Last week, ShoutEm was enriched with a cool new feature – instant messaging. Instant messaging allows you to receive notifications on your Google Talk / Jabber account whenever there is new activity on your network. (Note that only Google Talk is supported so far, but other protocols such as MSN, Aim and Icq will be added soon.) You will receive new instant message whenever someone you follow posts a new shout or whenever you receive a new private message. Posting a new shout is as easy as it gets – just type the text in your chat client window and you are all set.

So, what do you need to do enable instant messages?

Step one

On your network’s website, go to Settings and then choose Notifications. Notice Instant Messenger section of notifications.

Step two

Under Instant Messenger section, choose Gtalk from drop-down list.

A new text field will appear and you will be prompted for your Google Talk username. Be sure to enter the correct username in the form username@gmail.com.

After you have entered your username, click Save.

Step three

You will be prompted to add network bot to list of your IM contacts.

Select Authorize and bot will soon appear on your IM contact list.

Step four

You’re all set! A welcome message will be sent to you and afterwards you can start chatting.

To help you get started, here is the list of most useful IM commands:

help
Display help.

message text
Post a new shout to your profile.  Just type in the message text, without any prefixes.

@N
Display content of entry N.

D username message
Send private message to user on your network with the given username.

ON / OFF
Pause/resume receival of instant messages. Note: when receival of notifications is paused, you can still send new shouts to your network.

Please note that instant messaging on your network will work only if an admin of your network has enabled instant messaging for your network.