Hell Yeah Bitch! .com

The Problem

One of the things I have always wanted from iChat was the ability to set whether or not you wanted video chat requests to auto-start, thus saving you the two clicks and maybe some beachball of death action just so you can answer a quick question from your mother. Well its high time we get this functionality!

The Solution

…so I wrote up a very simple Applescript application that will allow you to toggle whether you want to automatically accept all incoming iChat video requests. I know, you can do this with a quick terminal command, but as easy as that sounds, its much easier to just start a quick app that will do it for you. It just asks you if you want to accept all incoming iChat video invites. A simple yes or no and after you restart iChat, you won’t have to worry about clicking anymore. You will have to worry about your relatives or friends catching you jacking it if you aren’t paying attention though. “With great power comes great responsibility!”

Installing

Surprisingly, there is no direct support for Applescript in iChat. Because of this, I made the script into an application and you can just dump it anywhere. If you know you just want to set your iChat to auto-accept all video requests and do see yourself turning it off, you can just run it from the mounted dmg file. I threw mine in my Applications folder so I can turn it on and off at will.

Known Issues

I have it coded so that after I make the preference change it should quit iChat and then restart it for you. However, I’ve found in my testing that it quits fine but doesn’t restart it about 75% of the time. The error (which I suppress in the released code) says “iChat: Invalid Connection” This is my first foray into Applescript, I gleaned enough knowledge from just reading the scripts I have on my computer, so I’m no expert. If you know the problem, pass along that info will ya?

Ideally…

Ideally I would like it to be on a per-user basis and maybe give you a 10 second warning so you can jump out of the way if you happen to be naked or something. But until Apple bakes that into iChat or they at least bake in full Applescript support that will be just a pipe-dream. For now, its “Always Accept” or “Always Ask”.

Please comment on any problems, suggestions, naked pictures of our your girlfriend, anything…

Download It: auto_ichat_video.dmg