Can You Web Chat on Facebook?

Online Friends

Facebook chat permits you to chat only with people you share a friendship connection with. Friends who are online and available for chat are indicated by a green circle next to their names in the chat menu. Friends with a half-moon next to their names are currently online but have become idle and may not respond to your messages.

To chat on the Facebook webpage, click on "Chat" in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. If you were not previously online, Facebook will automatically change your status so that you're online. Initiate a conversation by clicking once on a friend's name. A new window will appear, stemming from the bottom tool bar. Type in the field at the bottom of the window and hit "Enter" to start a conversation. You can navigate around on Facebook without disturbing your in-screen chat, but if you leave the site entirely, you won't be able to continue the chat.

The pop-out chat feature allows you to chat with online friends in a separate window. The pop-out chat screen is much larger than the in-screen chat and lists the online status of all friends in the same window as the chat takes place. Because pop-out chat creates a new browser window, you don't have to remain on Facebook to continue your chat conversation. Once you finish a pop-out chat conversation, just click the "x" in the top right corner to close the window.

If you don't want to appear online to all of your friends, create a new friend list in the "Settings" menu. When you subsequently sign in to chat, you can remain hidden from specific friend lists. Make yourself unavailable to all contacts by clicking the chat icon and then clicking "Go Offline" from the "Options" tab. If you have a large number of friends online and want to find a specific person, go to your Facebook homepage and search his name in the "Friends on Chat" field.