Gmail voice and Video chat, but not for linux?

[legolas_w]

Google announce that they will start a voice and video chat service for Gmail, very good news huh? but unfortunately it is not available for linux users :-(

It is a long time that I am looking for a voice enabled client for google talk service in Linux with no luck. Let's see when Linux users will have the chance to test google voice and video chat :)

Take a look at it yourself: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/say-hello-to-gmail-voice-and-video-chat.html

[billgoldberg]

Google announce that they will start a voice and video chat service for Gmail, very good news huh? but unfortunately it is not available for linux users :-(

It is a long time that I am looking for a voice enabled client for google talk service in Linux with no luck. Let's see when Linux users will have the chance to test google voice and video chat :)

Take a look at it yourself: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/say-hello-to-gmail-voice-and-video-chat.html

It's not like I was going to use it, but yeah, typical.

Google claims to be compatible with but most of the time it isn't.

Think picasa (uses wine), chrome, google talk, ...

Amsn does a good job at chatting with my friends using my webcame and microphone.

[gobbles414]

aMSN does a good job at chatting with my friends using my webcam and microphone. Are you using "voice clips", or are you actually able to do full audio chats? If you are doing full audio chats in aMSN, please tell us how you got the full audio chats to function correctly.

[kernelhaxor]

that sucks .. Its not surprising though .. really few companies support Linux anyway

[zmjjmz]

I heard that someone was going to implement this (Jingle) for Pidgin w/Gtalk for Linux during Google's SOC.
Not sure what happened to that, but Coccinella is a FLOSS client that (according to Wikipedia) does this already over XMPP, which Gtalk uses.
EDIT: According to their FAQ (http://thecoccinella.org/faq/voip) it's only for voice and does not work with Gtalk D:

[Lanrat]

Empathy has support for voice and video for gtalk.
(only in 8.10)

[miltiad]

Empathy has support for voice and video for gtalk.
(only in 8.10)

Are you sure ? I don't think so.

[Lanrat]

Are you sure ? I don't think so.

Yep, I'm using it right now.

[zmjjmz]

Are you sure ? I don't think so.

It definitely supports AV on Jingle and SIP, and Gtalk too.
Whether or not it supports Jingle w/Gtalk I'm not sure.

EDIT:

Yep, I'm using it right now.
Oh sweet, that might be worth upgrading to Intrepid for.

[gtr225]

I'm gonna give empathy a try

[vishzilla]

that sucks. First Chrome, now this. Why is linux always last? Empathy: for me only voice works w/ Gtalk

[swj]

Maybe gmail is interested in targeting the majority of its users...I agree though, it would be great if this worked on Linux.

[zmjjmz]

I'm actually surprised they managed to get a Windows/Mac only plugin.
Couldn't they of just used Flash?

[FuturePilot]

I believe Gajim is working on support for this (Jingle)

[axet]

for linux use http://live.gnome.org/Empathy

[mrgnash]

I'm actually surprised they managed to get a Windows/Mac only plugin.
Couldn't they of just used Flash?


Couldn't they have just used Flash?

Sorry, pet-peeve of mine.

And I suppose they could have used Flash, but I think that they're looking to decrease their dependency on that particular format...

[3rdalbum]

Flash 10 on Linux supports only a slightly larger number of webcams than Pidgin does. Considering that Pidgin doesn't support webcams at all :-)

Unfortunately the only reliable voice and video I've managed to get on Linux has been Skype. It's actually not too bad.

[billgoldberg]

I'm actually surprised they managed to get a Windows/Mac only plugin.
Couldn't they of just used Flash?

I suppose they could have used it, but then Flash sucks.

It's almost 2009 and a simple youtube video still causes cpus to rocket through the sky.

[futuroimperfetto]

Has anyone tried to test it under Wine? (I would assume downloading Firefox 3.0 and then the Google plug-in)

I know that it's silly to download Firefox again, because it runs natively on Ubuntu, but am a bit excited about this development of Gmail and not happy I need to keep waiting...

I'm still a newbie, but if I have time I'll try it myself. At worst, I'll just dump it.

Cheers

[bigbrovar]

ever since starting linux about a year ago . i have noticed that some companies so called support for linux is mostly lips services .. yet have succeeded in giving the community that they are on our side while infact they are just after their own business agenda .. take a look at google .. always likes to be seen as a friend of linux .. but the reality is that they treat linux users as second class citizens.. the up till now the is no native linux version of google earth or picasa ... and see how long it took before google sidebar was ported almost 4 years after its release on windows. add the new google chrome which was only released for windows.. now add this .. yeah yeah they sponsor gnome and the ubuntu dev conference .. but that is because both ubuntu and gnome are used by google in their business .. but what about things that improve user experience.. because really.. this linux thing is about the users in the of the day. so google shoud put its money where its mouth is and do something that improve user experience for linux users .. i mean they are a bagillions of google apps .. how many of them have linux ports.. they one that run on linux uses wine.. same for nokia.. yeah the N810 is cool .. and they support qt and all but up till now no nokia pc suit for linux.. even the n810..is enjoyed better on windows due to the number of pc application that has been created for it .. all run on windows .. eg the updater, the video encoding tool, etc.. yet many people see nokia as a friend of the community.. its high time we see the companies as who they really are ... companies out to make profit.. ideas of foss only makes sense to them as long has it conincide with them making profit... our true friends are those guys that actually build applications for linux.. the screenlet devs, the firefox devs, the gnome and kde devs, the pple at the banshee project, the guys at virtualbox, plus everybody that does something for linux because they believe in what this community represent..

sorry for the long post.

[gobbles414]

our true friends are those guys that actually build applications for linux.. the screenlet devs, the firefox devs, the gnome and kde devs, the pple at the banshee project, the guys at virtualbox, plus everybody that does something for linux because they believe in what this community represent...

Agreed! Well said!

[dueyfinster]

I tried Empathy and it will call Gmail Voice, but someone with Gmail Voice cannot see that the Empathy user has voice as an option. Video did not work at all for me, maybe it was due to the webcam; I am looking into it.

Shame it's not open source though it's open standards (still patent issues regarding h.264 etc etc). At least Google Chrome is, I think that is the way it should be done if no official support is forthcoming in a decent time-frame: the Linux community can roll its own. Having said that though most projects trying to incorporate Jingle have been so slow.... Pidgin, Psi the lot! Tapioca was so buggy and didn't have a substantial user-base to keep it going.

All I want is decent A/V and closest is still Skype :( I also own a Nokia N810 so proper Jingle Video and Voice is pretty much the only way forward (Skype uses encryption which the cpu wouldn't be able to handle with the os and apps also).

[afner03]

Well, at least we all have Skype for Linux... I am very happy with the performance oof this application, they are great deploying things for us Linux users... from mandriva to debian to ubuntu... they support us all...

[fINTiP]

What is the news on Empathy with 8.04? I have had mild trouble with Skype on 8.04, (I have a workaround that is only a little obnoxious, as of now, and am near fixing the issue altogether), and Skype supposedly works perfectly out-of-the-box on 8.10; is this also the case for Empathy?

================================================== ======

dueyfinster-

I hate to sound pedantic, but as an ESL teacher... please at least limit yourself to one semicolon a sentence. You could also choose to educate yourself on proper usage, and just limit your semicolon usage throughout your post- you used 7 semicolons in 3 paragraphs, consisting of seven sentences. In your first two-sentence paragraph, you use 3 semicolons.

Again, I hate to sound like I'm picking on you... but for your own sake, use a hyphen. Other than the semicolon issue, your post is actually decently written, especially for web standards- if you hadn't abused the semicolon, it would have been more than respectable.

Regards (and apologies for being off topic),

L

[notwen]

If the demand is great enough, I'm sure we'll get a bearable version for Linux sooner or later. =]

[gtr225]

If the demand is great enough, I'm sure we'll get a bearable version for Linux sooner or later. =]

That's the problem, with the current number of Linux users, the demand can never be great enough. That's what has always been our problem. This is why it is terribly important to convince others of the benefits of a linux-based OS.

[notwen]

That's the problem, with the current number of Linux users, the demand can never be great enough. That's what has always been our problem. This is why it is terribly important to convince others of the benefits of a linux-based OS.

No offense intended, but I've used Linux long enough to realize we won't always get new applications right away and have learned to be patient and wait for either said developer to create a Linux version or wait for others to make a alternative.

The number of Linux users in general is on the rise, whether it be Vista issues or w/ all of the OEMs beginning to offer a couple of systems pre-installed w/ Linux distros. I'm fairly confident that Google will eventually have audio/video support for Linux users sooner or later.

There's plenty of basic pc users who have no idea, no interest to know what Linux is. Trying to convince people to leave a OS they've grew up using is easier said than done. Do I have the patience to support them on a daily basis while I convert them over from Windows, I'd rather wait on said technology to be made available/compatible on Linux.

Just my opinion. =]

[gtr225]

No offense intended, but I've used Linux long enough to realize we won't always get new applications right away and have learned to be patient and wait for either said developer to create a Linux version or wait for others to make a alternative.

The number of Linux users in general is on the rise, whether it be Vista issues or w/ all of the OEMs beginning to offer a couple of systems pre-installed w/ Linux distros. I'm fairly confident that Google will eventually have audio/video support for Linux users sooner or later.

There's plenty of basic pc users who have no idea, no interest to know what Linux is. Trying to convince people to leave a OS they've grew up using is easier said than done. Do I have the patience to support them on a daily basis while I convert them over from Windows, I'd rather wait on said technology to be made available/compatible on Linux.

Just my opinion. =]

I agree that in time the numbers will grow, but it will take some time for users to be ready for the switch, and for Ubuntu to be ready for the new users.

[Nerd_bloke]

Here is a link to submit your email to the developer to let you know when a Linux client when is ready for testing
Google Groups post (http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Help-Chats-and-Contacts-en/msg/dcd163638c649d3a)

Also some comments on his blog about the standards being used
Blogspot post (http://juberti.blogspot.com/2008/11/day-2-mailbag.html)

[nyarnon]

This nagging about Google is not very productive. I'm pretty sure that they are working on it as they will need it for android too. And sure they serve the biggest market first. With the money they make there they are able to serve smaller markets. And be realistic. Remember google gadgets and everybody wining about it. And now? Those windhose suckers still need it. We can just integrate them in Screenlets. :lolflag: You see sometimes it pays off not to be the first served. Let the idea ripe and shape and you know what you finaly get? LINUX.

[freechelmi]

Hi , I just upgraded to intrepid in order to test Empathy 2.25 with people using Gmail with Webcam.

the good news is that the audio seems to work as good as it was with gtalk with the previous 2.24 empathy.

the bad point is that empathy users does not show with the vide capability in the Gmail roster.

Do people here use it with success ?

[freechelmi]

Any update on this ? I use ppa on jaunty , video caps are now shown , but it usually just crash as soon as I hang up a call

[Tristan Schmelcher]

FYI, Google released voice and video chat for Linux today. http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/use-linux-now-you-can-video-chat-too.html