Remove the Chat box from the left pane on gmail

I don't ever use the chat feature of gmail. Is there a way to get rid of the chat box on the left side?

I can minimize it, but it still shows my name and the "Search, add, or invite" textbox.

I can click the "turn off chat" link at the very bottom, but the "Chat" heading is still visible on the left.

Is there any way to remove it completely?

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Since there seems to be confusion about what "completely gone means", I'll include a picture:

From web app Daniel LeCheminant

• Looks like the only way to do this is using a script of some kind (Greasemonkey or the like). Here are a few:

  http://userstyles.org/styles/15616

  http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/45317

  Jared Harley : Even with chat turned off, the box still appears in the side bar. Turning chat off is more like forcing it to be in "offline" mode.

  bjtitus : Sorry guys. I didn't think they would have such terrible wording for a feature...
  From bjtitus

• Better Gmail 2 Firefox extension includes a "Hide Chat" feature, which happens to be this script: http://userstyles.org/styles/7897

  Steve Melnikoff : Better Gmail also has some other features which may be of use.

  Nathan Koop : [cuss] I knew the answer to this one, but you beat me to it Al :-p
  From Al Everett

• Hmmm... not sure why you say:

  I can click the "turn off chat" link at the very bottom, but the "Chat" heading is still visible on the left.

  Is there any way to make it completely gone?

  On my gmail, it does indeed go away completely when I click the "turn off chat" link at the bottom.

  I am attaching a composite of two screen-shots (Sorry, as a new user, I am not allowed to embed images yet) below. This first screen shows my gmail with chat enabled and the second screen shot shows chat disabled (after I clicked on "turn off chat"):

  http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/3400/gmailchat.jpg

  jeffm : This also works for me -- using the "turn on/turn off chat" link at the bottom of the page controls the display of the chat box in Google Chrome and IE8 on WinXP.

  Evan Plaice : +1 I checked and verified that it works in FF 3.0.19

  Daniel LeCheminant : Right, that hides the list of people to chat with, but my user name and chat availability are still displayed; and clicking on the [+] icon to the left of my name will re-open chat. I don't use chat ... *ever*. I want the whole thing to be completely gone; I don't need my name displayed in a random box on the left hand side.
  From joyjit

• There are a couple different ways to remove the chat feature from Gmail.

  1. As previously mentioned, simply click the "Turn off Chat" link in the footer of your Gmail inbox. Depending on the version of Gmail that you are using (as determined by Google), this MAY OR MAY NOT hide the chat window completely.

  2. You can also click the "older version" link in the footer, which will 100% of the time remove the chat window from the left hand side (in my experience). You can also simply add the querystring parameter &ov=1 to the url of your inbox (ie:https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=1&ov=1), this will have the same effect.

  3. If your goal is to simply remove the chat from the LEFT hand side, but not altogether, you can click on the "labs" icon (a little beaker) at the top of your inbox, and enable the Gmail lab entitled "Right-side chat", which will move your chat to the right hand side of the inbox.

  4. If none of those options are satisfactory, then I would suggest enabling IMAP and using Microsoft Outlook, or Mozilla Thunderbird for managing your Gmail. See here: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=77695

  Daniel LeCheminant : I especially like the "move it to the right-hand-side option" :-] It's technically an answer to my query, but really my goal was to remove it completely.

  mike the mike : Come on, I thought that was clutch! Bounty me!

  Lance Roberts : Sure wish it worked on newer versions.
  From mike the mike

• If you are on Chrome and use a client like Pidgin or Digsby, you can use the Better Gmail extension(http://goo.gl/ocbJ) to do a variety of things or if you just want to hide chat, you can use Gmail -No Chat (http://goo.gl/aDTi)

  From anil

• If you are using Google Apps, you can simply disable the chat service, which will remove the chat box completely for everyone in your domain.

  From Senseful

• I use Adblock Plus with Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper to get rid of the chat box and other Gmail's UI elements I don't need. However, this 2nd extension is only a companion extension meant to make creating element hiding rules easier, you don't have to install it.

  Just add the following filter rule in Adblock's preferences:

  mail.google.com##DIV.nH.s
  

  To hide both the chat box and Invite a friend box use:

  mail.google.com##DIV.nH.pp.T0
  

  From Marek Grzenkowicz