What's new with the xat online chat rooms and groups

Add photos to your profile

The xat profiles have been updated to include a photo section. Enter a photobucket picture URL in the box labled "Picture album" and the album that picture is in will be automatically displayed on your profile..

Add music and media to your profile

The xat profiles have been updated to include a media box where you can add pictures and flash widgets, e.g. music players, chats, sideshows, games etc.

Get xats with your phone!

No credit card? No problem if you go to the buy xats page you can now use your
landline phone or mobile to get xats and days charged to your phone bill.
Click the 'Pay By Phone' button.

(USA and UK only)

More functionality for Ignore

Ignores now last for 12 hours, so if you ignore someone they will be back tomorrow. Previously ignores were for ever which meant they couldn't be used for temporary ignores very easily. Also if you are a moderator or owner you will still see messages from ignored users in the main chat but you won't receive private chats or messages.

Volume controls

The radio and general sounds now have independent volume control controls.

Mouse over the radio or speaker and drag the volume control knob up and down.
If you drag the control to the bottom you will turn the sounds off. You can also
switch between on and off by click on the radio or speaker as before.

Drop shadow on your picture (avatar)

If you see someone has a drop shadow on their picture it means they have an extended profile. Click on their picture to see it! To get you're own drop shadow make a xat profile. If you have made a xat profile ands you still have no shadow, edit your profile and then login.

MSN and AIM invite

You can now invite your MSN and AIM contacts to the chat.

Click on the Friends tab, then click:

You need to log in to your MSN or AOL account. When you are logged in your MSN and AIM friends will appear on your friends list. To private chat or invite them click on their name in the usual way.

To invite all your MSN/AIM friends click:

xat profiles

Add a xat profile! When chat users click on your picture in the chat they are taken to your xat profile. You can now add stuff to your profile to make it more interesting. You need to be a registered user so if you aren't registered click on your name in the chat and press the 'Register' button. .To create or change your profile, click on your picture in the chat to go to your profile, and press the word 'edit' (bottom right of your picture).

Scroller Update (owners)

If you are an Owner or Main Owner you can send a scroll message to the bottom of the chat.

For example type:

/sWelcome to my chat. Please behave well or you will be banned.
(N.B. This has changed from previous release and is now /s from $s)

You can change the color by adding a color code, for example add #FF0000 to the end of the message for Red.

User picture grid

The user slide show has been replaced by a grid (matrix) of user pictures...

Click the 'grid' tab on groups pages for a cool display of all the pics of everyone on the chat.

Move your mouse over the grid

If you click their pic you can see their profile

If you click their name you can interact with them

If there are more pictures than will fit up and down scroller arrows will appear.
To scroll hover your mouse over the arrows.

Changing the colors of the buttons on a chat. (Main Owners)

The button style has been updated on chats. You can also change the color of them.
First press 'Edit your chat' on the chat box. Scroll down, until you see a small text box that says 'Button Color'.
In that box, type the hex code you want for the color, or type the color word eg Red.

In chat radio player (Main owners)

If you are a chat box owner you can add a radio into the chat. The radio appears next to the smilies. The radio works without any extra plugin's and is excellent for internet radio stations who want a live chat. To add the radio click the 'Edit your chat' button, then click the 'Extra features button'. Scroll down and find 'Radio station' and enter your station url in the box.

MySpace chat app

You can add the xat chat easily to your MySpace profile by adding the xat chat application. There is also a poll and quiz.

Games

You can challenge other chatters to games. Click the 'games' tab and choose between Pool, Chess, 4 in a row and shoot. Then private chat someone and challenge them to a game!

Subscriber features and xats

You can now buy xat money (xats) to purchase stuff in the chat box. Note that most things are free and will continue to be free. In general xats are used to buy things that cannot be free i.e. Kisses would be over used and used for spam if they were free, and marriages wouldn't mean anything if they were free. If you can't afford any xats you can still see all the stuff and if you are lucky someone might marry you

and users can also give other users xats and subscriber time.

To buy xats you need to be registered (Click on your name and then the Register button).
When you are registered, click your name, click the Register button and select "Get Subscription and xats"

To send a kiss click on your name and click on the coins bottom right.

You can buy Kisses for 25 xats, marriages or "Best Friends Forever" for 200 xats and divorces are free. xats include a free subscription which allow you to use "Ultra smilies" and "Ultra Avatars"

Kisses are a full screen movie that appears on top of the chat box to everyone on the chat box (unless they are ignoring you). Kisses include a message so don't forget to fill that in.

Marriages or "Best Friends Forever" allow you pair up on xat. Your icons and names will be next to each other and a symbol will show you are paired. If you are Main owner and you are married your partner will sit next to you even if they are a member or guest. You can marry anyone you want (as long as neither of you are already married) but remember they can divorce you for free so make sure the person you are marrying wants to be married to you. To get married click on the person's name and click the "Marry/Best Friend" button.

Divorces are free (2 divorces are included in the price of a marriage). To get divorced click on someone else's name and click the Divorce button. If you change your mind and want to remarry it will be another 200 xats so maybe you should sleep on it? You can get divorced publicly or you can go to a room with no one else on and do it privately. You can only have one wife!!!

Transfer To give someone xats or subscriber time click on their name in the Visitors list and click the Transfer button. Then type in the number of xats and days you want to give them.

Ultra smilies are special smilies that have extra features or only work for subscribers but don't worry if you're not a subscriber, all the existing smilies will continue to work and we will be adding more. Current Ultra smilies are (X) (CLOVER) (GHAT) (AIRPLANE) (HEARTS) (HIPPO) (SURPRISE) (PAINT) (CONFETTI) (CHAMPAGNE) (CRY) (ARGUE) (PARACHUTE) (DYNAMITE) and regular smilies improved for subscribers (D) (DMD) (N) (BBY) (LI) (GST) (C) (BIN) (NOTE) (WWE) (ROFL) (EGG)

Ultra Avatars are jazzed up avatars/picture. Instead of using a picture you can use most smilie codes instead, for example you can put (CD) or (CIR) as your picture. You can also add effects to your avatar. To add an effect put #hearts , #lips , #glitter , #beams, #blood , or #equ , #walk, #up, #down after your picture. To add a smilie effect add #up#xtre where xtre is the smilie you want. (Note that only smilies that are in brackets work, so (ninja) works and |-) doesn't.
Examples:
http://tinypic.com/mypic.gif#hearts
(airplane)#up#ninja
(CIR)#glitter
(ROFL)#lips#star
(D)#blood#0000FF