OK, I use Homebrew on macOS Sierra and I wanted to get Hangouts to work. This page explains how to install Pidgin in order to get libpurple, how to build purple-hangouts to add Hangouts support to libpurple, how to build Bitlbee such that you can use it, and how to set up your account.

I assume you have Bitlbee already installed. If not, here it is:

brew install bitlbee

This makes sure you have all the correct files and directories. For example, /usr/local/lib/bitlbee/ is where you would install plugins like facebook or bitlbee-discord, and /usr/local/share/bitlbee/ is where the help.txt file is installed. / Now comes the real stuff. First, install Pidgin.

brew install pidgin

Next, clone the Bitlbee sources using git.

git clone https://github.com/bitlbee/bitlbee.git

Build Bitlbee with libpurple support:

cd bitlbee
./configure --purple=1
make
make install

If you run it, you should see a lot more protocols -- but still no Hangouts:

   1 11:28 <kensanata> plugins
   2 11:28 <root> Plugin                          Version
   3 11:28 <root> bitlbee-discord                 0.3.1
   4 11:28 <root> facebook                        1.1.1
   5 11:28 <root> gg                              2.12.0
   6 11:28 <root> icq                             2.12.0
   7 11:28 <root> irc                             2.12.0
   8 11:28 <root> jabber                          2.12.0
   9 11:28 <root> novell                          2.12.0
  10 11:28 <root> oscar                           2.12.0
  11 11:28 <root> simple                          2.12.0
  12 11:28 <root> zephyr                          2.12.0
  13 11:28 <root>  
  14 11:28 <root> Enabled Protocols: aim, discord, facebook, gg, icq, identica,
  15     irc, jabber, mastodon, novell, oscar, simple, twitter, zephyr

Install Mercury and Protocol Buffers implementation in C in order to build the Hangouts Plugin for libpurple. You'll note that there are also other dependencies but I already had all the other stuff installed. Nothing tricky to figure out for yourself, I hope. If you run into problems, leave a comment and I'll see whether I can figure it out.

brew install hg
brew install protobuf-c
hg clone https://bitbucket.org/EionRobb/purple-hangouts
cd putple-hangouts
make
make install

When you start Bitlbee, make sure you use -F instead of -D or you'll get an error as soon as you try to sign into an account using libpurple.

If you restart Bitblee now, the plugins command should list hangouts.

   1 11:42 <kensanata> plugins
   2 11:42 <root> Plugin                          Version
   3 11:42 <root> bitlbee-discord                 0.3.1
   4 11:42 <root> facebook                        1.1.1
   5 11:42 <root> gg                              2.12.0
   6 11:42 <root> hangouts                        0.1
   7 11:42 <root> icq                             2.12.0
   8 11:42 <root> irc                             2.12.0
   9 11:42 <root> jabber                          2.12.0
  10 11:42 <root> novell                          2.12.0
  11 11:42 <root> oscar                           2.12.0
  12 11:42 <root> simple                          2.12.0
  13 11:42 <root> zephyr                          2.12.0
  14 11:42 <root>  
  15 11:42 <root> Enabled Protocols: aim, discord, facebook, gg, hangouts, icq,
  16     identica, irc, jabber, mastodon, novell, oscar, simple, twitter, zephyr

Set it up:

account add hangouts <your email address>
account on

You'll be contacted by a fake account called purple_request with instructions on how to get the OAuth token. It will link you to a YouTube video but the description of the video are the real instructions.

Answer purple_request with the token and you should be up and running.

Don't forget to save your configuration.