Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) and Messages with ICQ

If you want to use the current Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) with Messages and ICQ, you might wonder that there is no account wizard for ICQ. But it works with the AIM account wizard. Just enter your ICQ number as username and your password.

After that, in the account settings under Messages -> Preferences -> Accounts select the new created AIM account and select Server settings (last tab).

Enter  the following settings:

• Server: login.icq.com
• Port: 5190
• be sure SSL checkbox is not selected

After using these settings, you can connect to ICQ network and new recipients in select are marked with a green point on the right if you have added the ICQ numbers in your contact list


UPDATE:


It is possible, that your chat partners just receive mixed characters or HTML content. You can force plain text messages by following these steps:

1. Quit Message
2. Open ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.AIM.plist in editor of your choice, best with Xcode if possible
3. Look in Accounts for your ICQ Account settings
4. Set ForceICQPlainText to YES
5. Save the file
6. reboot your system (if you skip this, the setting will be resetted to NO)

Now you can chat with your ICQ contacts.