How to Get The Old Classic Chat Interface Back in Facebook

Facebook has made changes to its chat feature recently. A new chat side bar has been added and a new feature of video chat has also been introduced. The Facebook page says ‘A Faster Way to Message’ and you can try the new chat feature. On clicking on the link, you will be able to see the names of your friends displayed on the right side. Friends, with whom you chat frequently, will appear on the new chat sidebar by default.

Review of New Chat Feature (Interface) of Facebook:

But review from users of Facebook and various polls reveal that the users have not liked the Facebook side chat bar. The reasons for the negative feedback are:

1. Interface not appealing: Users find that the chat bar, which occupies the screen on the right side of the browser, is not visually appealing.

2. Makes the screen cluttered: Apart from the facility of video chat which is not used by several of the users, the new feature seems to be useless as it occupies a lot of space unnecessarily on the Facebook screen. This leads to the screen of Facebook appear cluttered, and also reduces the width of the Facebook page. This disadvantage is more annoying if you are working on a small width screen.

3. The option of groups have been removed: Due to this, users cannot hide their online status from the people with whom they do not want to chat.

4. The friend’s list: It is detected automatically, and the users have no choice in its selection. This automatic selected list does not have the names of the friends you chat the most, and so is not a good feature.

How to Get the Good Old Classic Chat Interface Back in Facebook [Using Browser Extensions (Add-ons)]

However, there is good news for the people who do not like the new chat feature and want to switch to the old classic chat interface of Facebook.

In order to disable to new chat interface and get the old one back, there is a browser add-on/extension which can be installed on your computer and you can get the old chat interface of Facebook back. It is an excellent extension for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera web browser users, which can bring back the good old classic chat in Facebook.

For this, you can install the add-on as per the browser you are using. The add-ons are available on the respective browser’s official web sites.

“Facebook Chat Sidebar Disabler” is a free extension, which helps you in disabling the new Facebook chat sidebar and return the good old normal chat window back. Simply install it and open Facebook and click on chat link. You’ll get the old chat back.

You can also toggle between old-style chat and new chat using “Use Old-Style Chat” option in chat menu.  To use video chat, just open a normal chat tab and click the video icon in title bar of the conversation.

Download Link (Mozilla Firefox)

Download Link (Google Chrome)

Download Link (Opera)

If you do not want to install this add-on, you can open your chat in a separate page and chat on this. As it will be in a totally different page, your browser page will not get cluttered. To open this new chat page, press Ctrl+D, and this chat page will be added to your browser bookmark list.

How to Get the Old Classic Facebook Chat Interface Back [Using Userscript]

You can also use “Facebook Sidebar Chat Reversion” userscript to disable new chat sidebar and bring back old chat in Facebook.

Guest Author: This is a guest article by Amanda Kidd who is a blogger and writer who has a special inclination towards technology. Her blogs on tech help involves Mobile Applications related problems and new gadgets, vehicles upcoming in the market like the flying car. Being a gadget freak she is planning to buy a Sony camera in few days.