Powering up Pidgin with the Purple Plugin Pack

Last updated May 13, 2010 6:09 PM

On the previous page, we discussed the Purple Plugin Pack, a selection of 50 new plugins for the ever popular Pidgin instant messaging client. We don't intend to cover every plugin available, instead we want to concentrate on a handful of the more useful ones. So, without further flapping around, let's dive into our favourite Pidgin enhancements, including the best of the ones that come with Pidgin and the best from the Purple Plugin Pack:-

Buddy Notes 2.6.6

Now included with Pidgin by default, this handy plugin allows you to store notes on your contacts. Extremely handy for those of you with long contact lists and short memories. Now you never need forget someones real name, or the name of their partner, children, dogs or goldfish. Using the plugin is easy, simply right click on a buddy and choose "Edit notes..."

You will then see the following window:-

type your notes and click "Save". You will then see the note every time you hover the mouse pointer over your contact.

Conversation Badger 2.6.2

Pidgin lets you communicate with buddies on all kinds of different services. This plugin will display an icon letting you know which service the current conversation is using. For example, if you're chatting on Windows Live Messenger, the Windows Live icon will be shown, see the picture below for an example:-

We're not really sure why we like this plugin or even why it matters who's IM network you are using, but nevertheless it made the list.

Dice 2.6.2

Sometimes the best way to decide a situation is to rely on good old random chance. This Purple Plugin Pack plugin lets you instantly roll the dice, by typing "/dice 1 6" for example, you can roll one six sided die. Yes, this does mean you can play dungeons and dragons with friends near and far, though tapping away to someone over IM may not have the same geeky magic as actually sitting around the table clattering real dice.

Last Seen 2.6.2

I haven't heard from him in ages! Exactly how long is ages? With this plugin you can see for yourself. When someone was last seen over 5 years ago, maybe it's time to prune that buddy list, still you never know. Just hover your mouse over your contact to see when he or she was last online, you may need to select "Show->Offline Buddies" from the buddies menu in order to do this.

Message Notification 2.6.6

If you find that Pidgin's neat tabbed interface means you are missing instant messages sometimes, then this plugin can help. Configure it to flash the window when a new IM is received and never miss a message again.

Message Splitter 2.6.2

As you rely more on IM for your communication needs, you will find yourself needing to send longer and longer messages. For example, snippets from web pages, quotes from articles, or perhaps just really, really long messages explaining why your new article still isn't ready. Most IM services have an upper limit on the size of one instant message. With this plugin enabled, your excessively long IM's will be neatly chopped into manageable chunks, meaning you will never lose one of those long, drawn out rants again. We recommend going into this plugins configuration screen and changing the limit to around 500 characters per message for best compatibility with all protocols. Sadly, this plugin will not work when the Off the Record encryption plugin is in use.

Mystatusbox 2.6.2

If you have multiple IM accounts, one for work and one for play for example, then this plugin is extremely handy. It lets you quicky and easily see and set the current status and status message for each of your IM accounts individually. Now you can easily set your social IM status to "Available" and your work IM status to "Out of the Office", letting your friends and family know you're ready for the weekend.

Release Notification 2.6.6

Notifies you of when a new version of Pidgin is available. Keeping software up-to-date is always a good idea so there's no good reason not to enable this plugin.

Windows Pidgin Options 2.6.6

Need a dockable buddy list? Want Pidgin to load on startup? This Plugin can do that for you.

As you can see, plugins can extend Pidgin in all kinds of ways. Let us know in the comments if there are any essential plugins that we missed.