How to access "Mail and Chat Accounts" setting in Opera browser for Windows?

Question

Im trying to use the Chat feature in the Opera browser. When looking up directions on how to set up and use the Chat feature, virtually all the pages mention going to the "Mail and Chat Accounts" setting. See: http://help.opera.com/Windows/12.10/en/chat.html

I feel like ive been in and out of all the menus in Opera and find absolutely nothing that says "Mail and Chat Accounts". Im laughing at this point as this feels really silly to get to this point, and really hope im not missing something obvious here, but as a brand new user of Opera im just left scratching my head here.

Ive been clicking on the O button in the upper left hand corner, and theres a bunch of stuff listed but so far not a trace of this "Mail and Chat Accounts" setting.

This is what my version information page says:

Version:    23.0.1522.60 - Opera is up to date
Update stream:  Stable
System: Windows 7 64-bit (WoW64) 

Answer 1

Please compare the Opera version you're using (23) to the version for which the help page you're accessing was written (12.10).

Opera used to use the Presto rendering engine, but that was discontinued after 12.x and they jumped over to use Blink (like Chrome) starting from version 15.

The older version was a full-blown web suite, including a chat client, mail client, etc., while the new version is only a browser (plus whatever extensions you install of course). They're slowly starting to add some of the old features back in, but you won't find the "old chat client" in the "new Opera", I'm afraid. You can, however, install the old version to a different folder than the new one - they can live happily side-by-side - and you can use the old one's chat client that way if that's the feature you're after.

You can find more details about the history behind it on Opera's Wikipedia page.

Answer 2

"With the release of Opera 15 in 2013, Opera Mail became a separate product and is no longer bundled with Opera" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_Mail

I found it more convenient to have the mail client built into the browser but now that I am switching to Opera 25.0, I have to download the separate program.