hi simonew, i agree with you that this would be a very handy feature :-) standalone text chat isn't available in firefox hello as of yet though. there is currently some development going on about implementing text chat within a video conversation - but no fixed plans beyond that yet...

hi, check out the beta notes for version 41: "Firefox Hello now includes instant messaging" (from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/41.0beta/releasenotes/ ) So install the beta if you want to try it beforehand or just wait until September 22th when it will be officially released (stable) (source: https://wiki.mozilla.org/RapidRelease/Calendar#Future_branch_dates )