How to add Twitter (twitgin) in Pidgin for Linux

Pidgin does not support Twitter protocol by default. Hence you need to install a plugin for that. There are a lot of plugins available to add twitter in pidgin. microblog-purple is one of such plugins availabe which is open source. It can be intalled in any Linux machine.

This is a plug-in for Pidgin to allow for seamless updating and receiving of Twitter messages. While originally built for Pidgin it works for other LibPurple base clients like Adium and Finch. Currently the plug-in works with Twitter only.


How to install in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu Users:



sudo echo deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pidgin-developers/ppa/ubuntu `lsb_release --short --codename` main >> /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/pidgin-developers/ppa/ubuntu `lsb_release --short --codename` main >> /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0CF459B8DF37ED8B

Now do this:


sudo apt-get install pidgin-microblog


For Fedora Users:

yum install purple-microblog


How to run this plugin:

First, you need to enable the plugin. Open Pidgin and in Tools > Plugins and check "Twitgin". Then go to Accounts > Manage Accounts, click "Add" and in the "Protocol" List, select TwitterIM. Enter your id and password.

Categories: linux