Google Talk: How to Determine Who Appears Invisible
This is a very easy trick to determine who appears “invisible” from those who are really offline in Google Talk. It is not like in MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger where it is impossible (as far as I know) to differentiate from those appearing offline and real offline.
OK, let’s get down to it…
- First up, find any of your friend that looks offline (those that you want to check their status).
- Open up the chat window of that person. Select “Go off the record” option from the top right drop down menu.
- Now, simply send any message to that person and you can now draw a conclusion.
If the person is really Offline
You will get a “<user> may not have received your message.” message from the system (see below). Yeah, this person is really offline and his/her Gmail is now opened.
If the person is Invisible
You will not get any response from the system (see below).
This is what will pop up in the other side (inside Gmail window):
Note: If the person is offline BUT leaving his/her Gmail window opened, you will not get any response either. I’ve tested this myself.
So now, you get the idea.
Well, I don’t know whether this is a “makeup” bug or an easter egg found in Google Talk system. I am very sure that Google knows about this. Anyway, it is a very fun discovery and the bottom line is – it works!
Feel free to test it out!
Comment by Abhimanyu »
you can also find some extra features on the labs version of other Google products which allows you to make yourself invisible but it does not always override the gtalk client software if you have that installed
http://mwolk.com/blog/how-to-stay-and-chat-invisible-and-as-offline-in-gtalk/