# Why no voice chat for the Apple? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 24, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-voice-chat-for-the-apple/197344 "2003-08-24T17:03:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Beastal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Beastal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastal)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-voice-chat-for-the-apple/197344/1 "2003-08-24T17:03:59Z")
A friend of mine has purchased a new Mac computer, but all of the messenger clients (Yahoo, MSN, etc) don’t offer voice chat. They even offer Webcam, but no voice. What is so difficult about enabling voice chat from a Mac? ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-voice-chat-for-the-apple/197344/2 "2003-08-24T17:38:32Z")
The newest version of iChat, which is free and should have come along with his new computer, has both voice and video chat. I _think_ it only works iChat to iChat (but I could be wrong about that), so if you’re not on it as well, it wouldn’t work. I’m not sure why the other companies don’t offer it; it should be extremely easy to implement on the Mac, I would think. ---
**Author:** ![Beastal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Beastal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastal)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-voice-chat-for-the-apple/197344/3 "2003-08-24T17:40:52Z")
Yeah, so would I think that. It seems as though it’s not though. I know iChat to iChat you can do it, but MSN and Yahoo both don’t have it, although they **do** have webcam, which just seems awfully strange to me. Why allow video, but not audio? Makes me think that there is something exceptionally difficult about allowing an iMac to audibly communicate with a PC. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-voice-chat-for-the-apple/197344/4 "2003-08-24T20:24:05Z")
I shouldn’t be difficult to do. The problem is the software vendors. They make their product first for Windows, then they remember that some of their Windows customers might have friends who use Macs. So they slap together a (usually) shoddy, stripped down Mac version. ICQ is a case in point. For the longest time (and maybe still now - I rarely use it anymore) the Windows version was loaded with features that simply didn’t exist in the Mac version. For example, the Mac version didn’t keep a transcript of your chats, while the Windows version did. So it’s the same thing with video conferencing. And that’s why Apple is finally deciding to start implementing this stuff itself. They used to prefer to let the third-party developers do it, but those developers have demonstrated that they won’t. ---
**Author:** ![chattywine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5daacb/32.png) [@chattywine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chattywine)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-voice-chat-for-the-apple/197344/5 "2003-08-24T20:27:52Z")
FWIW iChat users can connect to AIM users and visa versa and the voice chat works between the two as well. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-voice-chat-for-the-apple/197344/6 "2003-08-24T20:48:45Z")
For the time being, iChat AV only works with other people using iChat AV. But it will work over the AIM network. (But not with windows AIM people.) ---
**Author:** ![Beastal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Beastal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastal)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-voice-chat-for-the-apple/197344/7 "2003-08-25T17:51:01Z")
Thanks guys.