This is a quick guide to using the new IM and Chat beta launch.

Rooms Tab:
The global-chat is open to all registered fans.

There is another room that is reserved for users of a certain level, and you'll also see that in the Rooms tab. In the past, we've had a few random people come in and hit on the people in the chat rooms, so the reserved room should be relatively free of such riff-raff.

Contact Tab:
Setting custom status messages: click on the pencil, and type away!

Turning off chat: Click on the bubble next to "I am online" and click on the red "Log out" option on the menu.

Contacts are your mutual fans that are currently online *and* signed into chat. You need to be mutual fans to see each other on chat.

Notifications:
Your browser may ask you to allow Fanpop to send you notifications. This will pop up a small window in the corner of your screen if someone sends you a message and lets you see messages without having your Fanpop browser tabs in the foreground.

Future features:
We're looking into a feature that lets you create a smaller fan list specifically for chat in case you get too many messages when logged in.

Some fans have requested an invisible mode, so we are considering that, as well.

Private multi-fan chat rooms are being considered.

Mute (no audio) and auto-away are also on the list.

Thanks for trying it out!