February 1, 2012. Messages As part of the OS X Mountain Lion preview, Apple announced on February 16, 2012, that its OS X messaging client would be Messages, and that it would support the iMessage protocol, making it compatible with the iOS client. Messages also incorporates FaceTime support. Apple made Messages immediately available as a downloadable beta version for use on Mac OS X 10.7. Supported protocols iChat's AIM support was fully endorsed by AOL, and used their official implementation of the AIM OSCAR protocol. Using a XMPP transport, iChat could serve as a client for AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, MobileMe, ICQ and XMPP. iChat could also integrate Google Talk contacts into the XMPP pane. See also Comparison of instant messaging clients Comparison of instant messaging protocols FaceTime Messages Video conferencing References External links Official website (archived) XMPP Standards Foundation Apple Inc. software MacOS instant messaging clients Videotelephony AIM (software) clients XMPP clients MacOS MacOS-only software made by Apple Inc. 2002 software Computer-related introductions in 2002 Defunct instant messaging clients