Get fTalk, The Lightweight Facebook Chat Client With Great Interface

The new chat interface for Facebook has made it hard to identify online and offline contacts as they are not aligned separately. If you are looking for an easy way of using Facebook chat, the try fTalk. It is a free desktop client for Facebook chat. It aligns online and offline contacts separately and shows system tray notifications when a contact is online. fTalk is quite lightweight and has a clean interface with the classic MSN Messenger like look. Ever since I installed it for testing, I have been using it myself as I found it much more convenient than the current Facebook Chat interface. Moreover, the system tray notifications are always useful to keep an eye on contacts which come online. Another utility of using a chat client like fTalk is that you do not require logging into Facebook via browser to use Facebook chat.

Once fTalk is launched, login and authorize your Facebook account.

Login

You will be redirected to the authorization page where you will have to allow access to fTalk.

Permissions

Once done, you will be logged into Facebook chat. All Online and Offline contacts are displayed in separate categories (Online Friends and Offline Friends). Just double click a contact name to start a  conversation. You can also view a friend’s profile, photos and Facebook messages via the options present on a contacts chat window.

chat

From profile picture drop-down menu, you can access your profile, set Preferences and sign off from Facebook chat. The status box on top can be used to instantly update your Facebook status.

View Profile

Under Preferences window,  you can configure options to launch fTalk at system start up, activate emoticons, and enable or disable system tray/sound notifications for message alerts, online friends & full screen mode.

fTalk Preferences_2011-08-29_21-30-57

If you enable system tray notifications, you will receive a pop-up notification from the system tray when a contact comes online.

system tray

fTalk works on

  • Windows XP
  • Windows Vista
  • Windows 7

Download fTalk