Comments on: 10 Instant Messaging Apps for the iPhone

By: Bockbertil

Bockbertil — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:58:35 +0000

Nice article. Thanks for taking the time summing up some of the IM applicatoons for Iphone :)

By: scorwitz

scorwitz — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:38:37 +0000

Where do you get your brownies?!?!

By: Nÿco

Nÿco — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 09:13:59 +0000

But… Where is OneTeam for iPhone?

By: Timmy

Timmy — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:03:32 +0000

Mark,

Seriously?

“Also, for some reason even after quitting the app, it kept me online, but I didn’t receive a test message I sent myself when I logged back in. As with Palringo”

If you go in to settings for Palringo and change “Status when leaving Palringo” to Sign out. Surprise surprise it’ll sign you out, when you leave.

I’m starting to lose trust in the apple blog.

By: Joe Horton

Joe Horton — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:49:32 +0000

I just left Blackberry a week ago and use iPhone. My blackberry I could send and receive IM’s anytime – with my iPhone – it seems to only work while I’m in the messenger application? As soon as I leave and check email or something else it exits the app and I can’t receive IM’s – is that really how the iPhone works?

By: Andy Tomlinson

Andy Tomlinson — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:36:13 +0000

I’ve been using http://www.fivedigittext.com This is a website, not an app, but it works fine on the iPhone. I like it better, because I can get to it from my PC, and from my iPhone.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:09:55 +0000

If you use use the latest Yahoo! Messenger on your iPhone you can turn notifications on and it works just like a push app.

The only complaint was from an overseas friend who tried to turn her web cam on and I couldn’t see it on my end.

By: Blair

Blair — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:46:05 +0000

I’m using Agile Messenger, and my question with push notifications for incoming IM’s is this:

If I have closed the app – say I’m at the Home screen, or reading an article from USA Today – will I receive a notification? Or do I have to have the app currently running?

I don’t seem to be getting notifications if the app is closed. I’m guessing that this would require true multitasking, which the iPhone doesn’t do, correct?

Thanks,
Blair

By: Jared

Jared — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:30:41 +0000

Nobody has brought up Fring which is a great free instant messenger app that connects to almost all of the services and has push notifications. It is a little on the slow side, but overall useful.

By: Timmy

Timmy — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:18:29 +0000

Can’t beliew you left out eBuddy as its a one of the top free apps on App store??

By: Edwin Aoki

Edwin Aoki — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:37:50 +0000

Thanks for the writeup. I wanted to make two quick corrections about your impressions on AIM for iPhone. First, as with all push notifications, you can adjust what kind of notifications you get in the settings app under notifications. You can choose sounds, icon badges, or dialogs, or any combination of the three – in addition to the level of information shown in the dialog that you can set in AIM’s on prefs. Second, in addition to the lack of ads, right now landscape support is only available in the paid version. We’ll be adding landscape support in the free version shortly, but for now that’s another difference between the two versions. Thanks again.

By: yoyo49

yoyo49 — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:54:25 +0000

I don’t think you gave Agile Messenger a fair try.

“I also found the type size on the IMs to be too small to read”

You can increase the font size in preferences.

By: Victor

Victor — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:32:34 +0000

I find it incredibly hard to believe that there is no killer app in the instant messaging app market. It seems like such a simple thing to create a decent chat app. But there’s always something messed up about the program. I’ve been using Agile Messenger only because it has landscape mode. But its interface sucks. Hopefully Nimbuzz is better. God, over 2 years in and Apple still hasn’t made iChat for the iPhone. GET THE HELL ON IT APPLE!

By: Annu

Annu — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:08:24 +0000

You guys forgot Mundu IM… it works great and I think it has better features then most of the ones mentioned in the article….

Best
A

By: kitty

kitty — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:33:13 +0000

How could you forget Fring? It has all the best IM services, including Skype! Been a fan of this app since I was still a Nokia user.

By: Ruben Pueyo

Ruben Pueyo — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:16:10 +0000

There is also nimbuzz 1.3 that was released today, supports everything and has push notification (except for skype). It’s free but you can only stay online 30 minutes. Also the push notifications doesn’t show the text of the message but just the badge and the sound.
I will stick with Bejive IM that works fine, but doesn’t support skype.

By: Vox

Vox — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:04:48 +0000

The problem with nimbuzz is that it’s one-account-per-protocol, which kills it for me (I have 2 messenger accounts and 3 google/jabber acconts).

I’ve liked ebuddy so far (have had it installed for 3 days)…I like it so far, except it doesn’t support non-google jabber accounts (we have a jabber server at work that we use to communicate internally)…if/when they add that, ebuddy will be The Perfect Client, at least for me.

By: Lbarwell

Lbarwell — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:18:36 +0000

I have AIM on my phone but I don’t even use it. I like Beejive all the time. It is more convenient to use than sitting in front of the computer if you don’t have to. Beejive is the bomb!!!!!!!!

By: Mark Crump

Mark Crump — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:27:13 +0000

Thanks for pointing out the couple I missed folks. Just goes to show: every time I do roundup, I miss someone’s favorite :).

By: Mark Crump

Mark Crump — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:26:12 +0000

Yeah! That’s what I meant to say