Facebook Chat is now accessible on popular instant messaging clients

Making good on a promise delivered just about one year ago, Facebook announced today that its popular chat feature can now be accessed through any Jabber (XMPP)-compatible desktop instant messaging software, including AIM, iChat, Pidgin, Adium, and Miranda.

Users can simply connect their Facebook account with their instant messaging client of choice and they can then chat with Facebook friends without having to stay logged into the social networking site.

Further, Facebook Chat has been integrated into the Facebook Connect platform for developers so other services wishing to integrate instant messaging into their sites.

Last June, Facebook's chat service reached the milestone of 1 billion messages being exchanged in a single day, and its growth has continued.