# Empathy Manual V2.1

2008, 2009
Ubuntu Documentation Project
2009
Philip Withnall (philip@tecnocode.co.uk)
Ubuntu Documentation Project

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Milo
Casagrande
Ubuntu Documentation Project

    milo@ubuntu.com

Seth
Dudenhofer
Ubuntu Documentation Project

    sdudenhofer@gmail.com

Empathy Manual V2.1
January 2009

Milo Casagrande milo@ubuntu.com

Ubuntu Documentation Project

Empathy Manual V2.0
April 2008

Milo Casagrande milo@ubuntu.com

Seth Dudenhofer sdudenhofer@gmail.com

Ubuntu Documentation Project

This manual describes version 2.26 of Empathy.

## Feedback

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the Empathy application or this manual, follow the directions in the GNOME Feedback Page.

Empathy is an application for instant messaging.

## Introduction

Empathy is a multi-protocol instant messaging program for the GNOME Desktop. With Empathy you can keep in touch with all of your friends through lots of supported instant messaging services.

Empathy supports the following services:

- AIM

- Google Talk

- ICQ

- IRC

- Jabber (or XMPP)

- MSN

- Salut

- SIP

- Yahoo

- And many others…

## Getting Started

### Starting Empathy

You can start Empathy in the following ways:

Applications menu

  Choose Internet Empathy Instant Messenger.

Command line

  Type `empathy` and then press Enter.

### When You Start Empathy

When you start Empathy the following window is shown.

#### Empathy Main Window

Shows the Empathy main window. Contains the titlebar, the menubar, contact list, status icon and status arrow button list.

describes the components of Empathy's main window.

#### Empathy Main Components

Component | Description
--- | ---
Menubar | Contains menus used to perform actions in Empathy.
Status Drop-Down List | Allows you to update your status.
Account Button | Opens the Accounts dialogue.
Contact List | Shows all the available contacts and their associated status.

## Accounts

To use Empathy you need at least one account on the supported services.

If you don't already have an account and you don't have your username and password, you need to register a new account (see ).

In order to talk with other users, also called contacts, you need to use the same service they are using. If, for example, one contact is using the Jabber service, you need to have an account registered with that service.

Empathy can handle as many accounts on any supported services as you want and you can have them all open at the same time.

### Registering an Account

You can freely register an account on any of the following services. Follow the instructions reported on each website on how to register your new account. At the end of the registration process you should have a username (or an account ID) and a password that you will use to create the account in Empathy.

Click on the name of the service to visit its website:

- The AIM service.

- The Google Talk service.

- The ICQ service.

- The MSN service.

- The Yahoo service.

For registering a SIP account, you can use one of the following services:

- The Ekiga service.

- The FWD (Free World Dialup) service.

- The Sipphone service.

For registering a Jabber account, you can use the automatic account creation of Empathy. Not all Jabber service providers support the automatic creation of accounts; one service provider known to work with Empathy is jabber.org.

If you already have a Jabber account, you can use one of the following services:

- Salut

### Adding your Account to Empathy

To add your account to Empathy, proceed as follows:

1. From the main window (Contact List) click on the account button or press F4 to open the Accounts dialogue.

2. If it is the first time you're launching Empathy:

   1. From the Type drop-down list choose the service for which you wish to add an account, then click on the Create button.

   Otherwise:

   1. Click on the Add button.

   2. From the Type drop-down list choose the service for which you wish to add an account, then click on the Create button.

3. Fill the required fields with your username and password. Optionally, you can modify some advanced options. For more information, see .

4. To enable the new account, select the Enabled check box next to the name of the account in the box on the left.

#### Importing Accounts

If you use another instant messaging program, you can import the accounts from that program into Empathy

At the moment Empathy can import the accounts only from the instant messaging program Pidgin. For more information about Pidgin, see the Pidgin website.

To import the accounts into Empathy, proceed as follows:

1. From the main window (Contact List) click on the account button or press F4 to open the Accounts dialogue.

2. Click on the Import Accounts... button to open the Import Accounts dialogue.

3. Select the accounts you would like to import by clicking on the Import check box.

4. When you have selected all the desired accounts, click OK to import them. If you don't want to import the accounts, click Cancel.

5. When you import a new account into Empathy, it will not be enabled by default.

   To enable the new account, select the Enabled check box next to the name of the account in the box on the left.

### Editing an Account

To edit one of your accounts, i.e. to change the password or your username, proceed as follows:

1. From the main window (Contact List) click on the account button or press F4 to open the Accounts dialogue.

2. Select the account you wish to edit in the box on the left.

3. Modify the desired data.

Based on the type of the account, it is possibile to edit different settings.

To modify the identifier of an account – how Empathy identifies an account – proceed as follows:

1. From the main window (Contact List) click on the account button or press F4 to open the Accounts dialogue.

2. Select the account you wish to edit in the box on the left and double-click on its name.

3. Change the name of the account as you desire.

### Disabling and Removing an Account

To disable an account, proceed as follows:

1. From the main window (Contact List) click on the account button or press F4 to open the Accounts dialogue.

2. Select the account you wish to disable in the box on the left of the dialogue and deselect the Enabled check box.

To remove an account, proceed as follows:

1. From the main window (Contact List) click on the account button or press F4 to open the Accounts dialogue.

2. Select the account you wish to disable in the box on the left of the dialogue.

3. Click on the Remove button.

4. A dialogue will be shown asking for confirmation. Click on the Remove button to remove the account.

### Editing Personal Information

To change your personal information, your alias and your icon (the image that other contacts will see of you), for each of your accounts, proceed as follows:

1. From the main window, select Edit Personal Information.

2. From the Account drop-down list, choose the account you want to edit.

3. In the Alias text box, write your new alias.

4. To change your icon, click on the person button and choose an image file.

5. When done, click Close.

An alias is an alternative way you can identify yourself. You can use your real name or a nickname.

### Advanced Options

Based on the service you are using, it is possible to configure more advanced options to modify the normal behavior of Empathy.

To configure these options, when you are adding a new account, click on the drop-down section Advanced.

#### Jabber (or XMPP) and Google Talk

Encryption required (TLS/SSL)

  Select this option in order to use some sort of encryption during your conversations.

Ignore SSL certificate errors

  Select this option in order to ignore the errors that can be generated by some types of security certificates. Usually these certificates are called auto-signed.

  Select this option only if you are sure the certificate is secure and you can trust it.

Resource

  Use this text box to set a name with which you can identify the running program based on where you are running it. With this option, and the Priority one, you can use your account simultaneously on two different devices. For example, if you set one device to desktop and the other one to mobile, you can connect with both of them and, based on the Priority value, you will receive messages on one of the two devices or both.

  This can be useful if you have two devices, a main one and a portable one, and you move away from the main one bringing with you the other: you can still receive messages from your account with the portable device even if you do not disconnect from the main one.

  If you set the same value for this text box on both the devices, when you connect with one of them, the other one will be disconnected, even if you set a different value with the Priority spin box.

Priority

  Use this spin box to indicate which device, set in the Resource text box, will receive the new messages. The higher the number, the higher the priority: you will receive the new messages on the device with the highest number.

  You can set values in the range from `-128` to `127`.

  If you set the same value of this spin box in both the devices, you will receive messages on both of them.

In the Override server settings section you can set options that take precedence over the default settings.

Server

  Use this text box to write the name of the server you want to use for this service.

Port

  Use this spin box to set the number of the port of the server to use.

  You can set values in the range from `0` to `65,555`.

Use old SSL

  Select this option to use the old version of the secure protocol for encrypting your connection.

#### Yahoo

Ignore conference and chatrooms invitations

  Select this option to ignore the invitations that other people may send you.

Room List locale

  The value of this text box identifies the language used to retrieve the room list when connecting to the Yahoo! service.

  If you need to change this value, use the two letter code of your language.

Charset

  The value of this text box identifies the set of the characters used by Empathy.

  It is advised to leave this value as `UTF-8`. Change it only if that charset does not cover your language.

Server

  Use this text box to write the name of the server you want to use for this service.

Port

  Use this spin box to set the number of the port of the server to use.

  You can set values in the range from `0` to `65,555`.

Use Yahoo! Japan

  Select this option only if you have a Yahoo! Japan account. With the Yahoo! Japan service you can only use a Yahoo! Japan account: if you have registered an account with the English version of the service, that account will not work.

#### AIM, GroupWise and MSN

Server

  Use this text box to write the name of the server you want to use for this service.

Port

  Use this spin box to set the number of the port of the server to use.

  You can set values in the range from `0` to `65,555`.

#### Salut

Published Name

  Use this text box to write the name that will be visible to the other users of the network.

E-mail

  Use this text box to write your e-mail address.

Jabber ID

  Use this text box to write your Jabber ID, if you have one.

#### ICQ

Charset

  The value of this text box identifies the set of the characters used by Empathy.

  It is advised to leave this value as `UTF-8`. Change it only if that charset does not cover your language.

Server

  Use this text box to write the name of the server you want to use for this service.

Port

  Use this spin box to set the number of the port of the server to use.

  You can set values in the range from `0` to `65,555`.

#### Gadu Gadu

Nick

  Use this text box to write an alternative name to use with this service.

## Contacts and Groups

All the contacts are handled within Empathy's main window.

You can add or remove a contact or you can edit the information of a particular contact. It is also possible to arrange contacts in groups. You can have a group for your work contacts, one for you family contacts, and so on.

### Adding and Removing a Contact

To add a new contact, proceed as follows:

1. From the main window choose Chat Add Contact.... The New Contact dialogue will be shown.

2. From the Account drop-down list, choose the service used by the contact you are adding.

3. In the Identifier text box type the address of the contact in the form of `username@service domain`.

4. In the Alias text box type the name you want to give at the the new contact.

5. Click on Add to add the new contact.

To remove a contact, proceed as follows:

1. From the main window, select the contact you would like to remove and right-click on it.

2. From the popup menu, choose Remove to remove the contact.

An alias is an alternative way you can identify that particular contact. You can use the real name or the nickname of that person.

### Editing a Contact

To edit a contact, proceed as follows:

1. From the main window, select the contact you would like to modify and choose Edit Contact Edit, or right-click on it and choose Edit.

From the Edit Contact Information dialogue, you can modify the alias and the group of the contact.

An alias is an alternative way you can identify that particular contact. You can use the real name or the nickname of that person.

For more information about groups, see and .

### Adding a Contact to a Group

To add a contact to one or more groups, proceed as follows:

1. From the main window, select the contact you would like to modify and choose Edit Contact Edit, or right-click on it and choose Edit.

2. From the Groups section, select the group, or groups, to which you want to add the contact.

3. When done, click Close.

### Adding a New Group

To add a new group, proceed as follows:

1. From the main window, select one contact and choose Edit Contact Edit, or right-click on it and choose Edit.

2. In the Groups section, write the name of the group you want to add and then click on Add Group.

3. When done, click Close.