Thank you for choosing ICQ, one of the world's largest cross-platform online community. Version 3.4 of ICQ for Mac Brings you AOL interoperability, as well as better compatibility with Mac OS X.

Improvements since version 3.2

• Interoperability with AIM and iChat instant messaging services. You can add users from those messengers to your Contact List and exchange instant messages with them (see the Known Problems section for a note regarding this feature).
• Better peer to peer connectivity: MacICQ now supports passive p2p connections for users behind firewalls.
• Users behind firewalls can now choose their listen port range (How do I use this?).
• Auto-reconnect (available in the Connection panel of the Network and Security window). Users with a permanent internet connection should turn this on to avoid occasional disconnect messages.
• Easy way to enter active URLs directly into outgoing messages.
• New support for unicode text entry (e.g., for Arabic and Hebrew) (How do I activate this feature?)
• Cosmetic issue: Incoming SMS messages are now displayed (as opposed to not displayed in the previous version, a feature which some of you did not appreciate).
• The Contact List can now display names in multiple languages (note regarding this feature).
• URLs are read from Safari.
• Clickable URLs in message windows.
• Many bug fixes

The ICQ Macintosh team is grateful for your continuous support and for your useful feedback.

System Requirements

This version runs on Mac OS X and MacOS 9.x using CarbonLib 1.3 or higher. The recommended system versions are Mac OS 9.1 or higher, or Mac OS X 10.1 or higher.

Known Problems

• Exchanging messages with AIM/AOL/iChat messengers can only be done when the other party is using compatible software that includes ICQ interoperability.
• The alternative text entry panes do not function well with offline messages, i.e. most non-latin offline messages will be displayed as gibberish. This is a minor problem if your contacts send you gibberish in the first place.
• Due to a bug in some versions of CarbonLib and Mac OS X, the contact list window may display some text 'ghosting' when you use a custom font for the list display. Selecting 'Use system theme font' in the Preferences/main window panel overcomes this problem.
• The passive connection support is currently limited to incoming connections. We hope to implement the other direction for the next version.
• The 'Read Away Messages' function does not operate under certain conditions (e.g., before or after midnight).
• The typing indicator works only when the other contact uses an ICQ version that supports this feature. For now these include ICQ for Mac, ICQ2Go and ICQ Lite.

• ICQ now allows you to enter and view text messages with the native system text control (MLTE). You can activate this feature if you are running Mac OS X 10.2 or higher, by checking the 'Use OS X Text Editor' option in the messages panel of the preferences window. See the known problems section for a note regarding this feature. Secret feature note: pressing control-shift within the new text pane toggles the line direction.

• If you are using a personal firewall (such as the one provided in Mac OS X), you may define a range of allowed ports, on which MacICQ can receive peer to peer connections. In the MacICQ application, define the same port range in the Connection panel of the Security and Network window.
• If you are behind a firewall that does not allow direct connection to your computer, you may still be able to receive files from other ICQ users. Check the new "I am behind a firewall" field in the Connection panel of the Security and Network window. If the other party is not behind a firewall and uses an ICQ client that support passive p2p connections (all the new Windows® versions), then ICQ will connect to that party in order to receive the file.

• The ICQ Contact List can now displays nicknames in multiple languages and character sets. However, because of a bug in previous versions of MacICQ, the following problems may arise:
  1. You may need to rename users in order to override previous faulty settings.
  2. Reverting to an older version of MacICQ may reformat the display names, causing them to be shown incorrectly even after you return to MacICQ 3.4.

Note - Usage of third party source code

• WASTE Text Engine © 1993-2003 Marco Piovanelli
• WText © 1999 Timothy Paustian

Use of expat - XML Parser Toolkit in the ICQ End-User software is covered by the Mozilla Public License (MPL). Version 1.1. The source code of expat - XML Parser Toolkit can be obtained at http://www.Mozilla.org