Imessage does not show contacts list in messages. By default when you open the imessages application it shows the sent / received window. This is ok if you are only going to send and receive to imessages contacts as you can search them from the search bar. It does get a little confusing if you have the same contact in many services. eg if you have Facebook or google talk connected into your imessages.
How to show contacts list in messages app for osx
iMessage > window > buddiesThis will show the contacts lists for each service. This is almost like the way that iChat used to show the buddy lists. You can get a single list the same way as ichat if you have ticked the ‘show all my accounts in one list’ option. To set the single list option goto
messages menu > preferences
In the ‘General’ tab, there is an option, near the bottom for ‘Buddy List’.
Tick the checkbox next to ‘show all my accounts in one list’. Now you have a buddy list like ichat!.
You can also press
cmd + 1To show / hide the contacts windows
You now get the old iChat style windows for each of your services. You will get one window list for google talk and one list for Facebook, etc.
To merge all windows into a single list then please see this post
sources: apple support
no way to show it automatically when you open the application, like iChat used to do?
Thank you. God that was pissing me off.
Found this after installing 10.8 today. cmd +1 still works. Thanks!
The dumbest thing in Apple’s history. Why in the world would you not want to see a contact list when you open up a chat client?
This shows a separate window for buddies – how can I get my Google Talk contacts into the main chat window?