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.
chelseagirl
21 Feb 08 at 11:38 pm
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
26 Feb 08 at 11:06 am
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
26 Feb 08 at 1:48 pm
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
29 Feb 08 at 8:26 pm
Thanks so much for the troubleshooting paragraph – that did the trick. I wasn’t about to use it unencrypted!
Eggy
1 Mar 08 at 8:13 pm
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
7 Mar 08 at 12:01 pm
can any one pls help me to config pidgin for yahoo,,,
pls mail to my email…
i will be gratefulll…….
vivanu
7 Mar 08 at 12:01 pm
can any one pls help me to config pidgin for yahoo,,,
pls mail to my email…
RAhul
7 Mar 08 at 2:06 pm
HI, PIDGIN was supposed to work on all platforms including XP .
It loses itself
after sometime in XP.
Rahul
Rhys
18 Mar 08 at 3:25 pm
I found that the gmail.com domain didn’t function, so I got it to function by using googlemail.com.
ananta
27 Mar 08 at 10:00 am
******** 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
29 Mar 08 at 6:32 am
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
6 Apr 08 at 1:49 am
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
9 Apr 08 at 3:27 am
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
11 Apr 08 at 2:20 pm
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
29 Apr 08 at 9:30 pm
Changing from gmail to googlemail.com along with the settings mentioned by Joe Chapman fixed the problem for me.
John
Nikunj Lahoti
5 May 08 at 1:39 am
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
5 May 08 at 1:41 am
the link (again) is:
http://www.your-freedom.net
ananta
5 May 08 at 8:39 pm
changing from gmail.com to googlemail.com while login worked for me too………… thanks for the answer
Jennifer
5 May 08 at 10:10 pm
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
6 May 08 at 10:14 am
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!
Richard
14 May 08 at 1:23 am
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
21 May 08 at 3:19 am
Please I need conect my Pidgin to mi msn but i don’t know how … Some body can help me ?
Horse
28 May 08 at 3:39 pm
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
29 May 08 at 5:47 pm
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
29 May 08 at 8:18 pm
What if you change proxy settings by hand for your gmail account in pidgin?
Joern
13 Jun 08 at 8:03 pm
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
3 Jul 08 at 6:26 pm
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
7 Aug 08 at 3:31 am
Thanks for this article! It helped a lot.
karthik
8 Aug 08 at 11:54 am
thanks a lot
it works brilliantly
zcat
13 Aug 08 at 12:13 am
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
13 Aug 08 at 8:08 am
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
21 Aug 08 at 11:49 am
I was porting from GAIM to PIDGIN and it didnt checked SSL by default.
Better explanation than even google site. Great.
Leke
6 Sep 08 at 1:22 pm
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
10 Sep 08 at 5:17 pm
Holy Crud!! That totally worked! THANK YOU!!
Ankur
10 Sep 08 at 11:17 pm
I was able to configure Pidgin for GTalk
bt failed to do on yahoo
plz tel the seeings 4 that
Pillari
16 Sep 08 at 10:18 am
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.
>
16 Sep 08 at 5:06 pm
Hi – all great tips, my ‘Not Authorized’ error was solved by simply swapping ‘gmail.com’ for ‘googlemail.com’. Useful page!
Tushar Joshi
21 Sep 08 at 10:57 pm
My pidgin suddenly stopped connecting to gtalk server. Your tip helped me connect again. Thanks
with regards
Tushar
mike
24 Sep 08 at 7:47 pm
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?
kervoaz
28 Sep 08 at 8:11 pm
great work fine on ubuntu !
thanks
Einstein
5 Oct 08 at 8:28 am
I’m on Ubuntu 8.04 and loving my Pidgin; I’ve used GAIM since its inception on both Windows and Linux. Actually, my Google Talk works fine, except I’m not entirely sure how to set up a chat room for GTalk, and at the moment the only thing I can do is have one of my contacts set it up from their end and then I still have to use Google’s Web gadget to get into the chat room. I think this can be done using the chat functions in Pidgin, but I’m not entirely sure. I need to be able to both create and join chat rooms, but I don’t know how to get at or input the correct information. Any help is greatly appreciated!
shermila
7 Oct 08 at 10:17 am
Oh..im realy happy.it realy works
Silly Reviews
10 Oct 08 at 11:30 pm
I’ve been battling with pidgin all day. I hope this works. Here goes……Success!! Thank you so much. Even the help provided by google didn’t make pidgin work with gtalk. You rock! I hope I don’t have to go through the same b.s. with icq and such. Thanks again. I’ll link you from my site (Nuss45.com) where I’m writing about my adventures in finding a multi im client.
Peter Reaper
14 Oct 08 at 4:12 pm
Using “googlemail” does the trick for users in Germany. Aparently, some other company has the rights to “gmail.com” in Germany, so google was forced to use “googlemail” in Germany.
My setting now are:
protocol: XMPP
username: HansMustermann (without the @gmail.com)
domain: googlemail.com
resourse: home
password: ******
Advanced tab:
[X] requires SSL/TLS
[X] Force old SSL
[ ] allow plaintext
Connect port: 443
Connect Server: talk.google.com
File Transfer proxies: proxy.jabber.org
Proxy Type: Use global proxysettings
Please add these instruxtions to the article at the top for “Germany users”!
PS. Pidgin still needs some UI polish (e.g., user-moved dialogs should remember the user chosen position and size; only *one* click on the taskbar icon should be needed to bring up the Buddy List, and *one* click to collapse it again)
Janu
1 Nov 08 at 12:58 pm
with above settings .. it able to connect but for every 8 minutes.. again it is giving Read Error… account Discoonected .. and it is reconnecting automatically ..
Katie Craven
8 Nov 08 at 12:14 am
I go through this every time I install pidgin for the first time on a machine and have to add google talk. It’s never easy. Here’s what worked for me:
I was getting a connection error in Pidgin trying to configure google chat. I followed some of the instructions on here and started to get a ‘read’ error. I finally played with some settings myself and got it to work. First I made sure I could get to both 5222 and 5223 just for giggles (start>run> type in telnet talk.google.com 5222 then I tried telnet talk.google.com 5223. Both worked as the screen disappearing on me indicated. Interestingly enough telnet talk.google.com 443 did not work.
Here are the settings that finally worked for me:
General Tab:
Protocol: XMPP
Username: MyUsernameOnly
Domain: gmail.com
Resource: Home
Password: enter google talk password
No local alias or other options selected
Advanced tab:
Uncheck Require SSL/TLS
CHECK Force old port (Port 5223) SSL
CHECK Allow plaintext auth over unencrypted streams
Connect port: 443
Connect server: talk.google.com
File transfer proxies: proxy.jabber.org
Proxy type: Use Global Proxy Settings
SpaceCowboy
16 Nov 08 at 7:14 pm
OK, I’ve found the issue with Not Authorized. It’s down to the Domain setting. It’s dependant on the domain name against your google mail account. Login to Google Mail, go to settings, click accounts tab, click the Google Account settings link in the Google Account Settings box. Under “personal information” on the left will be your primary google email address. What ever is the domain on that is what goes in the Domain setting in Pidgin.
On top of that you may need to do some of the other suggestions above such as use Force Old and set port to 443 etc…
It’s not Pidgin but just the multiple ways google register an account for you. This has driven me insane for an hour.
John
17 Nov 08 at 4:49 pm
WOOT, had been meaning to attempt this again for a while and now have it working. Using 2.5.2 I had to follow the steps in the troubleshooting section to stop getting read errors.
Thanks for the assist
jens
21 Nov 08 at 6:20 am
be sure to use the right domain.
I tried 100 times with gmail.com. But my account has the primary domain googlemail.com. The plain main service works with both domains, but not jabber.
So make sure you use the primary google domain of your account.
BeyondBimary
27 Nov 08 at 1:00 am
Yes
Definitely Pidgin is a good tool. But when i configure Gtalk in pidgin , can i enable it to store all my Gtalk chat’s to gmail “Chats” section … If so , Please mail me the answer to 00drk00@gmail.com.
Thanks.