Find if a user is invisible in Gtalk

There have been numerable posts and numerous discussions on how to find if a user is Invisible on Gtalk or Gmail Chat. Some methods posted work and some doesn’t. Well I am gonna share two methods here and both work. Both methods are for Windows as well as Linux/Ubuntu System Users.

First Method – Using Pidgin

This method is probably the easiest method and required Pidgin Messenger. Download Pidgin(Windows/Linux) if you don’t have it. Its probably the best multi-protocol messenger which allows you to chat to MSN/Yahoo!/Gtalk/Facebook/Twitter and lots of social networks from a single client. After you have downloaded and installed Pidgin, you will also need to download the Google Invisibility Scan Plugin to find invisible users.

Download the plugin and shift the dll file to the plugins directory inside your Pidgin program files folder. And now start Pidgin. And now activate the plugin by going to Tools>Plugins or by pressing Ctrl+U and add a checkmark against Google Invisibility Half Scan Plugin and click Close. Now go to Tools>>Google Invisibility Half Scan Plugin and click Massive Scan. After a few seconds delay, you will see the list of invisible users.

According to the plugin page, this is not 100% foolproof as the user may be signed from Gmail or Gtalk Gadget but have disabled the chat which might show as invisible still. Anyways, the plugin does its job and you get an idea of how many users are invisible from you.

P.S. There is another plugin which notifies you the instant a member goes invisible. Try Google Invisibility Tracker plugin.

Bonus Tip: Seems Pidgin users can’t set themselves as invisible on Gtalk. If you want to go invisible on Gtalk using pidgin, try this tested method posted by Chinmay. Its a bit long but works everytime.

Second Method – Perl Script

Full Credit for the second Method goes to R Srijith. His blog post mentions the method for Linux/Ubuntu Users. To implement the same in Windows, follow the following steps [thanks to vyompv].

Download Perl Compiler from StrawBerry Perl [38MB Download] – Works on Windows XP/Vista/7
Install it and restart the PC.
Now Go to Start menu>>Run and type cmd
Now type cpan and you will see a new cpan prompt.

Now type the following commands:

install IO::Socket::SSL
install XML::Stream
install Net::XMPP
install Authen::SASL

Download send-xmpp file from http://sendxmpp.platon.sk/ [Site is down currently.] You can download the file from here.
Extract the folder sendxmpp to any directory and via command prompt, go to that directory.
Now type the following commands:
```
perl Makefile.PL
dmake
dmake install
```
Now download the Perl script and save as invi.pl.
Now go to the location of invi.pl via command prompt and type the command:
```
perl invi.pl username password
```
and you will see the list of invisible users shown.