What Gtalk really needs?

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GTalk

Gtalk the lightweight chat client of Google is a big hit within few years of its launch. But are the users of Gtalk completely satisfied with its features? The answer is “NO”.

Though it is widely used amongst internet users, there are lot more features that must be implemented in it in order to provide its users that they really want and to keep up with its competitors.

Many claim that the adding extra features to gtalk, will reduce its simplicity. But it is unavoidable, almost every IM user prefer to have multiple features, rather than just a chat client with file transfer and voice call.

Here are some missing features in gtalk.

1. Conference Support

Gtalk allows voice chat between two people, but it has still not implemented a method to support conference calls. This is the most demanded feature in gtalk. Also this is one important reason why people sometimes move to Y messenger.You can also make free conference calls with powwownow iPhone application.

2. Proper Voice & File Transfer

Can Jabber protocol be blamed for this?We would have noticed the following annoying messages often in gtalk. This happens when a person is logged in using both gmail and gtalk.

“You cannot send files because xxx@gmail.com is using chat in Gmail or is using another chat program.”

“You cannot call because xxx@gmail.com is using chat in Gmail or another chat program other than Google Talk.”

The other person’s client fails to differentiate between this and simply disallows the file transfer and call feature. Gtalk must somehow come with a feature to solve this issue.

3. Multi OS Support

When will gtalk and yahoo messenger realize that there is lot more than just Windows? They have been sticking to windows platform for years. Gtalk must come up with a solution for non-windows platform.

Newbies to linux first tend to see if they could make gtalk or yahoo work in linux. The first solution that comes to their mind is WINE (WINdows Emulator) which can run .exe files on Linux. Having failed they are left with no other option else to use the default chat clients like Pidgin and Kopete. This has happened in my case too. Many linux users are still not comfortable with the chat clients that they are using.

No chat clients in linux support voice feature, also with no gtalk and yahoo, people are using basic clients like kopete and pidgin. Skype has taken advantage of this. They have released the beta version of skype that supports voice and video support for linux and MacOS. And they are successful in it,
Skype for linux is one of the most downloaded software in the recent times.

Gtalk must learn from Skype and soon release for  non –windows platforms.

4. Stealth Mode

Gmail has implemented this feature using a tool from google labs, but gtalk is yet to provide this. Considering their privacy people sometimes either logout from gtalk or use softwares like idle maker.

Also gtalk should come up with something like Online presence setting like Y messenger to change its availability setting to every single contact.

5. More Security

Do you know where gtalk stores its account information? Its in Windows Registry !!! . Right from the username till the password, every information that gtalk obtained from the user is stored in the windows registry. And google has assumed that it has provided security by simply storing the password in an encrypted format.

The encrypted password can be used it other computer’s registry and can be logged it without actually knowing the password. Or third party softwares can be used to decrypt the encrypted password.

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If Google implements all the above features in gtalk, it will surely become the leading chat client amongst the others.