Facebook – Not able to receive Facebook chat messages

An alternative method, is to use the Pidgin chat client instead.

The settings you need are:

• Protocol: XMPP
• Username: [your current Facebook username] (see step 1)

• Domain: chat.facebook.com

  1. Currently, you’ll need a Facebook Username (ie, facebook.com/mikeknoop).

  2. Open up Pidgin, Click Accounts, then Manage Accounts. Now click Add.

  3. Fill in the Basic tab with the following details:

• Resource: [unused, you may leave blank]

• Password: [your current Facebook password]

  1. On the Advanced tab, make sure all SSL options are unchecked.

  2. Click Add. You’re done!

It was (and still) due to the changes Facebook made in their group structure, that since then kept changing.

The only way now to see a list of online friends is via the chat windows - there's no option to see which members from a group are online.

Sometimes you might see an online (green) indication dot near the profile of a user in a group feed, but that's all.

I think it was a way of Facebook to make people feel they have more privacy and that strangers can't see their online status in a group even if they share a group.