iChat

An iMessage-style whisper client for World of Warcraft.

Replace the default whisper system with a modern messaging UI featuring chat bubbles, conversation threads, emoji, notification sounds, and more.

Screenshots

Features

Conversation UI

• iMessage-style chat bubbles with rounded corners (9-slice pill textures) and optional bubble tails
• Conversation list on the left panel, sorted by most recent activity
• Pinned conversations — pin favorites to the top of the list
• Unread badges on conversations with new messages
• "New Messages" separator — visual divider when scrolling to unread messages
• Date separators — "Today", "Yesterday", "Jan 5" between messages on different days
• Message previews in the conversation list
• Relative timestamps (now, 5m, 2h, etc.) — hover any bubble for exact time
• Resizable window (350x400 to 700x800) with drag-to-move
• Minimize to title bar with the - button
• ESC to close — registered with the UI special frames system
• Version displayed in title bar

Bubble Colors

• Blue (right-aligned) — your sent messages
• Blue (left-aligned, lighter) — incoming from friends
• Green (left-aligned) — incoming from non-friends

Delivery Status

• "Sent" — gray indicator below your messages when delivery is confirmed by the server
• "Failed" — red indicator when the recipient is offline or not found

Typing Indicator

• Animated "typing…" in the conversation header when you're typing in the input box
• Cycles through "typing." → "typing.." → "typing…" animation
• Auto-clears after 2 seconds of inactivity
• Toggle in Settings → Behavior

Item Links

• Clickable item/spell links in chat bubbles — hover for tooltip, shift-click to link

Search & Navigation

• Search bar — filter conversations by name or message content
• Keyboard shortcuts — Tab/Shift+Tab to cycle between conversations
• Right-click context menu — pin, mute, add note, or delete conversations

Online Status & Notifications

• Online status indicator — green dot for online friends, gray for offline
• Class-colored names — friend names colored by their WoW class
• Online/offline toast notifications — popup at top of screen when a friend you've chatted with comes online or goes offline. Click the toast to open their conversation. Toggle in Settings → Behavior.

Battle.net Integration

• Full BNet (RealID) whisper support — send and receive whispers to Battle.net friends
• Smart display format — shows real name in the header, "Name (CharacterName)" in the conversation list
• BNet cyan-blue coloring — Battle.net names use Blizzard's signature cyan-blue throughout
• Character class colors — BNet character names shown in their WoW class color
• Cross-game messaging — message friends playing Diablo 3, Hearthstone, Overwatch, StarCraft, and more
• Game info display — header shows what game they're playing (e.g., "WoW: CharName (L60 Warrior)" or "Diablo 3")
• Mixed conversation list — BNet and regular whispers appear together, sorted by activity
• Chat filter — suppresses BNet whispers from the default chat frame (respects "Suppress whispers" setting)

Titan Panel Integration

• Native Titan Panel plugin — appears in your Titan bar alongside other plugins
• Left-click to toggle the iChat window
• Right-click for Titan Panel context menu with quick options
• Unread count display — shows unread message count (e.g., 3, 99+) or empty when caught up
• Tooltip — hover for unread count and usage hints
• Optional — no errors if Titan Panel is not installed

Player Info & Portraits

• Level, race, class, and location displayed in the conversation header subtitle (e.g., "Lv70 Human Warrior Stormwind")
• 3D portrait when the player is visible as a unit (target, party, raid)
• Class icon fallback when a player is out of range but class is known — hidden entirely when no info is available (no question marks)
• Data sourced from friends list, guild roster, and visible units

Guild & Party Awareness

• Guild rank shown in conversation header (green)
• Party role with tank/healer/DPS icon (blue)
• Raid membership indicator (orange)
• Updates automatically on roster changes

Account-Wide Conversations

• Share conversations across characters — optional toggle in Settings → Behavior
• When enabled, all characters on the account share one conversation history
• Intelligently migrates existing per-character data when toggling on
• Off by default — each character has separate history

Contact Management

• Add Friend / Block buttons in the conversation header
• Contact notes — add a personal note for any contact (shown in header)
• Per-contact mute — suppress notification sounds for specific contacts
• Pin conversations — keep important contacts at the top of the list

Compose & Quick Reply

• Compose button — start a new conversation with any player
• 5 configurable quick reply buttons — set your own canned responses (afk, brb, etc.)
• Send via Enter key or the send button

Auto-Reply

• Configurable auto-reply — automatically responds to incoming whispers with a custom message
• One reply per contact per session — prevents spam
• Quick toggle — /ichat autoreply to enable/disable

Emoji

• 75+ bundled emoji from Google's Noto Emoji — type :shortcode: to use (e.g. :thumbsup:, :fire:, :heart:)
• Emoji picker button next to the input box — click to browse and insert emoji
• /ichat emoji — prints all available emoji with previews to chat
• Emoji-Core support (optional) — if the Emoji-Core addon is installed, its emoji and autocomplete work alongside the built-in set

Notification Sounds

• 3 built-in notification sounds — Glass, Tritone, Chime
• LibSharedMedia support — any sounds registered by other addons (ElvUI, SharedMedia packs, etc.) appear as additional options
• Taskbar flash — the Windows taskbar icon flashes on incoming whisper

Floating Button

• Draggable floating button — left-click to toggle window, right-click for settings
• Faction-themed icon — blue shield for Alliance, red shield for Horde
• Unread badge — red dot with count for unread messages
• Whisper flash — pulses on incoming whispers until you open iChat
• Configurable button size (24–64px) — slider in Settings → Behavior
• Freely positionable — drag anywhere on screen, position saved between sessions
• LibDBIcon support — also registers with minimap button manager addons (MinimapButtonButton, etc.)

Settings Panel

• Settings panel font size slider (8–14) — adjust the settings UI text size with smooth live preview
• Font selection dropdown — 6 built-in WoW fonts, plus all LibSharedMedia fonts if available
• Font size slider (8–16) for chat bubbles
• Background opacity slider (30%–100%)
• Message history slider (50–500 messages per conversation)
• Open on incoming whisper toggle
• Suppress default chat whispers toggle
• Display toggles — date separators, hover timestamps, item links, class colors, online status
• Window scale slider (0.5x–2.0x) — scales everything including fonts, icons, and buttons
• Behavior toggles — keyboard shortcuts, minimap button, hide in combat, auto-fade, fade while moving, typing indicator, online/offline notifications, ElvUI theme, shared account
• Auto-reply section — enable/disable with custom message editor
• Quick reply editor — configure up to 5 quick reply messages
• Export conversation — copy conversation history as plain text
• Clear history — per-conversation or all conversations (with confirmation)

ElvUI Integration

• Auto-detect ElvUI and match backdrop, border, and accent colors
• ElvUI DataText — "iChat" appears in the DataText list (right-click any ElvUI info panel → select "iChat"). Shows unread count with ElvUI's value color. Left-click toggles the window, right-click opens settings.
• Only overrides font if you haven't explicitly chosen one
• Toggle in Settings → Behavior

WeakAuras Integration

Custom events for WeakAuras triggers:

• ICHAT_WHISPER_RECEIVED (sender, text)
• ICHAT_WHISPER_SENT (target, text)
• ICHAT_FRIEND_ONLINE / ICHAT_FRIEND_OFFLINE (name)
• ICHAT_UNREAD_CHANGED (total)

Auto-Fade

• Window fades to 25% opacity after 1.5 seconds when the mouse leaves
• Instantly restores when hovering anywhere on the window (chat area, input box, conversation list — not just the title bar)
• Fade is disabled while the settings panel or emoji picker is open
• Fade while moving — optional setting to fade when your character moves, restores when stopped
• Can be fully disabled in Settings → Behavior → "Auto-fade when mouse leaves"

LibSharedMedia Integration

• Optional dependency — works without it, enhanced with it
• When LibSharedMedia-3.0 is available (bundled with ElvUI, etc.), all registered fonts and sounds appear in iChat's settings dropdowns

Installation

1. Download and extract to your AddOns folder. The same folder works for all WoW versions — the client automatically loads the correct TOC file:

   Version	AddOns Path	TOC File
   Classic Era	_classic_era_/Interface/AddOns/iChat/	iChat_Vanilla.toc
   TBC Anniversary	_anniversary_/Interface/AddOns/iChat/	iChat.toc
   Retail	_retail_/Interface/AddOns/iChat/	iChat-Mainline.toc

2. Restart WoW or /reload if already in-game.

Usage

Sending Messages

• Click a conversation on the left, or use the compose button (chat bubble icon) to start a new one
• Type in the input box and press Enter to send
• Click the smiley button to open the emoji picker
• Use quick reply buttons for canned responses

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Custom keybind — bind "Toggle iChat Window" in WoW's Options → Key Bindings → iChat
• Tab — cycle to next conversation
• Shift+Tab — cycle to previous conversation
• Escape — close the window

Context Menu

Right-click any conversation in the list for:

• Pin / Unpin — keep at top of list
• Mute / Unmute — suppress notification sounds
• Add / Edit Note — personal note for the contact
• Delete Conversation — remove conversation and history

Emoji Shortcodes

Type :name: in your message — it renders as an inline icon in the chat bubble.

Smileys: :grin: :smile: :laughing: :joy: :wink: :heart_eyes: :sunglasses: :thinking: :cry: :angry: :skull: :party: and more

Gestures: :thumbsup: :thumbsdown: :wave: :pray: :muscle: :clap: :ok_hand:

Symbols: :heart: :fire: :star: :100: :check: :x: :sparkles: :boom: :eyes:

Objects: :swords: :shield: :trophy: :crown: :gem: :beer: :dragon: :ghost: :rocket:

Saved Variables

iChat uses two storage modes:

• ICHAT_DATA (per-character) — default, each character has separate history
• ICHAT_ACCOUNT (account-wide) — optional, toggle "Share conversations across characters" in settings

Stored data includes:

• Conversation history — messages, timestamps, read state, delivery status
• Settings — font, font size, opacity, sound, quick replies, display/behavior toggles, auto-reply
• Pinned conversations — which contacts are pinned to the top
• Contact notes — personal notes per contact
• Muted contacts — contacts with suppressed notifications

Data persists across sessions. Use /ichat clear or the settings panel to manage history.

Optional Dependencies

Compatibility

• Classic Era (1.15.x) — Interface 11508
• TBC Classic Anniversary (2.5.x) — Interface 20505
• Retail (12.x Midnight) — Interface 120001

Known Issues

• WIM conflict: If WoW Instant Messenger (WIM) is installed, iChat automatically disables "Suppress default chat whispers" to avoid double-suppression.
• Typing indicator is local-only — only shows when you are typing. Cross-addon typing detection would require addon-to-addon messaging (both parties need iChat).
• ElvUI skin may not apply if ElvUI loads after iChat — a 1-second delay is used, but edge cases are possible. Toggle the setting off/on in that case.

Credits

• Author: paradosi (Dreamscythe)
• Emoji: Google Noto Emoji (Apache 2.0 License)
• Emoji Integration: Emoji-Core by KittenBall — optional emoji autocomplete and rendering library