The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. The correct title is iChat.
iChat is a third party AOL Instant Messenger (AOL IM) client, developed by Apple Computer for the Mac OS X platform and first released with Mac OS X 10.2 in August 2002. Fully endorsed by AOL, it uses their official implementation of the AOL IM protocols, as opposed to other third party AOL IM clients which use reverse engineered versions of the protocols.
In June 2003, Apple Computer announced iChat AV Public Beta, a new version of iChat that added voice and video chat capabilities. It also introduced the iSight camera, designed specifically for use with iChat AV. These capabilities are based on the industry-standard, but not yet widely adopted, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for video chat and audio chat. The final version of the software was shipped with Mac OS X 10.3 and became available separately on the same day for users of Mac OS X 10.2 for 29.95USD. Apple eventually discontinued sale of iChat AV separately; it can now only be acquired through Panther or with a new Mac.
In February 2004, America Online introduced AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) version 5.5 for Windows-PC users. This version allowed video (but not voice) chats over the AIM protocol and was compatible with Apple's iChat AV. On the same day, Apple released iChat AV 2.1 Public Beta to allow Mac OS X users to video conference with AIM 5.5 users.
In June 2004, Steve Jobs revealed the next version of iChat AV that will be included with Mac OS X 10.4. This version will support up to four people in a video conference and ten people in an audio conference. Additionally, video conferencing will use H.264/AVC, which offers better quality than the current H.263. This release will also support the Jabber protocol.
The topic of iChatAV vs. other chat programs is sort of odd: the text chatting part of iChatAV is better than what shipped with Jaguar last August--but not so much that if someone liked Fire or AIM better that they would switch.
I have made these suggestions to Apple through their iChatAV feedback links, but what I am curious about is what other pros and cons people are seeing with iChatAV vs. other chat programs.
While iChatAV does a great job popping up an initial message to let you know someone is trying to chat with you, once you switch to another app there is no feedback to allow you to see that the person you are chatting with has sent a follow up message.
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