BeAIM - Let the Chat Begin!

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BeAIM - Let the Chat Begin!

A chat can start in two ways: By you or by somebody that wants to chat with you.

You can contact someone for a chat, or just double-click on their account name, and then type your first message.
If you want to chat with somebody currently not in your list, go to People and choose Contact User... . Type in the account name and click OK.

When you or one of your buddies initiates a chat, the AIM servers connect your clients so you can send messages back and forth. But the BeAIM client that displays all messages sent and received, and lets you in that way keep track of your conversation with the other person. There may be a small delay from the time you sent a message until it appears on the other person's display.

While you communicate with another person, BeAIM will display their screen name. It is possible to participate in multiple conversations at once.

#### Making Use of Bots

Chat bots can be both fun and practical. For the AIM protocol there excists several bots. A chat bot is an application that can answer questions through an instant messenger interface. For instance, the Hungarian BeOS User Group has a bot on their IRC-channel (#beos.hu on irc.ircnet.org) that tells you the upcoming TV-shows. Another example is the most popular BeShare server.

Start a chat with the "buddy" ZolaOnAOL:

As you can see, this AIM bot is designed to deliver games (she plays hangman with you - just type hangman), be an online dictionary and thesaurus. It can also give information about the weather in various cities across United States and stock quotes from Wallstreet.

For a comprehensive list of Zola's functions, Type 'MENU' in your IM window.

Others have also been chatting with ZolaOnAOL.

Another bot that might come handy for American BeAIM users is AOLYellowPages. The name should say it all, it looks up phone numbers and addresses.

#### Configurating alerts

As mentioned, BeAIM is constantly checking your buddies online statuses and if they are sending you any messages. By working in the background, BeAIM lets you concentrate on other work and tells you throug a series of audiable alerts what is happening.

The various of audiable alerts can be removed or changed in Sounds preferences.

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