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A chat is a casual conversation. The term has come to be associated mostly with online chat services or computer programs to access same, including telephone services (where the program is on a voice mail server).
Among computer users, 'chat' means especially multi-person "chat room" facilities. Also, today the most popular means of chatting online are instant messaging applications. Most of these support email communication and deferred delivery of messages. Some also support voice and video chat. Besides being used for Consumer 2 Consumer (C2C) interaction more and more examples appear were it is used for Business 2 Consumer (B2C) interaction. In this case chat substitutes the use of phone for contacting a call center and email.
One of the first novels based on Internet Chatting titled "Chatroom Blues" was written by India based novelist "Sunil R Nair". Chatroom Blues (ISBN 8190166905) an experimental work of fiction was published by PrintReach Publications. Chatroom Blues explores the phenomenon of Internet chatting. The dark side of people on the chatsites who use the anonymity of the chatroom to be what they really are inside. This is the story of Manav, a failed writer who gets on a chatsite and meets the flotsam of humanity. People in cyber existence, fourteen year old girls, blind men,bored housewives and cold blooded murderers. One of the first works of fiction which delves into the minds of people who lead a dual life - one in the real world and another in an artificial medium.
A chatbot or chatterbot is an artificial intelligence program that chats, simulating human conversation as closely as possible, often with humorous results.
Chat can also refer to refuse (small rocks, possibly containing ore) from mining. Chat can be piled up into giant mounds that look like sand dunes, called "chat dumps", however the chat is much more coarse than sand. It can also refer to gravel which is white in colour.