Quick, easy group chat with Facebook integration

July 3, 2008 3:02 PM

What is the most user friendly and computer accessible way to set up group chat for a Facebook group?

There is a group of conference attendees that I'd like to stay in touch with, share best practices and moral support. Currently we have a Facebook group, but it would be cool to integrate and schedule group chat sessions. To my knowledge, Facebook's standard chat doesn't allow group chat.

Is there a simple way to accomplish this? Can you add Facebook apps to group pages, or would it have to be a separate link or an app on a particular users' page?

What's the most widely used, most accessible or most user friendly app for this? Few headaches on the user's end means more people will use it and it will be more sustainable.

I see articles about Meebo Rooms integration in Facebook, and I've seen at least one Facebook Game App uses Meebo Rooms. Meebo Rooms seems nice because it would link Facebook users' accounts to the service on one hand, but still allow non-Facebook users to chat via other protocols, if I understand Meebo's MO. But, I don't see any clear way of setting it up short of integrating it into my own custom Facebook app. I can code, but learning a new API and finding hosting just to reinvent the wheel sounds not-so-fun.

AIM, MSN, ICQ, IRC, Yahoo and all are nice, but everyone is likely to have a different favorite and, since these discussions might take place from work, I have to assume some users' computers are locked down to new software.

posted by Skwirl to Computers & Internet (1 answer total)

I've had good experiences setting up group chats on Buzzen (so far there's never been anyone in my small group, who are scattered around the world and use various operating systems, who hasn't been able to access it). You simply create your own room and then give everyone the link. They'll have to register a nickname to be able to chat, but it's free and pretty non-invasive.
posted by amyms at 3:09 PM on July 3, 2008