Episode 19 - iPhone: Instant Messenger Apps

[marilee]

By popular demand, a review of Instant Messenger services for the iPhone—and how to get the most bang for your buck.

Watch or download now!

[cananito]

Hey guys, you totally forgot about eBuddy! Which is free btw.

[nferno]

I've tried several IM apps in the past, but just about every single one requires a registration. Since I've already registered once to use MSN, I find it a little too much to register once more for some MSN client. The only IM app that didn't require me to register was IM+, but that one only seemed to work half of the time, so I quickly threw that one out.

However, a great alternative is to use a web client, which turns out to perfectly suit my IM needs. No registration, no fancy features; it just works. There are plenty of web clients that are adapted for the iPhone/iPod Touch: The one that I prefer is Meebo ( http://www.meebo.com/ ); eBuddy also has a good web client ( http://www.ebuddy.com/ ).

Because you can add bookmarks to your iPhone's home screen, accessing a web client is just as easy as opening an app. (In safari, just surf to the web client you want to use, tap the + icon, then tap "Add to Home Screen".)
Also, most web clients can remember your username/password, so you'll only have to type those in once.
And since it's a web client, you've got the browser at your disposal while you're chatting.
One final advantage is that, since Safari was developed by Apple, it's allowed to run in the background (unlike AppStore apps). This means you'll stay logged in, even if you quit Safari. (You won't get any push notifications though, but that doesn't bother me that much really...)

By the way, the very same advantages also count for other web applications like RSS readers. I've tried a ton of iPhone RSS apps, and I finally settled with the Google Reader web client, which just eats the shorts of any RSS reader app out there. (Mainly because it's superfast; since Google checks your feeds for you, you can immediately see all new items on your feeds.)

[zhenate]

Annie is super cute and looks fantastic in that dress.

[whiskers]

i concur