE. The AT&T version will go for 99$ on contract, which puts it firmly in the mid range.

Facebook Home will also be available to download on April 12th, but only on select devices. Those devices are the HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung Galaxy S3 andSamsung Galaxy Note 2. In the future, it will also be available on the HTC One andSamsung Galaxy S4 According to Zuckerberg, Facebook Home is exclusive to Android for now and it will be updated every month to add new features and device support. Tablet versions of the same will also be released, a few months down the line.

So what do you think about this? Is Facebook literally taking over your smartphone a good idea? Would you go for Facebook Home? Let us know via comments below!

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