Bug in Google Talk’s Invisible Status Feature
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Our reader, Anirudh Mehta, discovered a bug in Google Talk’s invisible status feature available in its Gmail Chat version. If use smartly, you can figure out if the girl next door is really invisible or avoiding you. 
Here are steps:
- Set the chat as off the record with target user (how?). This can be done only when the other user is online. (need help?)
- Now try sending chat to that user when he is invisible or offline.
- If he is invisible, then he will receive chat.
- But if he Is offline, then you will receive error “<username> did not receive your chat”.
Explanation:
Point 1: When a chat is set off the record, it will no longer get stored in your Gmail account.
Point 2: When you send a chat message to offline or invisible user, it gets delivered by default. At receiving end if user is online, a chat screen pops up showing him your message. If he is offline, your chat message will go to inbox as a mail.
Now if you put together above points then you will notice that, when you set chat off the record it can’t be delivered to inbox as mail, so it will be delivered only if user is online (no matter if he is invisible).
Now the only tricky part is finding a user online for once to set chat off the records. This doesn’t seem hard as invisible status is still limited to Gmail version of Google Talk and you may be in luck if your friend uses Google Talk desktop clients/gadgets or third party IM client to chat.
Related: Find Who is Invisible on Yahoo Messenger
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Thanx Rahul For Publishing On Your Blog.
Figured it out a long time back..
Anyways good post for newbies
@Anirudh
I thank you buddy for sharing this…
@ Online…
If you knew about dis bug earlier den why didn’t you feel like sharing it with us??
@ Rahul:
If you can find out something that can automatically detect all the friends in invisible mode than it would be highly appreciated buddy..
I tried using this.. But even when the other user is offline and the chat was off the record I got de message
“deepakjain.hacker@gmail.com is offline and can’t receive messages right now.”
Please let me know what is the problem?? Is this bug being fixed??
hey Rahul this trick is not working on my Gtalk is this some version specific.
@ Deepak Jain
If you are getting that message
deepakjain.hacker@gmail.com is offline and can’t receive messages right now
It means that the person is really offline , and not invisible
@BlogsDNA
I dont think this trick works in gtalk .. It works only in gmail ..
@BlogsDNA
It doesn’t matter if you are using gtalk or gmail.
Also next person can not be invisible from gtalk as of now.
So if you go off the record and send a chat to a user, then error will always mean he is offline.
Also if you don’t get an error that will mean he is invisible as well as using Gmail. Because Gmail only supports invisible feature as of now…
Aha Thanks Rahul, it looks i just over looked and was under impression this trick will work in Gtalk.
Sorry for my noobiess Question.
@BlogsDNA
Its k man…
Sometime we have something else on mind while reading a post, so its natural to misinterpret it…
Good post!!
But I was looking out for something more. Can we have invisible feature in Gtalk? (by some 3rd party software)
@Deepak
Also check out Google Talk Lab Edition. It also have invisible status mode.
I use gAlwaysIdle, a third part hack for GoogleTalk.
Its not makes you invisible but still works good for me.
Wow Rahul
you are on GOS blog by Ionut..
Hope to see you on Techmeme soon !
@Quakeboy
Thanks buddy…
you can actually go off record even when the user is offline is you’re using the google talk client for windows…
@taxist
Didn’t know that!
Thanks for added info…
Bug got resolved by des google guys..
This trick not working any more. Request to the admin to mention it on the top of this post.
@ deepak…
I dont anticipate this bug got rectified yet..
Still alive for me.
@ Anirudh:
Sorry.. Later on I noticed that it is not possible to take the chat off the record when someone is offline but it was possible earlier.. But the bug works f9 when the chat is taken off the record at some earlier stage.
Sorry for the wrong info
@ Deepak ..
Well U can still take chat off the record when someone is offline with your gtalk client not gmail client.
Nyways,It was never possible with gmail client.
N No sorry please. Mistake are made to be done.
@Anirudh - Could anyone tell me the difference between these messages? Thanks
XXXis offline and can’t receive messages right now.
XXXX is offline. Messages you send will be delivered when XXXX comes online
@ Houston
“XXXX is offline. Messages you send will be delivered when XXXX comes online ”
U will receive this message when ur chat is not off the record. It means offline chats will be stored in mail n will be delivered when concerned person comes online.
“XXXis offline and can’t receive messages right now.”
U will receive this message when ur chat is off the record plus when concerned person is invisible.
@Anirudh - Who is this ‘XXXX’?
@Deepak Jain
XXXX stands for just a name!
@Anirudh
I think you received above error messages from different clients. There may be some differences in error reporting between Gmail Chat, Google Talk desktop client and third party messenger like pidgin.
Hello Rahul
I got an issue. I blocked a person on GTalk. But still the person is able to ping me on chat from the same id that I had blocked. Just to confirm, I chkd the blocked lids again, the person’s id is still there.
How is this possible?
Pls throw some light on this asap.
@Inquisitive -
Try unblocking the guy and block it again..
Lets see what happens..
Rahul,
I found your(google’s invisibility status) post ripped off @ JaysTech
http://www.jaystech.com/2008/07/how-to-find-out-who-is-invisible-on.html
@Deepak: Thanks for ur response. I have tried doing that many times but the problem persists. From what I understand, there are three possibilities:
1. Either there is some bug in GTalk which the guy is exploiting (which I think is not true else the news of the bug would have been splashed all over the web by now)
2. The guy has planted a trojan on my comp and is exploiting thru that (again not possible. I know my system and it has adequate security.
)
3. Third and the most probable (according to me), there is some kind of Anti-Block s/w which he’s using to do what he’s doing (I hear that people have used such s/ws in the case of Windows Live Msngr earlier but am yet to hear of anything of this sort with regard to GTalk)
So that leaves us at square one.
Any light on this subject would be highly appreciated as this has become more of a puzzle to me now.
@Inquisitive -
You have started puzzling us aswell..
As of now, I have never come across any such instances.. Hope too soon I’ll get updates about it. Will let you know then.
how can i know who online among offline
@gar -
Read this post! Thats all u can do…
@Inquisite
I believe he must using some other client like pidgin to send you chat.
I have heard that it lets you find persons who has blocked you on G-talk or yahoo. But i am not sure if it allows you to send message to that person.
@Anirudh -
I think once you block a person on any IM network, he must not be able to send you chat on that IM network anyway.
If he does succeed, that will be regarded as a bug in network.protocol which again will be fixed immediately.
@Rahul:
Bug or no bug.. I am still gettin the messages..
@Rahul
Ya, you got point. But question is its not a normal protocol bug since i haven’t encountered it with normal gmail or gtalk client.
@Inquisite
Try this. But it’s just a thought. Unblock him and take chat off the record and then block him.
In this case you got two protections - invisible + block
Sorry, i know it sounds silly, but still nothing hard in giving it a try. Also, only because of this silly attempts, i discovered this invisible hack.
@Anirudh
I never encountered such problem with any IM network in my life.
Of course it is possible such things can happen but again they will be rectified with highest priority.
So, i’m really interested to know if there are any websites like 4invisible.com so that we can find out the ppl whose status are “invisible”
@Rahul
This bug is of a nature which will not allow itself to be exploited using services like 4invisbile.com
But if we happen to discover anything in futrue, we will surely post about it!