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.
djeurok
14 Jun 07 at 9:56 pm
JJJ’s fixe worked for me
Manas
14 Jun 07 at 10:04 pm
Cool …
Erik Harris
22 Jun 07 at 7:00 am
I’m connected, and didn’t have much trouble doing so, but I can’t seem to send authorization requests via Pidgin (2.0.2). I can receive them, but not send them.
I tend to use my own account as a test, and as a quick check to see which accounts are on-line (I have a “self” group with all of my accounts in it). I’ve tried re-sending myself authorization requests over and over, to no avail. I also tried sending a friend a number of authorization requests, and she saw none of them. I couldn’t get her on-line status until she sent me a request (and then she appeared twice on my buddy list)
ebasi
23 Jun 07 at 3:14 pm
For linux users that hav a problem with pidgin and Google talk. Here is solution:
You need NSS
Download NSS & NSPR source from here: ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/security/nss/releases/NSS_3_9_2_RTM/src/nss-3.9.2.tar.gz
Install NSS:
cd nss-3.9.2/mozilla/security/nss
make nss_build_all
make install
mkdir -p /usr/lib
mkdir -p /usr/include/nspr
find ../../dist/*/lib -type l \
\( -name “*.so” -o -name “*.chk” \) \
-exec cp -L {} /usr/lib \;
cp -Lr ../../dist/public/* /usr/include
cp -Lr ../../dist/*/include/* /usr/include/nspr
Configure and install pidgin
./configure –prefix=/usr \
–with-nss-includes=/usr/include/nss \
–with-nspr-includes=/usr/include/nspr \
–with-nss-libs=/usr/lib \
–with-nspr-libs=/usr/lib
make
make install
This works for me!
Joe Chapman
28 Jun 07 at 10:27 pm
If you are getting ‘not authorized’ when following any number of combinations for configuration, it may be as simple as you are pressing ‘REGISTER’ instead of save and ticking the ‘ENABLED’ checkbox.
This silly mistake wasted several hours of my time and had I known that you only click ‘REGISTER’ to try to register/create a new account with the target server on your first connect, I never would have done that.
http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/1341
Julio Aguilar
28 Jun 07 at 10:51 pm
Thanks to Joe Chapman for this clever coment.
I wasted minutes instead of hours thanks to him.
Tamara Swedberg
29 Jun 07 at 7:31 pm
Joe Chapman’s “Save” not “Register” worked to solve my “Not Authorized” problem. First, I deleted the account and started over using the default settings and then clicked “Save” However, I am having the same problem other people have posted about all contacts showing up offline.
Manas
3 Jul 07 at 8:04 pm
Thanks for all the tips! You are making this post better every day.
Amit Patange
5 Jul 07 at 2:30 pm
Have any one configured Pidgin to work for yahoo?
I am trying, but it fails, saying Windows Socket error 100060.
Please help me.
Manas
5 Jul 07 at 8:03 pm
Hmm… Amit I am also using Pidgin for Yahoo!.. I do not receive any such errors.
Bunty
9 Jul 07 at 6:08 pm
I tried configuring gtalk for pidgin but i am getting a error
Windows Socket error #10061
Can anyone help me out
Thanks in advance
Bunty
9 Jul 07 at 6:14 pm
when i am trying to connect i get this error message
SSL Handshake Failed
can anyone please help me what is this error message or do i need to use any proxy for this..
Jack Nelson
12 Jul 07 at 5:23 am
This site really helps with seting up pidgin with google talk.
Jack Nelson
12 Jul 07 at 5:24 am
This site really helps with setting up google talk with pidgin.
Jack Nelson
12 Jul 07 at 5:25 am
this site is really help full.
Manas
12 Jul 07 at 8:17 am
Whoa, looks like you really love my blog.
drod
17 Jul 07 at 8:54 pm
I am trying to set up pidgin and google talk. I have all o the above. i get connect failed error. any suggestions
noisemonky
17 Jul 07 at 9:07 pm
well, i had my problem with pidgin and gmail, too. You only have to use the settings from above, no advanced tab settings for the new versions. AND you have to enable incoming connection/server in your firewall preferences for pidgin. worked for me^^
Ben
20 Jul 07 at 12:46 am
I am having trouble with people showing up as offiline that show up fine in my gtalk account. I can even show offline contacts and IM them. Any one else having this problem? any Ideas as to how to fix it?
Prasad
22 Jul 07 at 5:11 am
Everything goes on well in my WindowsXP OS, but in Windows Vista Ultimate, still I am getting read error “nss: Handshake failed -5938″
Can any one please help me configuring google talk in pidgin in Windows Vista OS
Manas
22 Jul 07 at 8:28 pm
@ Ben – I cannot understand what you are trying to tell. Could you elaborate ?
@ Prasad – Try downloading the latest version of Pidgin.
Ben
23 Jul 07 at 2:16 am
sorry, when I have pidgin open and my gmail account open there are some people in my gmail account that show up as available but on Pidgin they are offline.
BenW
25 Jul 07 at 1:56 am
I am trying to help a friend who uses a non-gmail.com email to get onto pidgin. We’ve tried ALL the different techniques given, but to no avail. Does anyone here use a non-gmail address to log on? What experiences do you have?
Marc
25 Jul 07 at 11:43 pm
Thanks for the tip. I was getting the read error. I followed your tip and it works correctly now.
Sriram
31 Jul 07 at 8:49 pm
hey thx a lot…changin the port to 443 fixed the prob…
botunda foo
7 Aug 07 at 11:00 pm
I cannot get pidgen to work with gmail. Do I need the gtalk client?
vikas
9 Aug 07 at 2:41 pm
Thnx buddy it worked….
RowanC
12 Aug 07 at 3:20 pm
Finally!!!!! That worked, I had the connect error, and this is the first page I could find googling to find the answer!!! BRILLIANT!
Manas
14 Aug 07 at 2:41 pm
Glad to know… that it is working..
Vivek Maithani
25 Aug 07 at 7:40 pm
Thanks manas , this thing has worked out for me
You are a great person, i’m highly indebted,
Dave H
31 Aug 07 at 5:16 pm
Just wanted to say that despite all the help given here, I could not get GAIM to work until I gave in and created a googlemail account
When I created the googlemail account, I had to put googlemail.com instead of gmail.com in the server box – seems you can’t create gmail accounts any more, only googlemail.
Although I can use GTalk without a googlemail account, it doesn’t look like GAIM supports it.
BenW
4 Sep 07 at 8:19 pm
Dave H,
I think you’re right. I have a friend who wants to use Pidgin (btw, I still call it GAIM!), but they log onto their GoogleTalk account using another email address that is NOT tied into Google Apps.
If someone can shed light, that would be great!!
Bill
8 Sep 07 at 10:22 am
I’m having the same problem some other folks have mentioned, though I haven’t seen a solution posted yet.
I have no problem connecting to my gmail/gtalk account, and I can send messages out and receive them from other gtalk friends; however, my buddy list in Pidgin shows everybody as being offline. Always. Even when they’re definitely online.
I’ve tried making the changes Charlie suggested, but since I didn’t have a problem connecting in the first place, it didn’t make a difference.
I would love to hear of a solution for this (or some debugging suggestions if you got ‘em), as I’m thinking of bailing but really don’t want to.
Thanks so much. You guys seem like a very helpful community.
- Bill
Brendan
27 Sep 07 at 5:32 am
Thanks for that update regarding the “advanced” information! I could not get it to connect no matter what I tried and Google Help was no help at all! Kudos!
Lee Casey
28 Sep 07 at 1:13 pm
Hi, I use gmail’s hosted services. ie. on google talk my login is my myname@mydomain.com how do I configure the settings for this? I know it is possible as I have done it before, but I have forgotten
Lee Casey
28 Sep 07 at 1:15 pm
Nevermind, It kind of fixes it itself. Just make sure the advanced settings are the same as above.
Sarvoday
6 Oct 07 at 5:51 am
Hey this works.. yeah at port 443 this works
RomanGiertyh
14 Oct 07 at 1:03 pm
Hey, I’ve created 2 GTalk accounts in Pidgin and it’s not showing my contacts from the second account, is it possible at all to be logged on on 2 accounts simultaneously? BTW I use it on windows.
Manas
15 Oct 07 at 9:28 am
Hmm… Hi Roman.. Never tried to log in into two GTalk accounts simultaneously. But I think it will work.
Will try and get back to you.
Sherman, the Ramni
13 Dec 07 at 11:36 pm
Thanks, it worked like a charm.
Shane
18 Dec 07 at 5:38 pm
Thank, worked perfectly for me once I did the Troubleshooting part.
Manas
19 Dec 07 at 10:25 am
Glad that it worked for you.
E
3 Jan 08 at 4:24 pm
I have tried to log in with two gmail accounts simultaneously, and it didn’t work – however, I don’t think that’s the issue!
I couldn’t get account A to work, so i tried with account B, which worked. But account A still didn’t work. Have tried all the suggestions in this thread.
Rahul Rai
4 Jan 08 at 9:04 pm
Please keep us updated .
matt
14 Jan 08 at 10:23 pm
I started having problems since installing the newst version of pidgin after a fresh install of Kubuntu 7.10, it was because there is a Google Talk option in the dropdown list, use that instead of XMPP. hopw this helps someone else
Manas
15 Jan 08 at 7:59 pm
Hi Matt… You are right. In the newer versions of Pidgin, there is no need to use XMPP.
Abhishek
22 Jan 08 at 1:04 pm
Thanks Manas. Great work.
nisha
23 Jan 08 at 11:26 am
Hi, I have tried all possibilities but to no avail
….. The only msg I keep gettin is SSL support unavailable I hav tried all the ports… Im using pidgin 2.3.1 can som1 plz help……..
Doc
24 Jan 08 at 11:37 am
I just upgraded to 2.3.1, and I still can’t sign in with both of my GTalk accounts. None of the bits of advice above helped. I still show “not authorized” for any buddies that should be going with that account.
Anony Mouse
13 Feb 08 at 10:05 pm
I also cannot get GTalk in Pidgin 2.3.1 in Linux to work. I get the SSL support is unavailable. I did configure and build with the GNUGTLS support enabled.
Other than that, my ICQ and AIM works fine.