Northwestern students can now use the new Facebook Chat feature. It was added to the Northwestern network Wednesday.
Facebook began slowing rolling out the chat feature to select networks on April 6.
Facebook chat is similar to Google’s G-Chat in that it is built into a bar at the bottom of a page and doesn’t need to be downloaded or installed. Your buddy list is composed of your Facebook friends and you have the option of signing out of the chat feature while browsing Facebook.
Mini-feeds will also be imported into chat windows. So if someone joins a group or creates an event while you are chatting, it will appear in the chat box automatically. This feature can be turned off though.
The chat bar also displays any notifications that would normally appear on your Facebook homepage.
In an effort to head off any more uproars about privacy, Facebook tried to address concerns in a post on the official blog.
“Conversations are one-to-one, completely private, and only between Facebook friends,” Josh Wiseman said in the blog post.
Chat history is saved from window to window and between logins, but not permanently. You can also delete your chat history at any time.