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:
Dec 19, 2007
Glad that it worked for you.
E says:
Jan 3, 2008
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 says:
Jan 4, 2008
Please keep us updated .
matt says:
Jan 14, 2008
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 says:
Jan 15, 2008
Hi Matt… You are right. In the newer versions of Pidgin, there is no need to use XMPP.
Abhishek says:
Jan 22, 2008
Thanks Manas. Great work.
nisha says:
Jan 23, 2008
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 says:
Jan 24, 2008
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.
links for 2008-02-01 « Random Musings says:
Feb 1, 2008
[...] How to configure Pidgin to work with Google Talk | ManasT.com (tags: pidgin howto im apps googletalk software tutorial) [...]
Anony Mouse says:
Feb 13, 2008
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.
chelseagirl says:
Feb 21, 2008
ARgh! Thanks to everyone for their input, but my problem is still unsolved.
GET THIS– I used to have both of my Gtalk accounts working, but now only one will work (and it’s not my main chat account)
I have tried deleting that one, still no dice
I have tried making both account have the same settings
I have treid the suggestions above.
Could it be a problem wiht the account? chat works with Gmail but we all know how much that sucks.
Sudhindra says:
Feb 26, 2008
Hi Manas,
I want to know if there is any method for Gtalk by which i can see the online people but they cant see me online i.e. i will appear as offline to them.
BTW, Great blog!!!
Sudhindra
Manas says:
Feb 26, 2008
Hmm…. In GTalk you cannot do that. But in the new GMail, you can now be invisible.
Hope Google adds that feature to GTalk soon.
Tom says:
Feb 29, 2008
Thanks so much for the troubleshooting paragraph – that did the trick. I wasn’t about to use it unencrypted!
Eggy says:
Mar 1, 2008
I had trouble with gmail as well. It started to work once I entered “googlemail.com” instead of “gmail.com” in the “Server:” box. Don’t ask me why…..
vivanu says:
Mar 7, 2008
can any one pls help me to config pidgin for yahoo,,,
pls mail to my email…
i will be gratefulll…….
vivanu says:
Mar 7, 2008
can any one pls help me to config pidgin for yahoo,,,
pls mail to my email…
RAhul says:
Mar 7, 2008
HI, PIDGIN was supposed to work on all platforms including XP .
It loses itself
after sometime in XP.
Rahul
Rhys says:
Mar 18, 2008
I found that the gmail.com domain didn’t function, so I got it to function by using googlemail.com.
ananta says:
Mar 27, 2008
******** my id ananta.c@gmail.com wont work with any 3rdparty links like www3.meebo.com or pidgin. It works great with google talk. I have like 2 more gmail id’s which works fine with meebo/pidgin. I dont think its firewall.. It should be some thing with account settings. Please let me know if any one has answer. **********8
David Keegel says:
Mar 29, 2008
Manas, could you add something like this to the top of the page:
9. Click “Save” (not “Register”)
10. Tick enabled in the accounts window
Thanks to Joe Chapman for the tip. I was almost ready to give up on Pidgin always saying “Not Authorized”, until I found that hint in the middle of the comments.
piyush says:
Apr 6, 2008
Hi Manas
grt to see way u r handling so many issues successfully.
I have a small problem, not critical. i am using the latest and the greatest pidgin on Ubuntu gutsy. I have this Gtalk on pidgin. My Gtalk shows my status as either available or offline but do not show the status message (written and saved by me) on other Gtalks.
For Ex is I have customized status message as “ON Ubuntu gutsy” , the others dont see this message, but only ‘Available’ is seen by them
Jen says:
Apr 9, 2008
Whenever I try to connect to Pidgin with my gmail account I get:
“madluv4tai@gmail.com/Home disconnected: Could not establish a connection with the server:
Windows socket error #10061″
I used to be able to sign on to Pidgin with my gmail account. but it just failed to sign on out of no where one day, with that error! I am unsure what to do.
Arne says:
Apr 11, 2008
Running pidgin 2.4.1 on fedora 8 using libxml2 2.6.31, I can connect to GoogleTalk, but when I try to send an IM to myself (or anyone else), it fails with debug message
jabber: Recv (ssl)(382): test messagetest message
Does anyone have any idea how to fix this? Or debug it?
John Peden says:
Apr 29, 2008
Changing from gmail to googlemail.com along with the settings mentioned by Joe Chapman fixed the problem for me.
John
Nikunj Lahoti says:
May 5, 2008
Manas! That’s gr8 work.
I used Your-Freedom (java based port forwarding server.. best performance with high speed internet). Java app.. Install it & use it. Now, just specify proxy as:
localhost:8080 & everything works perfectly (no further hack required). Works under proxy server too.
cheers!
Nikunj
Nikunj Lahoti says:
May 5, 2008
the link (again) is:
http://www.your-freedom.net
ananta says:
May 5, 2008
changing from gmail.com to googlemail.com while login worked for me too………… thanks for the answer
Jennifer says:
May 5, 2008
I use Pidgin 2.4.1 on Windows XP Professional. I can successfuly connect to Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, and AIM, but I cannot sign onto to Google Talk. I have followed all the suggestions listed above, such as making the domain “googlemail.com”, allowing plaintext auth over unencryted streams, making the port 5222, and also making the connect server “talk.google.com” yet none of these worked. I still cannot connect to Gtalk, i keep getting the error message: “Could not establish a connection wtih the server: connection refused”. Any ideas/suggestions? Thanks.
Nikunj Lahoti says:
May 6, 2008
Jennifer I mentioned your-freedom.net.
& it works gr8. Just add proxy.
Through it.. you can open any website on the net.
Bypass proxies and firewalls as if they weren’t there, and access the Internet anonymously — for free!
Alex A. Hutnik » Blog Archive » Problems with Pidgin and Google Talk (GChat) says:
May 9, 2008
[...] Anyway I search around for a bit and found this solution: http://www.manast.com/2007/05/11/how-to-configure-pidgin-to-work-with-google-talk/ [...]
Richard says:
May 14, 2008
I had an issue connecting to gtalk through pidgin. It was fixed by changing the domain from gmail.com to googlemail.com. This may be only on UK / England accounts.
Hope that helps someone somewere.
Gara says:
May 21, 2008
Please I need conect my Pidgin to mi msn but i don’t know how … Some body can help me ?
Horse says:
May 28, 2008
Gara,
Using Manas’ instructions changed for MSN:
1. Download & Install the latest version of Pidgin.
2. Open Pidgin and go to Add / Edit Account window of Pidgin.
3. From the drop-down box choose MSN as the Protocol.
4. For the Screen name enter your MSN passport (or whatever) eg. horse@hotmail.com. Use full address including ‘@’.
I think, that’s all.
Horse
aldav says:
May 29, 2008
Sorry, there´s no way I can get pidgin to work with gtalk. I followed the instructions above and I get this error:
SSL handshake failed
Using Windows Xp, Pidgin 2.4.2
Pidgin configuration:
Domain: talk.google.com
Resource: Pidgin
Require SSL/TLS -> unchecked
Force old (port 5223) SSL -> checked
Allow plaintext auth over unencrypted streams -> unchecked
Connect port: 443
Connect server: talk.google.com
File transfer proxies: proxy.jabber.org:7777
Proxy type: Use global proxy settings
I just can´t get it to work, I´m behind a proxy, but my local jabber service works fine with pidgin.
Any clues?
Horse says:
May 29, 2008
What if you change proxy settings by hand for your gmail account in pidgin?
Joern says:
Jun 13, 2008
Hi there,
I have some connection problems. Using the debug window I get the following message :
“(16:31:34) proxy: Connecting to talk.google.com:5222 via proxy.ict:8080 using HTTP
(16:31:34) proxy: Connection in progress
(16:31:34) proxy: Connected to talk.google.com:5222.
(16:31:34) proxy: Using CONNECT tunneling for talk.google.com:5222
(16:31:34) proxy: Proxy server replied with:
HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
Cache-Control: no-cache
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Proxy-Connection: Keep-Alive
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Length: 743
(16:31:34) proxy: Connection attempt failed: Access denied: HTTP proxy server forbids port 5222 tunneling.
(16:31:34) account: Disconnecting account 00D43880
(16:31:34) connection: Disconnecting connection 01DABB40
(16:31:34) connection: Destroying connection 01DABB40″
Does this basically imply that my proxy server forbids the connection ?
Andrey says:
Jul 3, 2008
Had the same problem after updating Pidgin from 2.3.1 to 2.4.3 in Fedora 8.
Updating nss to the latest version (3.12.0.3-0.8.2.fc8) helped.
#yum install nss
Pidgin settings left by default (port 5222)
FreeBSDude says:
Aug 7, 2008
Thanks for this article! It helped a lot.
karthik says:
Aug 8, 2008
thanks a lot
it works brilliantly
zcat says:
Aug 13, 2008
Thanks. Looks different in recent version and defaults were setup ok for google talk (now using Keberos >settings) BUT I still could not connect BECAUSE the
default port was not open for me (? ISP blocking grrrrr.)
Used 443 as suggested by Charlie.
You can check if the port is open by running:
>telnet talk.google.com 5223
timed out for me but
>telnet talk.google.com 443
connected OK!
The only OTHER change was to choose NO PROXY instead of Gnome proxy settings since I am not behind a proxy
ItsAllAboutDave says:
Aug 13, 2008
I have what seems like a simple problem, the nature of which doesn’t seem (exactly) to be addressed here or in the FAQ. I do not have a GMail address. I have a Google account. I have a GoogleTalk account, which works with the web widget as well as the GT client. It does not work with Pidgin, using any variation of recommended settings. I get network read errors or authorization failures. Suggestions? TIA.
Naveen Kumar says:
Aug 21, 2008
I was porting from GAIM to PIDGIN and it didnt checked SSL by default.
Better explanation than even google site. Great.
Leke says:
Sep 6, 2008
I’m using the eeePC – default linux distro – WLAN.
I couldn’t get it working until I ticked the Force old SSL box and deleted the port and server fields (it might also work if you leave them as default too, but don’t change them like the author did).
Leave the other settings as they were.
Tom G says:
Sep 10, 2008
Holy Crud!! That totally worked! THANK YOU!!
Ankur says:
Sep 10, 2008
I was able to configure Pidgin for GTalk
bt failed to do on yahoo
plz tel the seeings 4 that
Pillari says:
Sep 16, 2008
I was unable to configure the gtalk id for pidgin. After changing the settings also in advanced tab its not allowing, same error i am getting “Error connection” or some times SSL failed like that error i am getting.
> says:
Sep 16, 2008
Hi – all great tips, my ‘Not Authorized’ error was solved by simply swapping ‘gmail.com’ for ‘googlemail.com’. Useful page!
Tushar Joshi says:
Sep 21, 2008
My pidgin suddenly stopped connecting to gtalk server. Your tip helped me connect again. Thanks
with regards
Tushar
mike says:
Sep 24, 2008
I just got pidgin and use it with my work sametime fine at work and at home. At work i think there is some firewal because i cannot get g chat to work at work, but it works at other offices I have been and at home. Anyone know a way to circumvent this problem with some other proxy or anything along those lines?