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.
279 comments
Manas says:
Jun 11, 2007
Strange, then I can’t help you. I am sorry. May be its some firewall at work.
Gary says:
Jun 11, 2007
No, turned it off, but thx a lot!
Nico says:
Jun 11, 2007
Thanks, this worked for me!
Manas says:
Jun 11, 2007
Welcome…
boota says:
Jun 14, 2007
Port 443 allowed me to connect, but it says users are offline and it doesn’t download all my contacts
Manas says:
Jun 14, 2007
Strange … Try upgrading to Pidgin 2.0.1
djeurok says:
Jun 14, 2007
JJJ’s fixe worked for me
Manas says:
Jun 14, 2007
Cool …
Erik Harris says:
Jun 22, 2007
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 says:
Jun 23, 2007
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 says:
Jun 28, 2007
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 says:
Jun 28, 2007
Thanks to Joe Chapman for this clever coment.
I wasted minutes instead of hours thanks to him.
Tamara Swedberg says:
Jun 29, 2007
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 says:
Jul 3, 2007
Thanks for all the tips! You are making this post better every day.
Amit Patange says:
Jul 5, 2007
Have any one configured Pidgin to work for yahoo?
I am trying, but it fails, saying Windows Socket error 100060.
Please help me.
Manas says:
Jul 5, 2007
Hmm… Amit I am also using Pidgin for Yahoo!.. I do not receive any such errors.
Bunty says:
Jul 9, 2007
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 says:
Jul 9, 2007
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 says:
Jul 12, 2007
This site really helps with seting up pidgin with google talk.
Jack Nelson says:
Jul 12, 2007
This site really helps with setting up google talk with pidgin.
Jack Nelson says:
Jul 12, 2007
this site is really help full.
Manas says:
Jul 12, 2007
Whoa, looks like you really love my blog.
Connection errors in Pidgin with GTalk? » Thursday Night says:
Jul 13, 2007
[...] to GTalk, probably because it goes through a proxy server. However, I found a fix online today via manast.com. Basically, go to the advanced tab and [...]
drod says:
Jul 17, 2007
I am trying to set up pidgin and google talk. I have all o the above. i get connect failed error. any suggestions
noisemonky says:
Jul 17, 2007
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 says:
Jul 20, 2007
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 says:
Jul 22, 2007
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 says:
Jul 22, 2007
@ Ben – I cannot understand what you are trying to tell. Could you elaborate ?
@ Prasad – Try downloading the latest version of Pidgin.
Ben says:
Jul 23, 2007
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 says:
Jul 25, 2007
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 says:
Jul 25, 2007
Thanks for the tip. I was getting the read error. I followed your tip and it works correctly now.
Sriram says:
Jul 31, 2007
hey thx a lot…changin the port to 443 fixed the prob…
links for 2007-08-01 « geek notes says:
Aug 1, 2007
[...] How to configure Pidgin to work with Google Talk | ManasT.com Pidgin (earlier Gaim) is a multiple protocol Instant Messenger client which can be used to chat using MSN, Yahoo, AIM and many other protocols. But most people do not know that you can use Pidgin to chat with Google Talk users. (tags: gaim howto software) [...]
botunda foo says:
Aug 7, 2007
I cannot get pidgen to work with gmail. Do I need the gtalk client?
vikas says:
Aug 9, 2007
Thnx buddy it worked….
RowanC says:
Aug 12, 2007
Finally!!!!! That worked, I had the connect error, and this is the first page I could find googling to find the answer!!! BRILLIANT!
Manas says:
Aug 14, 2007
Glad to know… that it is working..
Vivek Maithani says:
Aug 25, 2007
Thanks manas , this thing has worked out for me
You are a great person, i’m highly indebted,
Dave H says:
Aug 31, 2007
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 says:
Sep 4, 2007
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 says:
Sep 8, 2007
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 says:
Sep 27, 2007
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 says:
Sep 28, 2007
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 says:
Sep 28, 2007
Nevermind, It kind of fixes it itself. Just make sure the advanced settings are the same as above.
google » How to configure Pidgin to work with Google Talk | ManasT.com says:
Oct 6, 2007
[...] sixty4bit wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt [...]
Sarvoday says:
Oct 6, 2007
Hey this works.. yeah at port 443 this works
RomanGiertyh says:
Oct 14, 2007
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 says:
Oct 15, 2007
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 says:
Dec 13, 2007
Thanks, it worked like a charm.
Shane says:
Dec 18, 2007
Thank, worked perfectly for me once I did the Troubleshooting part.