Google Chat

Linux: Setting Up Google Talk/Chat on Pidgin

It looks like there are a lot of people out there having trouble getting Google Talk to play nice with Pidgin. If you're running into an authentication error, the culprit may have nothing to do with your credentials or Pidgin. Google just doesn't recognize the app as "secure", so they'll deny the login unless you adjust your account settings. Here's a walkthrough, if you need it.

I kind of doubt Pidgin actually falls within whatever Google defines as an insecure third party application: it's more likely that they just don't want you leaving the Google ecosystem. Either way, I wound up hitting my head against a wall recently when trying to get my Google Talk/Chat account setup on Pidgin. The trick is to login into Google and adjust the security settings on your account. Let's start with setting up your credentials on Pidgin; I'll cover where/how to adjust your Google account afterwards.