alerting users of new chat - looking for more options

[ghostcoder]

Hello everyone,

 

I have created a chat application and I'm really pretty happy with it. Only criticism so far seems to be that people don't always know when there is new chat. I have already coded in a few alerts to let the users know, but I think they still want more options.

 

I have embedded a sound file that plays whenever a new chat comes in and the window isn't in focus. This works great. I also flash the top window title, works pretty good. This all happens on the popup window where the chat is running.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have control over flashing the window tab in the bottom tray or anything. I guess people are used to Skype or Yahoo, which are actual applications.

 

I'm just curious if anyone as any additional ideas or trick that I could employ to make it easier for my users to know if a new chat comes through.

 

Thanks for reading.