Introduction
We don't call Philippines the text capital of the world for no reason. We have millions of texters all over the country that keeps growing by the minute.

Same thing with Internet access. The significant price drop provided everyone with pocket change access to information, their emails, and their instant messages.

The problem now is how we can bridge IM's and SMS. Enter Chikka! Chikka developed a software that would allow users logged on the Internet to send instant messages to cellphone users for free. The catch? It's the texter who'll get charged PhP 2.50 for using the service. The advantage? Mobility.

The challenge Linux (and Unix, Mac, etc.) users faces now is how they could get a win32 program from running on their OS. Chikka released their software exclusively for Windows and that's a hard fact which disappointed many.

To cope up with the growing demand of Chikka users, a group of developers created Chix Library and Chix Plugin for GAIM which proved very successful for a program still in the Alpha stage. This project gave Penguinistas the power to use the Chikka network to communicate with their friends and loved ones.

Human nature will never be contented with anything and Kopete, Miranda, Adium, etc. users aren't willing to give up their favorite IM Clients in favor of GAIM. Users managed to pressure Chikka to come up with a solution that will benefit most IM users. Chikka turned to an open system that most IM Client supports... Jabber. Jabber is an open system specification built to provide instant messaging service. Since the Jabber gateway implementation, Multi-Protocol Instant Messengers were given the cability to communicate via SMS, not to mention made a lot of people smile.

Limitations

• No MMS available
• PhP 2.50 charge everytime you reply on your cellphone
• Chikka limits messages to 3 unless the recipient replies at least once. This limitation is in place to prevent IM Spamming.
• Not all Telecom networks are supported.

Installation on Kopete
Before you begin, you need to have a Jabber account. A Google Talk account is the most suitable and the most common since it also uses the Jabber network.

Add the desired cellphone number on the Jabber account using the countrycode+number@chikkatalk.com format.
e.g. 639196661630@chikkatalk.com

Image 1

Image 2

After adding a buddy, try sending him/her a test message.

Image 3

Notes
After successfully adding a buddy, your friend would receive this message:

XXX@gmail.com has added you to his/her list of friends in xxx iChat/Chikka. If you don't know this person pls reply with the word BLOCK. To send txt-msgs for FREE visit www.chikka.com. Using iChat/Chikka from your phone is P2.50 per text sent. Your ID is YYY. For your password text PASSWORD to 277.

Where XXX is your account name in GMail,
xxx is your telecoms provider
and YYY is your cellphone number.

The sender that will show up on would be 277yyyy where yyyy is the ID. e.g. In my test message, the sender is 2776055

Everytime you send a message, the format would be as follows:

From: XXX@gmail.com
Msg: your message


Again, where XXX is your account name in GMail.

Other Instant Messengers
The same principle applies to all other Instant Messengers supporting the Jabber protocol. Once your Google Talk account is setup, just add a buddy using the said format above.

Reference
Chikka:
http://chikka.com/
Chikka EULA:
http://chikka.com/eula.html
Chikka, Google Talk Interconnect:
http://corporate.chikka.com/press/press20060410.html
Jabber:
http://jabber.org/
Jabber in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabber
Comparison of Instant Messenging Clients in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_instant_messaging_clients

IRC Transcript:
irc://irc.freenode.net/support-ph
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:01:53]
nagpadala akong text. :)
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:01:56] nasa bahay siguro kasi gusto paglaruan ni esmi
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:01:58] hahaha
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:04] mababasa ni mrs yun
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:05] hahah
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:05] harharhar
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:07] patay
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:08] :P
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:22]
naka-indicate naman na eric.pareja@irc.upm.edu.ph yung nagpadala eh
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:22] hahaha
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:28] ah ok..
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:32] pano mo ginawa yan?
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:34]
hehe
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:38] :D
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:41]
jabber gateway lang
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:43] open ba ang chikka?
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:45] oh...
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:49]
yep.
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:02:51] may jabber gateway ang chikka/
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:03:10] wow
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:03:11]
kung may jabber ka... add mo lang yung @chikkatalk.com
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:03:23] uy cool
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:03:37]
format is 63xxxyyyzzzz@chikkatalk.com
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:03:45] oh
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:03:47]
hindi 0xxxx
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:03:56] that means that it is possible to use it in kopete
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:04:03] tama ba jucato?
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:04:03]
yeppers
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:04:06] hindi ba yung +63 sa pinas yan?
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:04:09] mangz_74: yup
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:04:13]
basta jabber capable IM client
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:04:20]
Jucato: yes. 63 is pinas
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:04:28] hmm..learned something new
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:04:42] this is exciting :)
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:04:53] so no need pala to have a client for chikka in kde
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:04:59] pusakat: thank you very much for the info po
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:03] like chixx
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:04]
usually kapag nasa opis ako, i just use gaim to send text.
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:12] basically that would be redundant
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:23] heheh
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:27]
pero walang MMS
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:30] jucato: text pal kita
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:35] pusakat: you're the man!!!!
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:36] wag yan..mahal yan
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:38] hahaha
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:39]
;)
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:45]
Jucato: bwahahah
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:47] just tested it. thanks! :)
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:54] dek...pag uwi mo ng pinas...bili ka ng sim card
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:58] activate mo roaming
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:05:59] hahaha
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:06:07] madali ka ma kontact ng mga taga pinas
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:06:07]
Jucato: paano?
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:06:27] pusakat: added a contact with that format. just sent a message. tapos :)
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:06:31] natanggap ko na :)
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:06:36]
oh
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:06:38]
one other thing
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:06:43] yep
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:06:46] yep?
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:06:46] :D
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:06:50]
you have to tell the person you're sending to to reply at least ONCE.
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:06:58] ah yeah. typical chikka
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:07:01] yeah..nabasa ko sa chikka website yan
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:07:08] * pusakat nods.
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:07:18]
otherwise, they block your 3rd and subsequent messages.
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:07:22] para hindi iclassify as spam or something
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:07:42]
teka... stand up break muna.
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:08:46] ok..balik to gentoo install
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:08:53] simulan ko na install
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:08:58] thanks eric
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:09:02] hehe ok brb uli ako :)
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:09:09] thank you ulit sir pusakat!!!! :D
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:09:35] jucato:
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:09:37] jucato
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:10:01] pusakat...can we write this down and share this with others on the support-ph site
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:10:02] :)
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:13:32]
mangz_74: of course
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:13:44]
mention pusakat as the source of info. LOL
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:13:45]
bwahaha
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:19:23] yes of course
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:19:29] good info though
[Thu Apr 5 2007] [23:26:52] hehe