Post Updated on 17-Apr-2010. The earlier instructions were not needed on the new Pidgin anymore. Pidgin has now added a new Google Talk protocol which can be used to configure your Google Talk id.
Pidgin (earlier Gaim) is a multiple protocol Instant Messenger client which can be used to chat using MSN, Yahoo, AIM, Google Talk and many other protocols.
How to configure Pidgin to work with Google Talk (Use Pidgin to chat with your GTalk friends)
- Download & Install the latest version of Pidgin. On Kubuntu / Ubuntu you can just type
aptitude install pidgin
in terminal to install Pidgin.
- Open Pidgin and go to Accounts –> Manage Accounts –> Add window of Pidgin.
- From the drop-down box choose Google Talk as the Protocol.
- For the Screen name enter your Google Id (Gmail Id) just the user name without the @gmail.com in it.
- In the Password field enter your Google ID password.
That’s it. Now you can start chatting with your GTalk buddies using Pidgin while keeping in touch with users of other IM users also. No need to install GTalk software. 
Let us know if you have any problems configuring it.
Sarita Mishra
11 Sep 09 at 8:03 am
Great! It works !
thanx manas
Anoop
11 Sep 09 at 7:37 pm
Dear iam not able to use g talk after using the above mentioned description. The following errow message is getting while trying to upload the g talk.
“SSL Handshake failed”.
Pls assist
grudknows
23 Sep 09 at 10:16 am
What if I am using a google account but not a gmail.com domain – ie. google talk with my own email address?
MIH1406
26 Sep 09 at 7:00 am
Thank you very very very much
I do not know what can I say for your help to configure Gmail account.
Thank you and best wishes
Mohammad AlHobayyeb
Sujay
2 Oct 09 at 8:31 pm
Hey thanks a lot..
it was supercool i was able to use pidgin
thanks for your Knowledge sharing
keep posting
saz
4 Oct 09 at 11:56 am
thanks manav,
your troubleshooting thing worked perfectly
Dominic Sayers
6 Oct 09 at 3:06 pm
For anybody still struggling to get a non-gmail Google account signed in to Googletalk on Pidgin, here’s what I did (with thanks to SpaceCowboy above for the clue):
1. You need a Gmail account associated with your Google account. There’s no way round this for Googletalk.
2. Log into Google using your non-Gmail account (somebody@somewhere.com).
3. Register for Gmail. This will change the primary email account for that Google account to a new Gmail account (somebody@googlemail.com). There’s no way round this, sorry. But if you use that Google account to send email it will still appear to come from somebody@somewhere.com.
4. You can’t change the primary email address for that Google account so don’t bother trying.
5. Add your Google account to Pidgin:
Protocol: ‘Google Talk’,
Username: ‘somebody’,
Domain: ‘somewhere.com’.
You don’t need to change any of the advanced settings.
You should now be able to log in to Googletalk using Pidgin without getting “‘Not authorized’. Hope this helps.
vivek
3 Nov 09 at 3:54 am
for me pidgin is saying like this
“Unable to send file to ruganblue@gmail.com/Talk.v104D8484D28, user does not support file transfers”
mOJOjOJO
3 Nov 09 at 1:25 pm
You can send files only to users using Pidgin.
ruganblue@gmail.com/Talk.v104D8484D28, —this shows that the user in using Gtalk windows client while u r using Pidgin, so u couldn’t sent any file.
Abhijit
20 Nov 09 at 1:52 pm
I have installed pidgin2.6.3 on my office pc.
But I was unable to configure single chat client .
I have tried to connect to gtalk but it is not possible.
We have internet connection through LAN in the office and we are using proxy address for coonection.
I dont know much about these settings pl help me to configure gtalk client in pid gin.
Eman
13 Dec 09 at 8:15 am
This tutorial i helpful. wish i could see this before.
thanks a lot.
cheers.
fathi
25 Dec 09 at 4:11 am
thank dear
rey langit
31 Jan 10 at 6:24 pm
thanks dude! it works… =)
priya
20 Apr 10 at 7:40 pm
Hey! Thanks for the tutorial! I’m not able to get it to work. There’s no error msg it just says that it wasn’t able to connect. Help!
Manas
21 Apr 10 at 12:13 am
Hi Priya,
Are you behind a firewall? Also make sure the port is set to 5223.
jbird556
13 May 10 at 12:40 am
Nice! I don’t mind an educational article once in a while! They don’t all need tobe so serious ;-P … I sit all day at work in front of a computer and I need something to keep me awake and entertained, lol. Thanks again. Cya
F. Wilson
Exfoliating scrub
Steve
24 May 10 at 11:06 pm
I still get an occasional “not authorized” error. This fixes it –
1. go to http://www.gmail.com
2. sign out
3. sign in
4. retry from pidgin.
casinoscandinavia
3 Jun 10 at 2:06 am
Couldn?t be written any better. Reading this list inform reminds me of my age room lady! He in any case kept talking relative to this. I inclination send on this article to him. Fetching sure he will have a appropriate read. Thanks object of sharing!
Jeff
8 Jun 10 at 11:48 pm
Whenever i try to configure gtalk, after i save the changes, the protocol switches from gtalk to xmpp. Can’t make it change any other way. Help?
Manas
9 Jun 10 at 8:10 pm
That happens because gtalk works on xmpp protocol.
Just save the changes. Even if it changes to XMPP you will be able to connect.
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Spencer
21 Jul 10 at 9:55 pm
Mine won’t work
it keeps saying Unable to connect. Trillian works for me though. But I like the pidgin format so. Will someone help me troubleshoot? Pidgin plz?
Rags
23 Jul 10 at 11:53 pm
I downloaded and logged in to MSN but gtalk and yahoo not able to login, it keeps saying Unable to connect. Will someone help me troubleshoot? Pidgin plz?
Arun Malik
6 Aug 10 at 2:57 pm
I installed Pidgin on my Laptop.
Os:- windows 7.
But cannot connect to any of the chat client.
Please help…