Review: IM+ for Windows Mobile Standard

I love to chat. In person, I sometimes have a hard time actually involving myself in a conversation. I am able to complete thoughts more easily behind the buffer of my chat program. Having the ability to chat on my BlackJack is a great tool as well, the “instant gratification” that a chat program offers beats email or text messaging any day.

I have tried a number of Chat applications on my phone. Everything from MunduIM to Palringo to AOL’s IM client for Windows Mobile have been installed and used at one time or another. Continue reading to find out my opinion of IM+ for Windows Mobile Standard.

Features

IM+ includes many of the features you would expect from any IM client. AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, ICQ and Jabber are all supported. You can even use multiple accounts on the same protocol. One thing that most people take for granted is that IM+ (unlike most of the other applications out there) actually connects directly to the Protocol servers and not through a proxy. This allows you to get the fastest (most instant) messaging possible, as well as protecting your privacy.

A tabbed window allows you to easily conduct multiple chats at the same time. When a new message is sent to you from a hidden tab, the tab starts flashing to let you know that you have a message waiting to be read.

Settings allow you to configure if and how you are notified of different events. You can configure either audible or vibrating alerts for when you receive a message or when a contact comes online. One of the features that I would like to see in the future that is not possible on the current version of IM+ (2.15 of the “Microsoft Mobile Smartphone” version) is the ability to set up alerts for specific users. I have enough contacts that I don’t want to be alerted every time one of them comes online, but if I could be alerted when my wife or certain specific friends come online, that would be helpful.

The way that IM+ attempts to reconnect after a lost connection is also configurable. You can define a number of times to try and reconnect after a connection is lost, or you can tell it to keep trying until it is successful (this is scary, use with caution). I think it would’ve been nice to expand this feature as well. Maybe in the future they can add an option for a retry time. My thought is that when I do lose connectivity it usually doesn’t come back right away, so if they gave me the option to try to reconnect 3 times in intervals of 2 minutes, that might be a more effective way of handling this feature.

Another feature that I really would have liked to see implemented is chat logging. Sometimes I want to look back and see what exactly was said in a previous chat session, or even archive a chat for later viewing. Chat logging would be a useful tool in a number of different situations.

Look and Feel

The phrase “Form follows function” applies to IM+. While the interface isn’t ugly, it’s not beautiful either. The contact list allows you to view your contacts with or without groups. You may also choose whether or not to display your offline contacts. You contacts are displayed with an icon designating which service the contact is using, as well as whether they are online or not (the icon changes color from green to gray).

Once a chat has been initiated, you have the ability to switch between the tabbed window of your active chat sessions and your contact list. The chat window itself is split horizontally to enable you to view both what you are typing as well as what has already been said. The left softkey is your send button, while the right gives you the option to close a single chat tab or all of the active tabs as well as an option to view your contact list.

Usability

Overall, IM+ is very usable. Much of the navigation around the application is done through the softkey menus. IM+ allows you to set your away status as well as customize your status on a per account basis. The tabbed chat window allows you to quickly and easily navigate between chats.

One thing that seemed to be missing in the usability department is the ability to utilize pre-configured messages. Often, there are commonly used phrases that take a while to type out. I would’ve liked to see the ability to save these phrases for quick insertion later.

Conclusion

While IM+ turns in a stellar performance, I don’t think it does quite as well on the Windows Mobile Standard side of things as is does on the Windows Mobile Professional side. Some things like the previously mentioned chat logging, as well as the additional protocols like Myspace Chat are not yet available on this version.

The good news is that unlike some IM software, IM+ is a buy once use forever kind of license. The $29.95 (WMExperts store) includes all future upgrades (this FAQ would lead me to believe that Shape Services will even accommodate a switch to a different device type, which is a huge plus, although I have to wonder how that would work with the $10 difference in price between the Smartphone and PPC versions).

I really do love using IM+ the features are ample enough that it is my IM client of choice. However, my recommendation (as always) is to make use of the trial period and see if this is the right choice for you.