Help me stay incognito in Gmail

July 12, 2012 1:27 PM

In Gmail, is there a way to chat from an alternate email? They are both Gmail accounts. One is my main, which the chat defaults to. I would like to be able to chat from my alt email so I can don't have to give out my full name to random folks from the internet. I found someone asking this very question on the Gmail forums, but there were no answers.
posted by virginia_clemm to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Best answer: You can log into GMail with multiple accounts simultaneously and have both open accounts in different tabs of your browser. (Click your profile icon in the upper right corner of GMail, then Add Account.) Then just switch to the other tab.
posted by kindall at 1:34 PM on July 12, 2012

Best answer: What do you mean which the chat defaults to? Are you using a delegated account or are you logged in separately to 2 accounts? If the latter, just chat from the second name. You can also use the google talk client or another third party chat client and log in with the account you want to use.
posted by brainmouse at 1:35 PM on July 12, 2012

Best answer: Do you mean you want to be logged into chant in two different accounts at the same time?

Besides what kindall says you can download the actual gmail chat client you can log in with one account there and then open gmail on the internet and chat through another account there.
posted by magnetsphere at 1:35 PM on July 12, 2012

Best answer: I just use two different browsers.
posted by elizardbits at 1:41 PM on July 12, 2012

Response by poster: wow...i feel silly. thanks, guys.
posted by virginia_clemm at 1:45 PM on July 12, 2012