Sign in

Gmail Help


Hide

Use Google Apps for work? Learn more about Mail in the Google Apps Learning Center.

Technical requirements

Print

Text chat

Chat in Gmail isn't yet compatible with all of our supported browsers. Gmail chat is supported on the older version of Gmail in Internet Explorer 6.0 and Firefox 1.0. In the newer version of Gmail, you can use chat with Internet Explorer 7.0+, Firefox 2.0+ or Safari 3.0+, and Chrome. We're working to make chat compatible with additional browsers. In the meantime, we suggest downloading a chat-supported browser. Mozilla Firefox is available for free download at: http://www.mozilla.org/products

Voice and video chat

In order to use Gmail's voice and video chat feature, your computer should meet the following requirements:

  • Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista, or Mac OS X on an Intel-based Mac
  • Firefox 2+, Safari 3+, IE6+, or Chrome
  • Broadband connection to the Internet

If you're using voice and video chat over a corporate network, your network administrator should ensure that it has ports 80 and 443 open. For the best voice and video quality, we also strongly recommend allowing UDP over any port.

updated 10/12/2009

Was this information helpful?

Known issues with Gmail

Review our Known Issues page for a list of known bugs, suggested workarounds and recent fixes.

Help resources