Pidgin FacebookChat (historically referring to the plugins or protocol configurations used to connect Facebook with Pidgin) is largely obsolete, non-functional, and insecure due to Facebook decommissioning the structural APIs required to make it work. The History of Facebook on Pidgin
The XMPP Era (2010–2015): Originally, Facebook Chat operated natively on an open XMPP (Jabber) protocol. During this time, users could natively connect Pidgin to Facebook by simply entering chat.facebook.com as the server domain without needing a separate plugin.
The purple-facebook Shift (2015–2021): In 2015, Facebook completely shuttered its XMPP support. To keep desktop integration alive, a Google Summer of Code project birthed purple-facebook, a dedicated protocol plugin that bypassed the browser and tapped directly into Facebook Messenger’s newer API. Why It No Longer Works Safely
Graph API Deprecation: The backend plugins heavily relied on Facebook’s v2.12 Graph API, which Meta completely deprecated and turned off in August 2021.
Security Risks: The older plugins lacked OAuth 2.0 refresh token handling and often passed credentials over poorly encrypted or unencrypted connections.
Silent Data Loss: Attempting to force-connect old builds results in silent message failures, un-synced friend statuses, and immediate connection termination. Modern Alternatives
Because Meta tightly closes its proprietary Messenger ecosystem to third-party clients, generic libpurple open-source chat clients like Pidgin cannot natively stream your messages anymore. If you are looking to aggregate Facebook Messenger alongside other networks without keeping a massive browser tab open, consider these workarounds:
Franz / Ferdi / Rambox: These are modern, open-source web-wrapper applications. They let you run the actual web interface of Facebook Messenger inside an isolated sandbox right next to Discord, WhatsApp, and Slack.
Official Desktop App: Meta maintains an official desktop application for Messenger available on Windows and macOS.
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