# iChat and Microsoft Life Cam - compatible?



## tedninetwo (Mar 16, 2008)

I have a macbook with iChat and can video message with any other macs through aol instant messenger. however, can i do the same with someone who has a dell an a Microsoft life cam? how can we video chat with each other? Help, please!!!

tn


----------



## FredT (Nov 16, 2007)

I think I read somewhere that what is really important is the proccessor. You have to have an Intel Core Duo or something similar. I'm pretty sure Pentiums won't work. It has worked for me with a couple of AMDs too.


----------



## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

I think you misunderstood the question Fred. I believe the question is how does one using a Mac video chat with someone on Microsoft's life cam software. The basic answer is you can't. iChat is the only way Mac users can video chat with other people, so that means the others need to be a .mac user or AIM user. None of the other major chat systems out there support video chat on the Mac. There are other dedicated video chat cross platform systems out there, but they are a paid service. This is a problem I've run into myself, as I have family that only uses MSN Messenger, which supports video on Windows, but not on the Mac. Yahoo is similar. I have heard that Skype may support video, but I haven't checked it out myself.


----------



## FredT (Nov 16, 2007)

Yes, Skype can support video.

So I think your two options are AIM or Skype.


----------



## shuuhen (Sep 4, 2004)

Like FredT said, AIM or Skype are probably your best bets. I've only used AIM through iChat with other Mac users, but I don't see why there would be an issue with inter-OS chatting. I have used Skype on my Mac to talk to a friend in another country on Windows. I was the only one of the two of us that had a camera and microphone, but she said it worked fine.


----------

