Review: IM+ All-in-One Messenger for BlackBerry

on 27 Jul 2010 02:52 PM

I don’t remember the last time I was chatting online though instant messaging. Really, I would say most of my conversations happen with my Blackberry used as a medium. What about you? Think about it. What better way is there to keep all of your friends, family and other contact all in one place? Here you have all of these apps installed, and all of them are ready to keep you connected. You have one for Twitter, another for Skype, another for Facebook and another for… hmm well that’s not very efficient is it? I mean, here I have all of these applications ready to help me commence in my rants and ramblings, but I don’t think my thumbs can take the typing AND navigating. Not to mention my poor BlackBerry is running low on memory. Perhaps I should cut back a little. Nah! Maybe I should find one app to cover my social networks!

That’s where an application like IM+ comes into play. This application becomes the hub to your online life (or in some cases your ONLY life). You can easily manage your accounts with some of the major players of the social networking game. Twitter, Google Talk, Jabber, you name it. Set your status to busy and have a look.

About IM+

IM + was developed by SHAPE Services. The app catalogue for the company also includes; GPSed and the Mobiola lineup. IM+ is currently in version 8.5 and has a file size of 1.4MB (which is what an app that covers one social network typically is). Your BlackBerry must be running OS 4.2 or higher, but the advanced options are available with 4.6 and higher. The advanced options include BlackBerry inbox integration and speech recognition.

manage your accounts

many different networks and chat clients to choose from

IM+ is able to connect users to Google Talk, Twitter, Facebook, Jabber, Skype, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, MySpaceIM and AIM/iCHAT. The application makes it quite easy to set up each account that you want to have access to. Depending on your security settings, you may get blocked from accessing your accounts from the application, as I was with my Facebook account. This was because it appeared as though I was logging in from another Country.

main menu

The main menu houses all of the accounts you have signed into. Each account entry will display your online status and current avatar. IM+ allows you to change your status for each individual account - even using custom stats messages. You can also manage them all at once using the Global Status feature to use one single status for all. Below your list of accounts is another list of options. These options vary, depending on the type of account. To give a couple of examples, the Twitter options include @Replies, Direct Messages, Favourites and Friends Timelines. For Google Talk, you will see a list of contacts and if they are online or offline.

Checking out Twitter

The top bar of the screen displays the time (no date), signal strength and battery level. The application doesn’t indicate whether your BlackBerry is being charged or not. If there are any messages that are currently unread, a total count will be displayed as well. If you look at the top right corner, you will see two tabs. The first is for the main menu/account overview and the other displays active chats. I was glad to see that language is no longer a barrier with the included Translator+ option. Translator+ can handle translating to and from English, French, Dutch, Chinese, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

I found IM+ possesses a smoothly designed UI, as I was able to swoosh between account and messages with ease. I had to remind myself not to get too carried away with chatting, or else I would have worn my thumbs down to the knuckles. I guess that’s why they included the speech recognition feature I mentioned earlier. It’s a monthly paid add-on that allows you to dictate your messages, rather than working with your newly stubbed thumbs. You can look at paying $1.99/month to use the service. There is a 7 day free trial available.

I also liked how easy to it was to share images, voice messages and videos with any of my contacts. If you don’t have an SMS package with your carrier, IM+ offers an alternative; 5 cents per message to most countries around the world (including Canada, US and UK). Users will receive 20 credits towards SMS to start, with more to purchase later. In the newest version of IM+, the updates include; improved multichat support for Skype and MSN Messenger and conversation history review.

Conclusion

IM+ provides a one stop shop for access to your social networks and chat tools. You may find some connectivity issues, both in the inability to connect at times and the inability to stop connecting with friends and family. With features like low cost SMS, dictation and media sharing, you can make sure that those you talk to will never be out of the loop. The application is on the expensive side, sitting at $39.95. There is a free version available, that doesn’t include inbox or dictation support. It is also not ad-free. Both versions are available from the CrackBerry App Store.

Pros

connect with many social sites and chat tools
dictation (full version)
translator

Cons

connectivity issues

More Info

Filed Under: Software Reviews; Tags: BlackBerry instant messaging apps, IM, social networking/IM

29 Comments

Posted by nashstruck Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 565 days ago

Seems like the app is OS6-READY! (have a look at its download page)

Looks like developers are already getting things ready. Can't wait for the transition!

Posted by DrewDT Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 565 days ago

I would have liked to have seen detailed comparisons with Trillian and Beejive so we could make a more informed decision on which of these would suit us best.

Posted by artie Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 564 days ago

I totaly agree, let's have a comparison with the three.

Posted by SupaBlackB Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 565 days ago

looks interesting....might give it a chance. i'm usually not a fan of the all-in-one apps, but this looks quite temptin. i would just want the twitter part of it to have twitlonger & twitpic or tweetphoto....

Posted by dklimah Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 565 days ago

Ive tried this before. Ive won it on a contest through CB (thank you :)) and i have to say the interface is crummy and not friendly. Its very bland and not customizable. I would rather be on Facebook and just Facebook, et al. It sounds nice but it 10lbs of apps in a 1lb pound bag.

Posted by IntuitivePhonesLover Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 565 days ago

"and i have to say the interface is crummy and not friendly"

I don't understand, that would match a majority of BB interfaces and functions, especially the web.

Posted by bmwmpower Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 565 days ago

Congratulations. BeeJive has been doing this since 2006 and it's the only IM program I can stand to use, despite newer versions having slight awkward conversation-scrolling bugs. Anyway I've tried IM+ in the past week for Blackberry and it just isn't as polished or as good or consistent as BeeJive. Don't give this software any consideration as it just plain sucks compared to BeeJive.

Posted by mystic205 Wednesday, Jul 28, 2010 564 days ago

i certainly liked the ui of beejive over im+ however it was a power hog that reduced my battery life by 30%. IM+ is more efficient.

Posted by Nyce-Daytona Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 565 days ago

+1 for BeeJive! It's the best app to combine all the individual apps. It's way cheaper and the UI is much nicer and easier to navigate than IM+. Also with a price tag of $40 they have got to be kidding...lol. Thats a full tank of gas baby!

Posted by rockys57 Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 565 days ago

I have used Trillian (Astra) IM for many years on my computer, since is combines all the other instant messengers, Skype, and Twitter. And when Trillian for Blackberry came out, I jumped on it. I have never had a single issue with it. If you need a reliable IM, I would highly recommend Trillian before you buy anything. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

And no, I don't own the stock--lol, but when I see a excellent product, I like to share it with everyone!

Posted by Cruiz1022 Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 565 days ago

I think the price tag is way too much. More people would buy it if it was $10-$15. With that said, beejive looks more polished to me. especially since I have the Skype app with Verizon

Posted by anastasiophan Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 565 days ago

$40!!!??! hahahahah, thats gotta be a joke. There is no way I would spend more than $4.99 on this program, no matter how good it is. $40?? hahaha

I litterally laughed out loud when I read that. Thats almost as bad as the iPhone app that cost $1,000 but did nothing.

Posted by chirmer Wednesday, Jul 28, 2010 563 days ago

I agree, bro. This price is absolutely ridiculous! I'd pay five bucks max for an app that combines a bunch of free apps into one. More than that is just pathetic and laughable, really.

Posted by Cordulegaster Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 565 days ago

I used IM+ for awhile. It supports Skype and this is what I really need!!!

Posted by xstex Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 565 days ago

$39.95? Didn't know it was April 1st already. Oh wait.

Posted by asd87 Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 564 days ago

I would have bought this if I didn't have to pay a monthly fee!! Call me cheap but hey it should be a one time fee!!!

Posted by dean_fx Wednesday, Jul 28, 2010 564 days ago

what are you talking about

Posted by Radius Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 564 days ago

By: asd87 | Date: Tue, 07/27/2010 - 21:59 | reply
I would have bought this if I didn't have to pay a monthly fee!! Call me cheap but hey it should be a one time fee!!!

The speech recognition is a monthly fee, the app itself is a one time price. And it's not tied to a PIN but a license so you can go to any BB you like.

I've used it for a couple of years and it's solid. As I recall it was one of the first with push conversations over email which is why I got it in the first place. You don't have to be logged in to have a conversation which is a real bonus.

Posted by Shinrar Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 564 days ago

Much agreed. I bought mine when it was on sale (50% off I believe?), and I think it was certainly worth it. Firstly, I've had a total of 3 BlackBerries since I purchased it, and the transition was smooth. So I really did buy the program for life. I looked at it as an investment.

Initially, I tried the trial as a way around my lack of Blackberry dataplan on my phone (I had a dataplan that did not include Rim Functionality). It worked great, but I decided it wasn't worth it for what little I wanted to do. After all, I couldn't use the AIM/MSN/ICQ etc that was native, but being my first BlackBerry, I didn't see much of a need to.

Later, when they added the FaceBook Chat feature, I purchased it on sale as a way to chat with my friends. By then I had gotten the Blackberry plan, but found it nice to organize my several accounts into one. Having more then 1 AIM account was not possible with the native apps, plus I acquired FaceBook Chat. Worked like a champ.

The IM Push feature is amazing for battery life issues. When I activate it, my conversations are slightly delayed compared to when the application is open, however my battery isn't affected in the least. While the application was running, I had to charge about once every other day. With it in push mode, I'm back to once every 3/4 days. Excellent.

I've read the complaints about the UI, but I've never had a problem with it. It's straightforward, but complex enough to give you a number of customizable options.

More than worth it.

Posted by speedyV Wednesday, Jul 28, 2010 564 days ago

Bene using it a bit. And recently the facebook part has not been working.

Seems that this is widespread. Facebook keeps adding security measures that prevent 3rd party apps from logging in, frustrates the hell out of me every time they do that.

Posted by Shinrar Wednesday, Jul 28, 2010 564 days ago

It is working for me. There was a week or so not that long ago it was down, but as of this second I'm chatting on it as we speak.

And I know what you mean about facebook. They skimp all over security in their privacy setup, and flood it on things which could make our lives easier. >.<

Posted by thedeadbaby Wednesday, Jul 28, 2010 564 days ago

Lol @ $40

Posted by nojok3 Wednesday, Jul 28, 2010 564 days ago

Even funnier than the $40 price tag is the people above defending it.

Posted by Ironsideque Wednesday, Jul 28, 2010 564 days ago

I have used IM+ for about 3 years. Honestly I only use it for Facebook and MySpace. I do like IM push since IM+ randomly loses connections and has not alert to tell you so. It's a little high priced. For those concerned about the monthly dictation fee, if you have Vlingo Plus it works in the IM+ app.

Posted by victoriak68 Wednesday, Jul 28, 2010 564 days ago

I will admit it's a cool and useful app. However, it costa a whopping $39.95 and then you still have to pay a monthly fee of $1.99 to use the dictation feature. Anyone addicted enough to instant messengers and social networks to pay the price doesn't need this app, they need therapy.

Posted by Detective M Downs Wednesday, Jul 28, 2010 564 days ago

I'm actually looking to purchase one of these, but I want to see what Trillian looks like after it comes out of beta. I tried IM+ lite, and I didn't care for it.

Posted by fondoo Thursday, Jul 29, 2010 563 days ago

i know IM+ is much more than beehive and i do own both. beehive lacks skype messenger support and the ability to snap and picture and send immediately from the chat. unlike beehive where you need snap and picture, go back to chat, dig thru the photo album and send. theres alot of extra steps and beehive needs to redesign the messenger. i also feel that beehive in the iphone does a better job than the blackberry version in this. i think im+ well worth the price and they keep updating it.

Posted by bdeslaur Wednesday, Aug 18, 2010 542 days ago

Whenever I use it it says connection FAILED. I don't like it.

Posted by jeffordo_o Sunday, Oct 03, 2010 497 days ago

Great app, but a battery killer