[Update] Alleged iChat Mentions Hidden In iOS Source Code.

We’ve heard a time or two before about Apple bringing some kind of iChat functionality to iOS. The multi-account IM service is pretty decent on Mac, and given the increasingly on-the-go lifestyle the world is employing, iChat would be a perfect fit on iOS.

Developer John Heaton may have just unearthed the early stages of iChat for iOS with the code above. While it doesn’t actually come out with the name “iChat”, the various services listed certainly lead us to believe so.

Apple hasn’t made any mention of iChat for iOS — it’s all been rumors up until now. Is this the first “leak”? If Apple is actively working on iChat for iOS, it would no doubt be a major marketing feature for a new OS, say iOS 6. So how would it work?

If we take into consideration Apple’s general approaches to software design and service integration, we see the “Messages” app on iOS becoming the so-called “iChat” on Apple’s mobile platform. They’ve already blended two services (SMS and iMessages) into the Messages app, why not a few more? In the end, we think Apple’s mobile version of iChat will work similar to how webOS’ messaging does/did — you will see contacts in a chat window with each message having some small indicator telling which service they talked to you with. This all in one window approach makes the act of communicating with people more natural as you don’t have to jump around between 50 different apps to carry on a conversation as you move from desktop to mobile phone to tablet.

All we can say is “Please hurry, Apple”.

Update

According to an update on Apple blog 9to5 Mac, the code above isn’t specific to iOS and was likely copied from the OS X:

“We’ve run this by a few developers who’ve seen this before. Their take is that it is code copied from desktop OS X and may not be indicative of new features. Basically, Apple has a general messaging framework called “ChatKit.” This framework covers text chat and video conferencing. FaceTime, iChat, and iMessage apps are all based on this framework, furthermore some code references will spill over between apps. The image above is simply a list of the Apple software built on top of this chat framework.”

Damn.

Via: TUAW