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The Windows Mobile Instant Messaging Bible

Instant messaging is one of the key features of today’s communication. It’s much faster than e-mailing, much easier than picking up (and, probably, paying for) the phone and is pretty reliable.
E-mails, even if they are delivered at once (which isn’t guaranteed) are not guaranteed to notify the user at once (see for example this excellent article (and some feedback here) from the Modern Nomads folks on this question). Not so with instant messages – they, unless the connection is lost and the sender doesn’t notice this or, if it’s using a central dispatching server and it’s heavily overloaded (more on these problems later), promise really instant message delivery and notification.
You may have been a long-time user of desktop-based instant messaging solutions like MSN / Live Messenger, AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, IRC or ICQ. You may also have a Jabber client – either just for fun (on at, say, the central Jabber server) or at your enterprise, where Jabber is a decent alternative (also see this article and “Google Talk might be(come) the right tool for your corporate”) to other enterprise-grade instant messaging & presence solutions like IBM Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server and Novell GroupWise Messenger – and, to my knowledge, the one and only platform directly supported by Windows Mobile.
Fortunately, most of these services are also accessible on Windows Mobile. Note that I won't introduce these services here at all. If you're a newcomer to instant messaging (IM for short) and would like to choose one of them, which one you go for is mostly a matter of personal taste and the number of your friends using the given service.
The latter is because there is little interoperability between the different services. That is, if you install, say, the ICQ client, you won't be able to talk to your buddies using MSN (Microsoft) clients and so on. On the desktop, this can be easily combated by going straight for multi-service clients like Trillian or, if you need an open-source implementation for your Un*x desktop or mobile (and even desktop Windows!), Gaim (see here the Qtopia version of Gaim, should you want to use it on your Linux-based, even originally Windows Mobile-based mobile). Unfortunately, there’s no direct port of these two well-known, hugely popular clients to Windows Mobile. As far as Trillian is concerned, however, Web clients are already supported), which, however, are far more awkward to be used from a mobile.
Personally, as far as selecting the best service for your needs, I mostly recommend MSN because its support is definitely the best on Windows Mobile, should you want to go for a messaging platform without being constrained by the services your existing buddies are already using. Not only all third-party clients do support it (except for one-protocol ones like PocketICQ, gsICQ or the three-service mChat), but also Microsoft's own IM solution, MSN Messenger and Live Messenger, are very solid and, with MSN Messenger, in general, built-in products. Being built-in means you don't need to install (and, in cases, pay for) third-party software on your Windows Mobile (WM for short) device but use the one already available in there. What I also recommend if you’re looking for a messaging platform but, for some reason, don’t want to go for the MSN service is either Jabber or ICQ. Both have excellent Pocket PC clients – for example, the former is supported by almost all major titles and latter is supported by two of the best and, what is more, free titles, mChat and gsICQ.
You may also want to consider for example whether you need HTTP tunneling when going for a particular service. This isn’t supported by some services (for example IRC); the more recent ones like Jabber, ICQ, Yahoo and MSN, however, already support it (see for example the “Jabber and HTTP” section here and this for more info on the two latter services). Also see the comparison chart in the Comparison of instant messaging protocols for additional information.
In general, all IM solutions offer almost the same capabilities: in addition to chatting, file transfer, some even support video / audio chatting, multi-user chat (groupchat) and styled text. In addition, as far as Windows Mobile-compliance is concerned, Jabber servers are perfectly suited for enterprise-grade deploying. Please see this page for more info & links to individual Jabber server products, should you want to choose and, then, set up one for your enterprise, keeping Windows Mobile-compliance in mind.
Now that we have a generic picture of what IM services there are, we can move on to the clients that are actually able to connect to these services.
Fortunately, there are several Windows Mobile instant messaging clients. No matter what protocol (service) your mates use, you will be able to find at least one (and, in most cases, several) applications to do the task. With most of these applications, all you need to do is pretty straightforward: you supply them the login / password credentials to your (preferred) service and simply log in. With some of them (most importantly, imov Messenger), you will also need to use another central server account (which you can register from inside the app), which makes the life of a complete newbie a bit harder at first but soon becomes pretty easy. That’s because you can create /register the account right from your IM app on your Windows Mobile device.

1.1 The two types of connectivity: SMS and constant Internet connection
There are two main ways a Windows Mobile client can receive instant messages (not counting in Push Mail, which I’ll elaborate on in a later article): either through a constant Internet (for example, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS or HSDPA) connection or via SMS messages. Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages.
1.1.1 Constant Internet connection
This communication form is far more common with Windows Mobile clients. It requires a constant (!) Internet connection between the mobile device and the service. It has the following advantages:
if you don’t have an unlimited text plan, SMS-based notification can become REALLY expensive as it uses one outgoing SMS for each message you send out. What is more, the 160-character size of SMS messages applies here too – if you enter too “long” messages (more than 150-160 chars), you end up having to pay for two SMS’es and so on. Also, you’ll probably be charged for incoming messages (they arrive as SMS messages) too. Finally, compared to the ubiquity of unlimited text plans, (close to) unlimited data plans are far more common and subscribed to by most Windows Mobile users.
all current, generic IM clients support data connections, unlike SMS messages - SMS support is very scarce with today's clients
It has, on the other hand, some severe disadvantages:
if your data plan isn’t unlimited or, at least, 10-60 Mbytes (depending on the client you use – there are vast differences in bandwidth usage, as we’ll also see) a month while you do prefer having IM on the entire day long, you will soon use up your Internet plan.
battery consumption because of the constant data consumption, particularly with 3G or 3.5G-capable (that is, not just 2.5G GPRS/EDGE) mobiles like the HTC Universal, the TyTN / Hermes, Trinity and the like. 3(.5)G UMTS / HSDPA connections REALLY chew through your batteries QUICKLY. (Note that constant data connection also requires actively waiting for incoming messages in a non-suspended case. This, with current Windows Mobile phones, isn’t a problem, unlike with old(er) Windows Mobile devices not sporting built-in phones. The latter consume a LOT of power in non-suspended case and are hardly usable in day-to-day IM situations if you can’t regularly recharge them.)
For example, in this XDA-Dev thread, XDA-Dev forum members complain about the mobile’s completely chewing through the battery in three hours (!) on the TyTN / Hermes while using Agile Messenger (one of the IM applications available for WM). With a GPRS/EDGE connection, the battery lasted at least eight times more (24 hours).
Fortunately, you can easily fight this problem. As has already been pointed out, it’s typically with high(er)-speed, new-generation connections (UMTS or HSDPA) that the battery consumption becomes really an issue with most current WM-based phones, you may want to force your otherwise UMTS / HSDPA-capable phone to stay at GPRS or EDGE and, consequently, consume way less power. There is even a tool, BandSwitch, to do the trick for you, developed by the excellent XDA-Developers gurus. Please see this thread for more info. (Additional info for example here and here.)
finally, current data connection-based clients can be pretty unreliable. Either they disconnect and, for some reason, fail at reconnecting to the service or are seemingly connected but still don’t receive (send) anything. The latter is the worst possible situation because your party won’t even notice you aren’t receiving her or his messages.
All in all, if being able to be reached all the time and with 100% confidence is of EXTREME importance or you have a Windows Mobile phone with high battery consumption or you have an unlimited text plan, you may want to have a look at SMS-based solutions. Otherwise, stick with data-based ones.
1.1.2 SMS
Now that we've seen the advantages and disadvantages of SMS-based solutions, let's move on to the question of the SMS-capable clients themselves.
There are few clients to support SMS-based messaging. The most important of them is the now-discontinued (and, therefore, not any more recommended), well-known VeriChat.
There are, however, some alternatives you may want to check out:
SMS Threader - v1.17 (also see this)
Palm’s well-known SMS threader application is also worth mentioning. Unfortunately, it's only available for the Windows Mobile-based Treos.
The built-in AIM client in the HP iPAQ h6315, which also used SMS messages (see this and this), while the old one didn’t use SMS’es.
The same stands for the AIM messenger coming with the T-Mobile MDA
Finally, PocketICQ is also SMS-compliant.
1.2 Available Windows Mobile IM clients
As with most of my roundups, this one also contains most of the relevant information in the self-standing comparison chart (CLICK THE LINK!). This is why I don’t list the (missing) features, pros and cons of each and every application in here. If you do spend some time on browsing the chart (make sure you maximize the browser window when you do it so that you end up having to scroll only rarely), you get a very compact, albeit much more useful way of directly comparing all the alternate clients.
Note that there are a lot of features current IM applications offer you may have never even dreamt of (for example, file transfer, voice chat or chatrooms / groupchat). This is why it’s essential you thoroughly scrutinize the chart and the explanation. In order to keep the article as terse and non-self-repeating as possible, it’s only there that I elaborate on these features, not anywhere else. (Now, just imagine I had listed on all the (missing) features of all the reviewed & compared applications in the current article, in free textual form! Not only would it take you ages to even read them all, but also comparing these features to those of the alternates would be WAY harder.)
1.2.1 Webmessenger Mobile Instant Messenger for Pocket PC 2003 2.6 build 070216 (a WM5-only version, “Mobile Instant Messenger for Windows Mobile 5.0”, is also available here)
This is a comparatively new product with pretty average features. The developers also offer two other, mostly enterprise-targeted (for example, Jabber support) IM solutions.
It's the only IM app for WM to support Skype (in addition to the "official" Skype client, of course). However, this requires an additional plug-in: you must also register for at least the free version of WebMessenger Mobile for Skype. Make sure you download the desktop component as well.
1.2.2 IM+ 4.3 by Shape Services
This is one of the most widely used and known, well-established, leading IM solutions. Should be one of the products you take a very serious look at.
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Review here; a generic thread is here; another one thread on some recent (4.28, 4.29) bugs.

1.2.3 OctroTalk 0.10
This is a brand new IM product for WM. It's still being developed and already having, even compared to the other, much older and well-established IM clients, pretty decent features (for example, one of the few products to commit an update check at startup). It's still in beta stage and is, therefore, free at least until the end of March. Beta also means sometimes non-operating central dispatcher servers though - use with care and don't deploy into situations that require guaranteed availability yet! However, if you don't need to be online all the time and some server downtimes aren't a problem, this client is worth checking out even at this beta stage, particularly because the developer is actively trying to implement users' requests, which, unfortunately, is pretty uncommon with other IM clients (albeit the imov and the PocketIRC folks are pretty responsive to user remarks too). That is, you may also help in creating the BEST, most powerful WM IM client.
Note that the developers have let me know they will implement both file transfer and some other features "this week" (last week of February 2007). I'll accordingly update this roundup and the chart as soon as they are indeed implemented.
A great discussion thread can be found here.
Note that, even as of version 0.10, it's still has a bug of false contact add announcements as can also be seen in here. If you have hundreds of contacts, this will mean you will need to answer the question of the dialog hundreds of times every time you install and configure a new version of OctroTalk. This may be - understandably! - a showstopper for many (see for example this post). Hope later beta (or, at least, the final) versions will get rid of this very annoying bug.
1.2.4 Live Messenger
Microsoft's latest MSN client, Live Messenger, is still at (a public closed) beta, which means if you were a betatester, you still have access to it at Microsoft Connect, unlike with the desktop Live Messenger betas, which have long been in use and are accessible to anyone. Otherwise, you'll need to wait for the official launch: Live Messenger for WM is slated to be released in some months and will be compatible with WM5 and WM6 (sorry, not with previous operating systems).
It's REALLY capable and highly recommended; for example, it supports two-way file sending/receiving and groupchat. No wonder I recommend the MSN service for all WM users as the service supported the best.
There is a decent review here. Note that there is a similar article here, but it discusses the web-based Windows Live Mobile, not Live Messenger. Still, it may be worth checking out because it contains a lot of nice comparisons to the alternative services.
For this roundup, I've reviewed the latest public beta version as of this writing.
1.2.5 MSN Messenger (as of WM5 AKU2.3)
The predecessor of the above-introduced Live Messenger with, compared to its successor, (in times, really) reduced feature set. However, it's still highly recommended if you (only) need MSN connectivity and don't need an application that also supports other services. It’s, in addition to Live Messenger, the other MSN-capable client to support groupchat.
1.2.6 Agile Messenger AMST-WMPPC-65
This once-free, well-known and capable application / service has been made commercial in the meantime. Now, you have two choices of subscribing to it: either pay some $15 for three months or $45 for a life-time license.
This thread on Agile's sending passwords as pure, unencrypted text may also be of interest. Also, in here, some XDA-Dev users complain about the Agile folks’ not responding to their mails.
1.2.7 imov Messenger Basic / Enterprise 2.12e
The predecessor of this title was JabberCE, which, later, has been renamed to imov Messenger (this is why the old JabberCE page isn’t accessible any more). This title has two version: a somewhat restricted (for example, it doesn't support logging) Basic version and an Enterprise one. The latter is still decidedly cheaper than both IM+ and Agile Messenger.
Note that the Basic version isn't directly available on the developer's homepage but, for example, here.
1.2.8 Verichat by (ex-)Intellisync v1.42b
This well-known title, now that Intellisync has been bought by Nokia, is no longer supported / sold. (This is why I also provide an alternate URL, should the original homepage be removed.)
This IM application is one of the very few titles that support SMS-based messaging. Otherwise, it doesn't have much to write home about - the majority of the alternatives is considerably better.
Also see this thread.
1.2.9 PocketICQ 1.0 Beta
This is a very (some 6 years) old ICQ client; given that it’s still officially in beta stage, I seriously doubt it’ll ever become non-beta. Nevertheless, it may prove a good alternative to other, mostly commercial titles if you only need ICQ support and don't need always-on accessibility on a Windows Mobile phone (it's the only hugely important thing this title severely lacks at). First, however, give a try to gsICQ (or mChat) instead to see whether they fit your needs better.
1.2.10 IRC clients
Internet Relay Chat (IRC), in addition to even older solutions like Talk, has been a highly popular IM / groupchat platform for over 15 years.
Fortunately, there are several really capable IRC clients for the WM platform. Three of them are the most important: the commercial PocketIRC / wmIRC and the free zsIRC. Of these three applications, I've included information on the two commercial titles in the feature chart because zsIRC, while still way better than any other free solution, is, in many respects, considerably worse than any of these two titles. Furthermore, if you want to know more about zsIRC and how it compares to these two clients, make sure you check out my related articles.
I’ve published several articles on Windows Mobile IRC clients. Please give them a read (particularly to this one) for more information.
1.2.11 gsICQ / mChat
Last but not least, these two, free clients of Russian origin are excellent and certainly show you can write useful, fully-fledged, dependable business applications using the .NET Compact Framework. (Unfortunately, apps like these are very rare; most .NET CF-based “full” apps have a lot to be desired, to put it mildly. See for example the applications / games written by IBE Group; for example, IBE Backup, IBE Mail and Star Invader).
mChat supports ICQ, Jabber and Mail.ru’s own messaging server (I don’t think the latter will be really appealing to any non-Russian speaker). Its little brother, the ICQ-only gsICQ is, in some ways, even stronger and more featureful than mChat as far as ICQ support is concerned; therefore, you’ll want to scrutinize my comparative remarks in the combined gsICQ / mChat column in the Comparison Chart. Note that I've listed the two applications in the same columns because most of their features / behavior are the same.

1.3 Not reviewed (discontinued / non-working / plain old / will be tested later) clients
1.3.1 AIM for WinCE
This is a very old, free Pocket PC AIM client. It doesn’t offer much functionality; this is why I haven’t considered it a serious contender to the rest of the reviewed applications. Also see this and this for more info.
1.3.2 Yahoo! beta client
Yahoo! also had a beta client but they have discontinued it (also see this) and completely abandoned the platform.
1.3.3 Odigo Messenger Force by Ruksun Software Technologies (now: Amiga Development India)
This commercial (it cost $25; a trial version is/was also available) application has long been discontinued and isn’t even directly mentioned on the developer’s mobile IM-related homepage. Also see this and this; note that these threads state it wasn’t even compatible with WM2003 (and, consequently, later operating systems), only with previous ones (PPC2k and PPC2k2).
1.3.4 Mig33 3.0
This MSN / Yahoo / AOL (received in 3.0) / VoIP client is midlet (MIDP)-based; that is, not a native WM application.
It didn’t work for me. No matter how I hard I’ve tried (with both the lite and the 3.0 beta version) on my HTC Universal to log into my existing accounts on all the three supported networks, it has always complained about my account’s not existing
Some people, however, stated it works with them (1 2 3 4).
1.3.5 MS Portrait
I haven’t included MS Portrait in the main test either. The reason for this is very simple: there are just too few users using MS Portrait, also taking into the desktop users into account. Furthermore, while the front camera problems are still not solved in the last, 3.0 beta version, few people will use this application for TCP/IP-based video phoning.
Please read this review for more information.
2. Comparison / feature chart
It's available here (CLICK THE LINK!!).
2.1 Explanation for the chart
I'd like to stress again and again that you really should read this section very thoroughly
to see what advanced functionalities these applications offer (there are MANY you may not even have dreamt of!)
to be able to decide between the clients. Unfortunately, there is no "this is clearly the best" title, albeit there’re very strong and highly recommended ones like mChat. This also means you need to compare the (missing) functionalities of each and every title so that you can choose the one that fits most of your requirements.
Note that I don't list the most elementary rows (for example, price, trial restrictions, Landscape orientation or Windows Mobile operating system compliance) here - only the ones that do require some explanation to make sense.
Connection type?: in here, there may be three choices: direct (which means a particular client connects to a service directly, without a(n invisible) gateway), indirect (meaning a(not necessarily visible) gateway between you and the service you're accessing) and SMS. Note that I couldn’t safely decide between the central server-based and the direct modes; for example, with Agile.
We've already seen what SMS-based messaging can be used for and what its (dis)advantages are. Direct and indirect data connections, however, require some additional explanation: in general, you may want to prefer direct connectivity because indirect connections might be somewhat less reliable. This isn't an issue with, for example, the indirect connection-based imov Messenger; however, with the current (beta) version of OctroTalk, it may be. In many cases, I was completely unable to get it connected just because the central OctroTalk dispatch server was out of service.
VGA?: this row should definitely be one to check out if you have a high-resolution VGA device (as opposed to low-res QVGA ones); in here, I've elaborated on the VGA friendliness of the apps. Unfortunately, as can clearly be seen, there are several IM apps that aren't really VGA-friendly because, for example, they (still) use pixel doubling.
Non-stable connections: Status (current discussions) kept when disconnecting?: one of the most annoying problem with some IM applications is the fact they just close the chat windows when your connection becomes unavailable, which can happen pretty easily for example if you are roaming with your device and the cellular signal strength decreases. The most important example of the behavior is IM+, which immediately shuts down all the open chat windows. Fortunately, not any of the other applications do the same.
Note that older versions of Microsoft's own MSN Messengers also did the same (even in WM2003SE). Fortunately, the most recent versions shipped with WM5 no longer do this. Kudos to Microsoft for fixing this very annoying problem!
Auto reconnect when the / a connection terminates?: this is also very important for anyone relying on the ability to receive instant messages any time, anywhere. (Once again, SMS- or Push Mail-based IM solutions are much better and more reliable! Data connection but not Push Mail-based solutions should only be used as a last resort in a mission-critical environment!)
MSN disconnect test?: I've also run some disconnect tests (with the MSN service only, as far as multi-service IM apps are concerned; with IRC clients, I've, of course, run the clients over IRC to see whether their sensing the disconnected state has been made quicker lately, as is, for example, also promised with the latest version of PocketIRC) to see whether a forced connection disconnect (emulating the above-mentioned cellular phone roaming situation) results in both the particular application and the desktop party it's connected to sensing the connection is broken. Note that positive “no problem at all” results don’t necessarily mean you won’t ever have disconnection / invisibility problems – a lot of users have been reporting cases like this with, say, IM+ (see for example this thread).
Easy / quick input: PDM’s: with some applications, you can use in-app defined text shortcuts to greatly reduce typing time by just sending a "canned", pre-written response to your buddies. Some apps allow for editing these messages and one, imov Messenger, even allows for constructing them from word / expression atoms to form real sentences. The latter is really an excellent idea!
Smiley input / output: as far as smileys (emoticons) are concerned, does
the particular client support inputting them using pre-made small icons?
use graphical icon when displaying received (or sent) smileys?
As can clearly be seen, most apps do support at least smiley rendering (and some even input). However, the number of smileys they know is pretty limited, Live Messenger being the best in this respect.
Command / input history quickly accessible with up/down OR a menu?: when you chat with someone, you may need to quickly retype something you've just said. In this case, a very quick way of scrolling back your recently-said messages can be very nice. Support for this, using the Up and Down cursor keys has been present in most IRC clients ever since the beginnings of IRC - just like with the command repeat / review functionality of the Unix shells or MS/PC-DOS with DosKey (with later DOS version) or dosedit.com (with earlier ones).
Unfortunately, this feature is only present in PocketIRC. None of the non-IRC applications support this functionality, which is a big minus with them all.
Readability, amount of information displayed at a given time: Font size settable (very important in native VGA mode)?: if you are a VGA user and have ever tried to run MSN Messenger in native VGA mode, you may already know it’s impossible to make its, in native VGA, unreadably tiny fonts larger. Fortunately, its successor, Live Messenger, has fixed this problem. Most other IM clients don’t suffer from this problem either – except for some of them (for example, imov Messenger Basic), all allow for setting the font size.

History, copy / paste, logging group: in this group, I've elaborated on how a given client supports text selection and copy to the clipboard (copy / paste), whether it supports logging discussions to a file in the local file system and whether the links (for example, Web links) are clickable.
With IM clients where Web links aren’t clickable, you can still copy them to the clipboard – if the client supports text selection and clipboard copy, that is – and, then, paste the URL manually to the address bar of a Windows Mobile Web browser.
Also, if your client doesn't support logging, you can still use copy/paste to copy the contents of your discussion to the clipboard and, from there, to a file. This is, however, far from automatic and also depends on whether copy / paste is supported at all.
Protocol-specific group: in here, I’ve elaborated on what services the given client supports and how it works with them; does it have specific bugs with them and so on.
New message notification; suspended modegroup: if you plan to use your IM application mostly for receiving messages, you’ll really want to scrutinize what has been stated in these tests.
in-program, if multitabs are utilized, are they colored?: While you’re actively chatting with a contact or browsing the user list and a(nother) contact sends you a message, what does happen? As most user interfaces are tabulated (using multiple tabs; that is, multitabs), I’ve mostly concentrated on whether you can see at once who has sent the new message to you; one of the most commonly used ways of doing this is making the tab – which contains the chat session with the given buddy - red.
Suspended mode usable on Windows Mobile phones?: this is one of the most important rows. If you do plan to use an IM app to be able to receive messages the entire day, you can only achieve this if you suspend your Windows Mobile phone to greatly reduce its power consumption. This should be a major deciding factor when you plan to select an IM application.
Not all applications are suspending-friendly; a most important example of these is PocketICQ. Fortunately, all the other non-disqualified IM apps support operating in suspended state; so can, as far as IRC clients are concerned, wmIRC.
What notification settings / capabilities are used?: if you do plan to rely on the audio / vibration notification capabilities of an IM client, you will want to choose one that supports preferably both if you often rely on vibration (which is available in all Windows Mobile phones).
Unfortunately, vibration isn't necessarily supported in all IM applications. As a rule of thumb, applications that rely on the system-level Sounds and Notifications settings applet to set the type of their notifications don't have problems with vibration either. Applications that don't rely on the system-level settings won't necessarily support vibration (albeit some do - for example, wmIRC or mChat / gsICQ).
A quick note for developers of applications: it's actually very easy to add system-level notification support to any application - it's just a question of adding some registry keys.
Today plug-in: several IM applications also have a Today plug-in so that you can always see whether they're online and whether there are any new messages / buddies around. Please consult the individual chart cells to find out how each Today plug-in behaves.
Misc: CPU usage while listening to incoming messages with all the possible networks logged in?: particularly with waiting for incoming messages for more than a few minutes, the processor (CPU) usage of the given IM application becomes of interest (unless the messaging is SMS-based because, then, the mobile only wakes up and starts executing your IM application when there's an incoming instant messaging-related SMS). The less CPU usage, the better. Fortunately, almost all IM applications have negligible CPU usage; the only exception is WebMessenger, which has a bit higher CPU usage, resulting in a bit (not much!) reduced battery life.
Doc quality?: in here, I've explained whether the on/offline application documentation is verbose and comprehensive enough. I've also linked in the online documentation, whenever available, to make your life easier.
Conference (MSN: Action / Invite a contact to join this conversation; ICQ: Start a multi chat icon; Yahoo: Action / Invite to a conference; Google Talk and AIM, as of now, don’t allow for group chat): many IM services support "conferencing" or "group chatting". In here, I've examined how the WM IM clients support this.
As can clearly be seen, if you need groupchat support on WM, go for either Jabber and imov Messenger Enterprise (this is the ideal solution for the Jabber-based enterprise with groupchat needs) or MSN / Live Messenger. The latter two are the only MSN clients to offer seamless groupchat support. Finally, of course, you can always use the venerable IRC clients for groupchat.
Flags?: in cases, you won't want to show your contacts you're ready to talk. That is, you will want to modify your presence information. In here, I've elaborated on what states (flags) you can choose from.
Note that I haven't elaborated on the auto-away flag because none of the clients set the state to "Away" automatically, unlike on the desktop. This is, of course, understandable as you most probably always have your Windows Mobile device with you, ready to be reached , even when you're otherwise away from your desktop computer.
Mobile flag?: some (not all!) services also support showing a flag like "the user is using a mobile device". You may want to prefer a client that does support this flag so that you can effectively show your party you won't be able to type as fast as on a desktop computer because of the non-existing or, at least, far smaller / more awkward hardware keyboard. Unfortunately, very few clients support this.
Unicode support?: while most services (except for some really old ones; for example, IRC) do support (16-bit) Unicode characters, not all client products support these (unlike on the desktop). Note that, while Unicode may not be supported, as with IRC, you can still switch 8-bit codepages in most clients. That is, if you both use a 8-bit char page (for example, Cyrillic, Central-European, Turkish etc), you can still use all your national, non-Western characters even with clients not supporting Unicode. It's only real Unicode communication (with languages that, because of the huge number of their characters, can't use a 256-character 8-bit page) that's impossible with these IM clients.
Note that I've tested Unicode transfer in both directions because it's possible Unicode characters will only be transferred (and rendered) in one direction but not in the opposite one.
SOCKS proxy support?: in here, I've elaborated on the Socks (and, to a lesser degree - unfortunately, less clients support HTTP clients, even when almost all the messaging protocols support it -, HTTP) proxy support. When not used in the enterprise, you most probably don't need the support for this; however, if you do have a local firewall blocking all non-standard remote ports (for example, those of IRC), unless you have a Socks and/or HTTP proxy-capable client, you won't be able to communicate.
Multiple logins with more than one account to the same network?: while some desktop clients (for example, IRC) allow for multi-logins using the same client (or an independently started instance), this isn't the case with Windows Mobile ones.
I haven't listed the ability to log in using the same account but on different devices. Protocol-level support for this would be really nice (see for example the section "MPOP and presence by observation" here) but, alas, not all protocols support this. The two most important ones that do are Jabber and AIM. With these protocols, you can log in from your mobile device, which not (necessarily) will result in your already logged-in instance to be logged out.
... and to different networks?: multi-service clients (there are several of them - all the reviewed IM clients, except for PocketICQ, gsICQ and IRC) are able to make use of all the supported services by logging into them at the same time - just like Gaim or Trillian on the desktop.
Offline (non-mail) messages?: some IM clients support the underlying feature of delayed message delivery in almost all current services. (Exceptions are IRC, if you don't use an add-on messaging service and at least older versions of Skype are the only notable exceptions; see the "Asynchronous message relaying" column here.) Unfortunately, not all - in here, I've elaborated on which client supports this and which doesn't.

User control: in here, I've elaborated on what buddylist features the reviewed IM client has - for example, is it able to answer to other users' contact addition requests. I've also mentioned if a particular client has user group editing operations (they do support all groups already available on the server side). User groups are very useful; for example, they allow for separating your workmates from your friends.
Editing functionality includes, for example, creating a user group and moving contacts to there. This will, then, be synchronized back to the IM server so that, no matter where you log in from, you'll see the same user group structure in your IM application.
In general, all apps work flawlessly with contacts and groups. The only exception, as of version 0.10, is OctroTalk, which always makes the user have to let all past MSN users added as contacts (also see this AximSite post for more info). This is really annoying!
Voice chat?: some IM applications also support voice chatting (Voice over IP, VoIP). In here, I've elaborated on these features.
File transfer?: file transfer is supported by all instant messaging protocols but, unfortunately, few Windows Mobile clients.
Some apps that do support it (to some degree) do it in a non-direct way; that is, uploading the files to their central server and only pasting the (temporary) URL to the file to the target of the file. This is why you'll only see URL's passed with these clients, not the standard, “embedded” file transfer interface.
Text formatting (AIM : full formatting; Yahoo: Bold / Italic / Underlined; IRC: the same + colors + inverse)? (MSN: Edit / Change font only changes the font of the entire current / following messages; that is, it offers no real formatting capabilities; ICQ and Google Talk: absolutely no formatting capabilities): some IM services / clients, most importantly, Yahoo and IRC (and to a much less degree, MSN), allow for text styling / formatting. In here, I've scrutinized whether Yahoo / IRC / (MSN)-compliant Windows Mobile IM clients are able to correctly render styled text. (None of them are able to actually produce styled text.)
Quick edit shortcuts (Ctrl-A, Delete, Ctrl+arrow etc): Particularly if you use your IM client with an external (for example, Bluetooth) keyboard or use your desktop's keyboard via a Windows Mobile controller application (for example, Pocket Controller – see this for more info), you will want to go for a client that allows for the standard keyboard cursor movement shortcuts to greatly speed up for example text modification / correction before submitting it. Fortunately, only one application (WebMessenger) doesn't support this at all; all the other IM clients support this almost flawlessly.
Bandwidth usage (transmitted/received bytes in kilobytes): login, 10 minutes and a long-time test with one-hour long data: In here, you can not only check the bandwidth usage of most clients but also that of the protocols themselves, should you want to base your service / protocol selection based on (also) bandwidth usage.
If you use a non-unlimited data plan with your data connection-based client, you may also want to know which client and which service / protocol consumes the least bandwidth and what combinations (for example, ICQ with enabled and, in most cases, useless "keep alive" pinging every half a minute) should be entirely avoided. As can be seen, MSN (and Live) Messenger (which both use direct connections) use a bit more bandwidth than most other clients using the same MSN protocol. It's also worth pointing out that the bandwidth usage of Jabber, ICQ and IRC is even less. That is, if you really want to minimize your bandwidth usage, you may want to choose the last three protocols instead of, say, MSN. (Or, if your enterprise already supports it, go straight for Exchange-based Push Mail for notification purposes – particularly after applying the well-known "heartbeat" hack, it consumes the least bandwidth.)
Of particular interest are the bandwidth usage figures of OctroTalk. While its Google Talk (that is, Jabber) and ICQ (in the ICQ test, it consumed a little over the mChat / gsICQ figures) bandwidth usage figures are only slightly smaller than those of the alternative clients / services, the MSN test produced some astonishing results. Compared to the Microsoft MSN / Live Messenger clients, which use about 28 (12+16) kbytes an hour, OctroTalk only uses a little less than 6 (0.5+5.3) kbytes. This means OctroTalk only uses one-fifth (!) of the bandwidth of Microsoft’s official solution. Compared to other MSN-capable clients (all (except for IM+) alternative MSN clients use about half of the uplink bandwidth of the Microsoft clients), it still has some advantage – it uses about 3.5 times less bandwidth to keep the connection up.
This means if you really need to use MSN but you must have the absolutely least possible bandwidth usage, you may want to take a serious look at the OctroTalk client. (Otherwise, if you don’t need to minimize the bandwidth usage, for strictly MSN communication, my personal pick is still Microsoft’s Live Messenger because of the excellent features.)
(MSN) avatars? : Finally, none of the otherwise MSN-compatible clients support MSN avatars (small icons), except for, surprise surprise, Live Messenger. The latter even allow for changing it yourself on your mobile device.
2.2 Not tested
2.2.1 Mobile (GPRS etc.) connection keep-up
In my tests, most applications behaved quite OK. However, there may be problems in your particular case, particularly if you use instant messaging on a mobile phone. In these cases, if you lose the connection after some time, you may want to check out for example this registry hack to fix the problem.
2.2.2 Task keep-alive
I haven’t checked whether the current versions of the IM apps can force the operating system not to shut down the given application when the standard “let’s kill a background” task to free up some memory / when we’ve reached the 32-process limit of all WindowsCE versions (that is, even Windows Mobile 6) before 6 (note that WM6 is still based on the, process number restriction-wise, “old” WinCE 5.2). You won’t have this problem at all if you don’t run memory-hungry and/or several other processes (for example, you don’t open up more than 15-20 tabs in the excellent Windows Mobile Web browser, Opera Mobile). If you only have 4-10 apps running at a time and you have at least 5 Mbytes of free (dynamic) RAM, I’m pretty sure your IM app won’t be silently killed, even when it doesn’t support forcing itself to remain active.
I’ve only made tests with starting all the clients at once but, to avoid clashes, not logging into anywhere. Then, I’ve increased memory usage and the number of active processes by mass-starting other applications. In general, all the tested applications were shut down after a while. Note that IM+ has a checkbox to avoid this situation; I haven't enabled it when running this test.
Please see for example this thread for more info on this problem.
3. Other links of interest
A cool, recommended overview & comparison of some apps
eWeek: "Mobile IM Landscape Shows Room for Growth"
What is your messaging application of choice?
Generic “Looking for a IM / chat client similar to Yahoo messenger“
Gerneric “The Best Instant Messenger (IM)”
Google Talk On Your Pocket PC
Mobile Chat Rooms?
A Jabber-related thread (“Jabber Releases PocketPC Client”)

UPDATE (03/09/2007):
PPCT frontpage
You can download the latest version of Windows Live Messenger here. It's an AximSite thread so it can't be illegal (at least I hope so). This thread is, by the way, is pretty much recommended.
There is another lightweight and very simple, but small ICQ client, Anastasia, available here (thanks to CharlyV of SKKV Software for the tip!). (Incidentally, I DO ask every program developer to register their programs into the Pocket PC Mag Software Encyclopedia! I'm not guaranteed to find all Windows Mobile programs if you only publish related info / accouncements in German / Russian / you-name-it-what-language forums (not that I couldn't speak German or Russian - I speak quite a few languages, including these two)).
I've been asked about XMPP in several reader e-mails so I need to stress the following: XMPP is an IETF standard for messaging and is a fully open standard. This is the same standard that Apple uses for iChat and Google uses for GoogleTalk. Currently, few IM clients support direct XMPP connections; one of them is imov Messenger, which is XMPP based. This means you cannot use for example OctroTalk with your own IM server because it relies on a centralized server that presumably a single company controls. In addition, there are some other important benefits that imov Messenger (and other XMPP clients) offers the end user:
As has been mentioned, it is built on XMPP which is an Open IETF standard
For complete control, you can run your own XMPP server on your own network
If the protocol changes for AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, etc the client does not need to be updated and redeployed - just the server
XMPP offers encryption of traffic between the client and the server

UPDATE (03/14/2007): New version of excellent Instant Messenger client Mundu out; also runs on standard PPC’s!
The Mundu instant messenger client is widely known among both Microsoft Smartphone (in the new, WM6-related parlance, “Windows Mobile Standard”) and Palm OS users – on these platforms (particularly on the Palm), it’s probably the best IM client.
The developer has just come out with a heavily updated, new version. While it’s only meant for the MS Smartphone platform, thanks to the convergence between the MS Smartphone and the Pocket PC (Phone Edition) (in the new parlance, “Windows Mobile Classic / Professional”) devices, it works pretty good on all Pocket PC (Phone Edition) devices starting with WM5.
Much as it does have some problems on Pocket PC (Phone Edition) devices (for example, it doesn’t support working in suspended mode and vibration, unlike with MS Smartphones, where both are supported), I really recommend it particularly if you
want seamless auto-logging capabilities
want conference support with MSN, Yahoo and, according to the developer, AOL/AIM
want file upload (no file download is possible)
Note that, in addition to the connectivity problems (it doesn’t work while the PPC phone is suspended) caused by the officially not-supported platform, you also need to learn to live with the lack of touchscreen support. This means you’ll need to use the Action button (the center button in D-Pad with most Pocket PC’s) instead of for example double-clicking to, say, initiate a conversation with someone. Note that you can still select and use the menu with the stylus.
Another great news item is that the Mundu folks will release a Pocket PC (and a Symbian)-specific version very soon. Hope that version will also fix the issues caused by the differences between the Smartphone and the Pocket PC platform; most importantly, the (on the Pocket PC) lack of vibration and suspended mode support.
Finally, note that I’ve thoroughly updated the comparison / feature chart of my well-known Windows Mobile Instant Messaging Bible (cross-posted to: PPCT, MobilitySite, AximSite, XDA-Developers, FirstLoox, BrightHand, HowardForums), the source of ALL information on instant messaging. In there, you’ll find a REALLY thorough comparison of Mundu to all the alternative instant messenger clients on the Pocket PC – and tons of screenshots. Make sure you check it out to discover what this messenger is really capable of and how it compares to the alternative messengers.

UPDATE (03/23/2007):
Causerie has just released their, on other mobile platforms, already-known instant messaging solution. As usual, the majority of the related information can be found in the updated comparison chart; in here, I only provide you with a pros/cons list.
The good
ability to log into any IM service using two accounts – currently, no other IM app is capable of this!
support for (ro)bots. Right now, Causerie retrieves Stock Quotes, Weather Predictions, Directions, News related to Business, Technology, Games, California Traffic, eBay etc.
Enterprise version supports Lotus IM (Sametime), Microsoft LCS, SIP, Reuters LCS and Jabber (SSL) – this is a BIG plus and really unique!
IMAP support. This means you don’t need to run an IMAP-capable mailer client in the background to get notified of your incoming mails. This, of course, will only work if you do have an IMAP-capable mailbox. This is also pretty unique. (See the IMAP Bible for more information on this question.)
Developer promises at least one-way SMS messaging in forthcoming, 1.1 version, slated for May. Now, their Palm version already supports even two-way messaging
The bad
restriction of four concurrent accounts logged in at a time
complete lack of Landscape orientation support – very bad news for slide-out or clamshell keyboard users (HTC Wizard, TyTN/Hermes, Universal etc.)
prone to crashes
not effective, Web browser-based rendering: slow, bandwidth-hungry and causes the on-screen SIP to be hidden with some people
doesn’t automatically re-login when the connection (temporarily) terminates: a problem particularly with unattended, suspended mode
no file transfer, no logging, all chat windows are immediately closed when the connection terminates, no support for conferencing
Verdict
Promising. Needs a little more work and bugfixes on the developer’s part, though.

Great review of the instant messaging clients. I hope Mundu comes out with a ver for the PPC soon.

Major update posted to http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=315654
Well worth reading!

A very good im client
Hi !
I searched for a good im client for a while, and i just wanted to mention inlux messenger:
http://www.inlusoft.com/pages/downloads.html
This is the best i've seen, only thing missing is today plugin, but it has an icon on startbar with popup so it compensates...
The site is in Russian, but the program has perfect english support
I'm not sure what is the difference between trial and full, and i don't know how many days you can use the trial (if this is the catch)
Anyway, great job with the comparison chart !
GL

RPG0 said:
Hi !
I searched for a good im client for a while, and i just wanted to mention inlux messenger:
http://www.inlusoft.com/pages/downloads.html
This is the best i've seen, only thing missing is today plugin, but it has an icon on startbar with popup so it compensates...
The site is in Russian, but the program has perfect english support
I'm not sure what is the difference between trial and full, and i don't know how many days you can use the trial (if this is the catch)
Anyway, great job with the comparison chart !
GL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont see any AIM support with this client . Just MSN, Yahoo, ICQ & G-talk

RPG0 said:
Hi !
I searched for a good im client for a while, and i just wanted to mention inlux messenger:
http://www.inlusoft.com/pages/downloads.html
This is the best i've seen, only thing missing is today plugin, but it has an icon on startbar with popup so it compensates...
The site is in Russian, but the program has perfect english support
I'm not sure what is the difference between trial and full, and i don't know how many days you can use the trial (if this is the catch)
Anyway, great job with the comparison chart !
GL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for pointing it out; will post a review soon.

UPDATE: a review of Inlux Messenger has just been posted to http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1354766

A few days ago Mundu released a real version for PPC.
Perhaps someone with a phone edition wants to test whether the standby & vibrate options now works, or not.
http://messenger.mundu.com/pocketpc/

UPDATE (11/15/2007): REVIEW: Another great, multiplatform instant messenger client: Palringo. Cross-posted to: PPCT, AximSite, XDA-Developers - 1, XDA-Developers - 2, XDA-Developers - 3, FirstLoox, BrightHand, HowardForums, SPT, MoDaCo.

Menneisyys said:
UPDATE (11/15/2007): REVIEW: Another great, multiplatform instant messenger client: Palringo. Cross-posted to: PPCT, AximSite, XDA-Developers - 1, XDA-Developers - 2, XDA-Developers - 3, FirstLoox, BrightHand, HowardForums, SPT, MoDaCo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm giving palingro a shot now on my Wizard (8125.) I'll let ya'll know if there are any problems!

exellent summerizing!

Instant Messaging Bible Update:MS Smartphone (WM Standard) info & Fring review & news

Instant Messaging Bible Update:MS Smartphone (WM Standard) info & Fring review & news
UPDATE (08/17/2007): a new version is in the brand new, general Smartphone forum HERE. That is, go there to read the latest version of the article. I, however, keep this version of the original article because of the responses.
(end of update)
It was some four months ago that I’ve published the definitive guide and comparison of all instant messaging solutions for the Pocket PC, the Windows Mobile Instant Messaging (IM) Bible.
The constant evolution of the clients (for example, the recent release of the really promising and, on Windows Mobile, except for Microsoft Portrait unprecedented and unrivalled Fring client) and the MS Smartphone (WM 6 Standard) platform have forced me to embark on an update to the roundup.
In this roundup, I review all the IM solutions working on the MS Smartphone platform along with listing the PPC-specific changes too. That is, this article will appeal to both Pocket PC and MS Smartphone users. In addition, if you’re interested in Voice over IP (VoIP) solutions, you REALLY will want to read the related section: I also review Fring, the (on Windows Mobile) brand new and simply GREAT Skype, MSN , Google Talk and standard SIP-compliant application working just great even over EDGE or more advanced (with at least 2 upload slots) GPRS connections.
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(the icons of the reviewed apps on my HTC Vox. I haven’t put the icon of Causerie Mobile Messenger 1.0.9 there because of its incompatibility with the platform – despite what the developer states, it doesn’t seem to be compatible with Smartphones.)
Again, this article is a three-in-one roundup:
a FULL review & roundup of all IM solutions running on the MS Smartphone
a review of what has been changed in the last four months: Most of the reviewed applications have been updated in the meantime. While these updates are pretty minor with all the titles, it’s still worth checking them out as some of the missing functionalities or bugs have been fixed in these.
a review of the completely new and groundbreaking Fring client, compared to the other clients offering similar functionality.
Note that you REALLY will want to read the original Windows Mobile Instant Messaging Bible. It’s in there that I’ve thoroughly described all the IM clients I elaborate on in here – except for, of course, the brand new Fring. That is, do read the original Bible. Note that I’ve already updated its chart to include the new information on both the new versions and the Smartphone-related information.
In addition to my Pocket PC’s (where I’ve tested how the Pocket PC-related functionality has been improved), I’ve used two MS Smartphone devices to test the IM clients on: a WM5 AKU3 176*220 HTC s310 (Oxygen) and a WM6 QVGA HTC s710 (Vox). On the latter, I’ve paid special attention to supporting the built-in keyboard and the dynamic orientation switching support – in addition to the QVGA support, of course.
IM+ 4.41 (PPC) / 1.38 (SP)
(a generic Smartphone in-conversation screenshot, showing Unicode chars, smileys, clickable links and local T9 input
Updates, differences
PPC-wise, there aren’t much differences between version 4.41 and the old, 4.3 version. There is a new setting for filtering out messages coming from users NOT in the Contacts list.
Also, there are some other, minor enhancements; for example, while losing the connection, the current conversations are all closed in the PPC version (but not with SP). This isn’t a problem any more with the PPC version either, though – past messages are redisplayed upon resuming the connection. However, the (minor) problems with the earlier version are still present: non-clickable links (this is mostly a problem with the SP version because of the lack of the copy / paste functionality on the OS (and on IM+’s) level) and the lack of the mobile flag.
Differences between the PPC and the SP versions
The PPC and the Smartphone versions (current, tested versions: 4.41 and 1.38, respectively) are pretty much the same. Some of the differences between the PPC and the SP versions:
There’s no Today plug-in (as with most of the other IM clients - the lack of the Today plug-in, the system-level notification capabilities, copy/paste and notification bubbles are the most important differences between the two platforms)
There’re no copy / paste capabilities (which is pretty much problematic if you’d like to follow links as there, as with the PPC version, are no clickable links either)
Logging capabilities are completely missing – the Messages settings dialog has no way of enabling it, unlike the “Save history” checkbox (unticked by default) in the “General” settings dialog of the PPC version. This is certainly VERY bad!
However, ever cloud has a silver lining: the SP version is $10 cheaper ($29.95) than the PPC one, while (apart from the problems listed above) and even pretty much usable.

Other screenshots
In the main Chat windows, there’s no Roster shortcut and there’re no Edit (Copy / Paste) capabilities either. It’s not possible to quickly switch to other accounts either, other than selecting Close and, then, using the list control at the top to switch between active chats.
Settings: Alerts (here: Notifications) No wakeup / notification by default; must be enabled by hand. The PPC version uses system-level notifications (1 2), which is certainly a better approach.
Background running, as with the PPC version, must also be explicitly enabled. Otherwise – again, as with the PPC version, in which this mode must also be manually enabled – it won’t wake up.
Network: the same (PPC version HERE)
Fortunately, the SP version, as with the PPC one, dynamically resizes its GUI upon Portrait / Landscape switching and has no problems with the Vox keyboard (it, of course, works great in both phonepad modes, should your SP lack a QWERTY keyboard).
Note that in order to access the SP version of the app, you will need to either click the "Change your device!") link at the top right or go straight to HERE.
Verdict
While it’s still pretty expensive (albeit the SP version is a bit cheaper), it’s highly recommended if you don’t need clickable links and logging. If you do need the latter, look for something else.
Agile Messenger 3-74
(The second is a 176*220 HTC s310 (Oxygen) screenshot)
Updates, differences
As far as the problems with the old version are concerned, unfortunately, it still only allows for sending images only. While it also supports built-in (back) cameras (along with adding a message to these images; the results can be seen in HERE), it still doesn’t support sending arbitrary files, let alone receiving anything. Logging is still NOT automatic and must be initiated by hand.
Differences between the PPC and the SP versions
The SP version seems to offer exactly the same goodies as the PPC one; for example, voice message recording and sending. It MIGHT be able to receive and (auto-)play voice messages (see THIS screenshot of the Media tab of Settings).
The SP version has Edit capabilities (unlike, say, the SP version of IM+); both Copy (only copying the currently selected row, as is the case with the PPC version) and Paste work as expected. This is good news as, unlike with the PPC version, links can NOT be invoked upon, for example, pressing the Action key on them (not even when a message ONLY contains a link and nothing else).
Logging-wise, there’s still no automatic logging – you must still save your messages by hand. The new History & Groups tab in Preferences doesn’t have any related checkbox either.
Fortunately, the SP version, as with the PPC one, dynamically resizes its GUI upon Portrait / Landscape switching and has no problems with the Vox keyboard (it, of course, works great in both phonepad modes, should your SP lack a QWERTY keyboard).
Finally, as far as initiating conference calls is concerned, it seems it’s, in theory, possible to invite other people to conference conversations; however, it’s just impossible to select any other participant on the Smartphone. With conference calls initiated from other clients, the messages coming from the non-originating party aren’t displayed in Agile, unlike in the desktop clients – that is, it’s useless. In this regard, it behaves exactly the same way as with version 65.
Verdict
The lack of automatic logging and file transfer capabilities is still a major pain in the back.

imov Messenger 2.22ee
(Note that most remarks refer to the Enterprise version - the free one is considerably less powerful.)
Updates, differences
As far as the differences between the new (2.22ee) and the old, last time reviewed version (2.12e) are concerned, there are few of them.
First, fortunately, the MAJOR problem with the pixel doubled suffering from heavy ClearType with VGA displays is gone as can be seen in THIS screenshot. Great – now, it’s highly recommended for VGA users (unlike version 2.12).
However, there is still no smiley input and text copy / paste is still not implemented (not even in the PPC version). Unfortunately, the same stands for file transfer. Finally, logging must still be manually started (Menu / 5 Log) in every single conversation you’d like to log (log files are stored in the root directory of the PDA in a 8-bit format. This also means accented Unicode characters will be lost and converted to their non-accented ASCII counterpart - if any.) Note that Menu / Actions / Log Messages (in the userlist page) is supposed to enable logging for all subsequent conversations; this currently (with the currently available, 2.22ee version) doesn't work, but already works with the in-development beta I was sent by the developer, which means it MIGHT be supported in the future.
Note that the currently available SP version is the lack for the dynamic Portrait- Landscape switching support (as opposed to both Agile and IM+). This will be VERY bad news for Vox users that very often slide out and in the keyboard (screenshots: 1 2). If you know you will switch the orientation, start with Landscape mode because, otherwise, you won’t see what you type after switching from Portait to Landscape as can be seen in the previous screenshot. Then, you “only” lose part of the Portrait screen estate (1 2; after switching back to Landscape, there, everything will be OK). The problem is present, but to a much lesser degree, on the PPC platform too (example of the results of a dynamic rotation HERE. After this, rotating back on the PPC didn’t help either – as opposed to the SP version).
The developer has already fixed this (to a certain degree) but I don’t know when the new version is made online.
Differences between the PPC and the SP versions
The SP version is almost exactly the same as the PPC one, which is certainly very good news, given that the SP port of, for example, IM+, is clearly inferior to the PPC one. This means all the goodies of the PPC version are present in the SP version too; for example, clickable links.
Other niceties & screenshots
There is a very nice feature in imov messenger not present in any other IM product: Location Based Services, which must be explicitly enabled & the related routing capabilities to other users (in THIS screenshot, without coordinates being given; also note the “Route From / To” menu items in the bottom right). It makes it possible to know the distance from another user. I haven’t tested this, but if it’s correctly implemented (for example, with GPS support – that is, not using static coordinates but dynamic ones), it can be of GREAT help in helping people track each other.
OctroTalk 1.19
(PPC screenshot; roster screenshot with session list)
This product is still in beta phase, meaning you can freely download and use it.
Updates, differences
There are some differences but, in general, the client hasn’t received really groundbreaking features. Its VoIP features, in addition, are clearly inferior to those of the Fring client. For example, the Yahoo Messenger-compliance hasn’t been implemented (they have enabled it in an earlier beta – but it didn’t work then; maybe this is why it has been dropped in the meantime.) Also, send to MSN doesn’t allow anything (the same is the case on SP – it seems it only works with Google Talk (it’s enabled in there – haven’t checked its functionality though). It also lets for file sharing – I haven’t really checked this functionality either (it surely doesn’t work over MSN).
Chat preferences don’t let for setting many things (PPC is the same). It’s not possible to select / copy anything.
Differences between the PPC and the SP versions
There are no differences.

Fring (version as of 07/06/2007)
(The same on PPC; in-call with MSN)
I’m absolutely sure you will LOVE this client if you’d like to make calls to / receive calls from your MSN / Skype / Google Talk / standard SIP buddies.
It’s better than both OctroTalk and Skype for Windows Mobile in some respects. First, it’s compatible with several VoIP protocols, unlike with the two other, which are one-protocol only (Google Talk and Skype, respectively). Second, it uses its own, really bandwidth-friendly VoIP protocols instead of the bandwidth-intensive native protocols used by both OctroTalk and Skype for Windows Mobile. This means it works even over slowish GPRS connections, assuming they use at least two slots in each direction (the traditional 4/1 down/up slot-setup isn’t really good because of the slow upstream, which will just not be fast enough for upstream voice).
Using its own, low-bandwidth protocol also means it uses a central server to convert between the internal protocol it uses and the official protocol used by MSN, Skype and Google Talk. This introduces some additional delay, which, in cases, can be as high as 3 seconds (my measurements) from Europe (using the server in the UK). In many cases, however, the latency is considerably lower. That is, give the service a try to find out whether you can live with the latency.
Downloading, installing
This client differs from other ones in that you must provide your SMS-capable cell number to the download page HERE. After registering, you'll immediately get an SMS with the source URL like the one in THIS screenshot. Just click the link and let the default Web browser (in most cases, Internet Explorer Mobile) download it. Make sure you let it also run the CAB file so that it is installed. After starting the program after install, just enter any username / password pair in the starting screen to register. After this, all you need is setting up your MSN / Google Talk / Skype etc. login credentials, as with the other IM clients.
Bandwidth usage
As has already been pointed out, Fring is especially good at conversing bandwidth. When it senses it’s on a cell (not over Wi-Fi or, what is equivalent to the client, USB ActiveSync) connection, it uses the least bandwidth-consuming vocoder, which is even better than the GSM codec used by MS Portrait, one of the most advanced Windows Mobile client in this respect. Over Wi-Fi (and USB ActiveSync), it’ll use a more bandwidth-consuming vocoder with conversely better sound quality.
I’ve made some VERY serious tests of the client with three protocols and compared the result to those of OctroTalk, Skype for Windows Mobile and MS Portrait. Fring turned out to be the MOST bandwidth-efficient VoIP solution for Windows Mobile. This means if you MUST do VoIP on your handheld and you don’t have an unlimited data plan (but pay a LOT for data usage), Fring is your best choice.
Chatting-wise, it doesn’t have much to show off with (no logging, no smiley support in any direction, no clickable links (not even in the PPC version), no copy/paste on SP – it works on PPC). It has no problems with dynamic orientation changing. Note that, while it doesn’t use the standard mobile flag either, it uses a quick description showing the client uses a mobile device.
Differences between the PPC and the SP versions
It seems there’s no difference between the two versions.
Mundu IM 4.0.137
Updates, differences
Mundu IM has received some (much inferior to all other IM products – except for Fring) basic smiley support in both directions. Also, it now supports MSN avatars.
Its camera support also works on the Vox (1 2 3 4).
All the past goodies are here; for example, auto-logging and built-in viewing of past conversations.
Differences between the PPC and the SP versions
There’s no separate PPC version; that is, the PPC needs to run the SP version. This also means there’s absolutely no difference between the two versions.

Webmessenger Mobile Instant Messenger 2.6 build 070702
Updates, differences
Fortunately, the VGA font size problems are fixed and one of the biggest problems with the old version, the inability to position the cursor in the input field is also fixed. As far as VGA devices are concerned, however, some of the input fields are still oversized as can be seen in HERE. This isn’t a problem on Smartphones (see THIS)
The PC-part Skype plug-in is still required, should you want to chat with Skype users. It still doesn’t support copying text to the clipboard – and there is still no for example logging.
Differences between the PPC and the SP versions
The two ports are exactly the same.
Screenshots
Settings dialogs: Contacts, Connections, Notifications (1 2; on the MS Smartphone), Misc, IM Networks. There are some other changes; for example, setting the status is can not only be done in the old way but in another, specific tab as well.
Causerie Mobile Messenger 1.0.9
The latest, current version, 1.0.9 was released some days after my publishing the review (which discussed 1.0).
SP-wise, while the developers state it’s SP-compliant, it didn’t work on my SP devices (see screenshots & more info in the comparison chart).
Live Messenger
Unfortunately, it seems it will never be released as a separately downloadable IM client. While some people (see for example THIS) state it’s available at Microsoft’s TechNet for download, I don’t think it’s true.
Of course, there are “hacks” linked for example XDA-Developers, MoDaCo and HowardForums letting for installing it on any WM5+ device, but I’m not allowed to link these. Hope you understand.
The SP version is as advanced as the PPC version:
file sending / receiving
voice clip sending / receiving
conference support: 1 2 3; an in-conference screenshot
emoticon input / output
Unfortunately, the problems and shortcomings of the PPC versions are also here: no logging etc. The settings dialog is similarly simple. Furthermore, it doesn’t support copy / paste (missing from the platform) with a specific, SP-only menu – bad news!
Web-based services
Note that there is also a Web-based service at http://mobile.live.com/GoLive (just enter the address into a PPC / SP browser as can be seen in HERE). I haven’t included it in the review as it is, being a Web-based service with all its problems (need for manual refresh; no callback; huge bandwidth usage etc), NOT recommended on any Windows Mobile devices. Incidentally, at the time of this writing, it didn’t work on any of my Smartphones or Pocket PC’s – only a gradient background was displayed as can be seen in HERE (HTC Vox Smartphone) and HERE (HTC Universal PPC). Note that there’s a tutorial to GoLive HERE. Alternatively, you may also want to give a try to eBuddy Mobile, which offers a way of accessing MSN, AIM and Yahoo.
Verdict
As with the Pocket PC, giving GENERIC advice on picking the BEST IM client on Smartphones is impossible without knowing your requirements and preferences. I can, therefore, as with the PPC case, only give you some generic advice:
if you only need to use textual messaging, use the built-in Live Messenger (when available) – in general, it’s the most powerful MSN client, unless you need logging and copy/paste support. Should you need logging, your best choice is either imov (hope it will REALLY receive auto-logging; that is, where you don’t need to (re)enable logging before your conversations – the developer promises it) or Mundu IM – or, if manual logging requests are OK, Agile.
if you don’t need logging, you may want to check out any other client
if you need to use voice (especially over restricted / slow / non-unlimited connections OR with strictly MSN parties – there are no other clients supporting MSN VoIP), then, Fring is the way to go. It works even over EDGE connections astonishingly well and, unlike the two alternatives, doesn’t consume much bandwidth. You, however, may encounter increased latency, if it gets on your nerves, then, switch back to other, direct alternatives.

Extremely detailed as always. Thank You

thank u very much!

send and receive
Hi! I've an Htc S710 with windows live messenger but I cannot receive or send files cause theres no option to do it.... Do u know why? Is there a software that manages my msn accounts with the option to send and receive files to-from a pc messnger? THanx

zipredictive said:
Hi! I've an Htc S710 with windows live messenger but I cannot receive or send files cause theres no option to do it.... Do u know why? Is there a software that manages my msn accounts with the option to send and receive files to-from a pc messnger? THanx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure there is no "File" at Menu / 2 / 3? File transfer works just great on my S710 (see the screenshots above)

s710 - mac
Great reviews, very helpful.
I am on an s710 Vox too, I am using a Mac and I cannot seem to use the .exe files to install Agile Messenger. What is the correct .CAB file to use to install directly? I have tried a few and keep gettign erros that it is the wrong version.
Is this something you or anyone can help me with?
Thanks

prelude icq is great alternative for people who use icq only. i work with this over a year

Great guides, thank you!
You didn't mention anything about the issue of Windows Live attempting to sync contacts into a PPC's address book (WM6)?

BlackBeauty said:
Great guides, thank you!
You didn't mention anything about the issue of Windows Live attempting to sync contacts into a PPC's address book (WM6)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup; currently, it can't be fixed. If you absolutely hate it, use an alternate IM app.

UPDATE (11/15/2007): REVIEW: Another great, multiplatform instant messenger client: Palringo. Cross-posted to: PPCT, AximSite, XDA-Developers - 1, XDA-Developers - 2, XDA-Developers - 3, FirstLoox, BrightHand, HowardForums, SPT, MoDaCo.

Sorry for the stupid question, but:
which program is the winner of your great comparison?
I would say fring and agile messenger...

A.Bagatov said:
Sorry for the stupid question, but:
which program is the winner of your great comparison?
I would say fring and agile messenger...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It all depend son your needs - whether you want logging, VoIP, picture smilies etc. That is, I can't name "the" best title because these apps do everything differently and I don't know YOUR specific needs / prerequsitives.

Okay that's very true.
Which one would you recommend for VoiP (like VoipBuster) then? I guess fring?

A.Bagatov said:
Okay that's very true.
Which one would you recommend for VoiP (like VoipBuster) then? I guess fring?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, fring.

Thanks a lot for the comparison!
You know I am asking this because I have the Vodafone unlimited data plan. Unfortunately I found out that Voip/VoipSMS are "not allowed". But even if I do it (and I did for a few seconds to see if it works) how will they find out I used Voip? Its just regular Data transfer right? And the data use is also really low..
Thanks

Anybody tried VoIP with Fring via T-Mobile UK 3G? Does it work?

MS Smartphone Instant Messaging Bible

It was some four months ago that I’ve published the definitive guide and comparison of all instant messaging solutions for the Pocket PC, the Windows Mobile Instant Messaging (IM) Bible.
The constant evolution of the clients (for example, the recent release of the really promising and, on Windows Mobile, except for Microsoft Portrait unprecedented and unrivalled Fring client) and the MS Smartphone (WM 6 Standard) platform have forced me to embark on an update to the roundup.
In this roundup, I review all the IM solutions working on the MS Smartphone platform along with listing the PPC-specific changes too. That is, this article will appeal to both Pocket PC and MS Smartphone users. In addition, if you’re interested in Voice over IP (VoIP) solutions, you REALLY will want to read the related section: I also review Fring, the (on Windows Mobile) brand new and simply GREAT Skype, MSN , Google Talk and standard SIP-compliant application working just great even over EDGE or more advanced (with at least 2 upload slots) GPRS connections.
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(the icons of the reviewed apps on my HTC Vox. I haven’t put the icon of Causerie Mobile Messenger 1.0.9 there because of its incompatibility with the platform – despite what the developer states, it doesn’t seem to be compatible with Smartphones.)
Again, this article is a three-in-one roundup:
a FULL review & roundup of all IM solutions running on the MS Smartphone
a review of what has been changed in the last four months: Most of the reviewed applications have been updated in the meantime. While these updates are pretty minor with all the titles, it’s still worth checking them out as some of the missing functionalities or bugs have been fixed in these.
a review of the completely new and groundbreaking Fring client, compared to the other clients offering similar functionality.
Note that you REALLY will want to read the original Windows Mobile Instant Messaging Bible. It’s in there that I’ve thoroughly described all the IM clients I elaborate on in here – except for, of course, the brand new Fring. That is, do read the original Bible. Note that I’ve already updated its chart to include the new information on both the new versions and the Smartphone-related information.
In addition to my Pocket PC’s (where I’ve tested how the Pocket PC-related functionality has been improved), I’ve used two MS Smartphone devices to test the IM clients on: a WM5 AKU3 176*220 HTC s310 (Oxygen) and a WM6 QVGA HTC s710 (Vox). On the latter, I’ve paid special attention to supporting the built-in keyboard and the dynamic orientation switching support – in addition to the QVGA support, of course.
IM+ 4.41 (PPC) / 1.38 (SP)
(a generic Smartphone in-conversation screenshot, showing Unicode chars, smileys, clickable links and local T9 input
Updates, differences
PPC-wise, there aren’t much differences between version 4.41 and the old, 4.3 version. There is a new setting for filtering out messages coming from users NOT in the Contacts list.
Also, there are some other, minor enhancements; for example, while losing the connection, the current conversations are all closed in the PPC version (but not with SP). This isn’t a problem any more with the PPC version either, though – past messages are redisplayed upon resuming the connection. However, the (minor) problems with the earlier version are still present: non-clickable links (this is mostly a problem with the SP version because of the lack of the copy / paste functionality on the OS (and on IM+’s) level) and the lack of the mobile flag.
Differences between the PPC and the SP versions
The PPC and the Smartphone versions (current, tested versions: 4.41 and 1.38, respectively) are pretty much the same. Some of the differences between the PPC and the SP versions:
There’s no Today plug-in (as with most of the other IM clients - the lack of the Today plug-in, the system-level notification capabilities, copy/paste and notification bubbles are the most important differences between the two platforms)
There’re no copy / paste capabilities (which is pretty much problematic if you’d like to follow links as there, as with the PPC version, are no clickable links either)
Logging capabilities are completely missing – the Messages settings dialog has no way of enabling it, unlike the “Save history” checkbox (unticked by default) in the “General” settings dialog of the PPC version. This is certainly VERY bad!
However, ever cloud has a silver lining: the SP version is $10 cheaper ($29.95) than the PPC one, while (apart from the problems listed above) and even pretty much usable.
Other screenshots
In the main Chat windows, there’s no Roster shortcut and there’re no Edit (Copy / Paste) capabilities either. It’s not possible to quickly switch to other accounts either, other than selecting Close and, then, using the list control at the top to switch between active chats.
Settings: Alerts (here: Notifications) No wakeup / notification by default; must be enabled by hand. The PPC version uses system-level notifications (1 2), which is certainly a better approach.
Background running, as with the PPC version, must also be explicitly enabled. Otherwise – again, as with the PPC version, in which this mode must also be manually enabled – it won’t wake up.
Network: the same (PPC version HERE)
Fortunately, the SP version, as with the PPC one, dynamically resizes its GUI upon Portrait / Landscape switching and has no problems with the Vox keyboard (it, of course, works great in both phonepad modes, should your SP lack a QWERTY keyboard).
Note that in order to access the SP version of the app, you will need to either click the "Change your device!") link at the top right or go straight to HERE.
Verdict
While it’s still pretty expensive (albeit the SP version is a bit cheaper), it’s highly recommended if you don’t need clickable links and logging. If you do need the latter, look for something else.

Agile Messenger 3-74
(The second is a 176*220 HTC s310 (Oxygen) screenshot)
Updates, differences
As far as the problems with the old version are concerned, unfortunately, it still only allows for sending images only. While it also supports built-in (back) cameras (along with adding a message to these images; the results can be seen in HERE), it still doesn’t support sending arbitrary files, let alone receiving anything. Logging is still NOT automatic and must be initiated by hand.
Differences between the PPC and the SP versions
The SP version seems to offer exactly the same goodies as the PPC one; for example, voice message recording and sending. It MIGHT be able to receive and (auto-)play voice messages (see THIS screenshot of the Media tab of Settings).
The SP version has Edit capabilities (unlike, say, the SP version of IM+); both Copy (only copying the currently selected row, as is the case with the PPC version) and Paste work as expected. This is good news as, unlike with the PPC version, links can NOT be invoked upon, for example, pressing the Action key on them (not even when a message ONLY contains a link and nothing else).
Logging-wise, there’s still no automatic logging – you must still save your messages by hand. The new History & Groups tab in Preferences doesn’t have any related checkbox either.
Fortunately, the SP version, as with the PPC one, dynamically resizes its GUI upon Portrait / Landscape switching and has no problems with the Vox keyboard (it, of course, works great in both phonepad modes, should your SP lack a QWERTY keyboard).
Finally, as far as initiating conference calls is concerned, it seems it’s, in theory, possible to invite other people to conference conversations; however, it’s just impossible to select any other participant on the Smartphone. With conference calls initiated from other clients, the messages coming from the non-originating party aren’t displayed in Agile, unlike in the desktop clients – that is, it’s useless. In this regard, it behaves exactly the same way as with version 65.
Verdict
The lack of automatic logging and file transfer capabilities is still a major pain in the back.
imov Messenger 2.22ee
(Note that most remarks refer to the Enterprise version - the free one is considerably less powerful.)
Updates, differences
As far as the differences between the new (2.22ee) and the old, last time reviewed version (2.12e) are concerned, there are few of them.
First, fortunately, the MAJOR problem with the pixel doubled suffering from heavy ClearType with VGA displays is gone as can be seen in THIS screenshot. Great – now, it’s highly recommended for VGA users (unlike version 2.12).
However, there is still no smiley input and text copy / paste is still not implemented (not even in the PPC version). Unfortunately, the same stands for file transfer. Finally, logging must still be manually started (Menu / 5 Log) in every single conversation you’d like to log (log files are stored in the root directory of the PDA in a 8-bit format. This also means accented Unicode characters will be lost and converted to their non-accented ASCII counterpart - if any.) Note that Menu / Actions / Log Messages (in the userlist page) is supposed to enable logging for all subsequent conversations; this currently (with the currently available, 2.22ee version) doesn't work, but already works with the in-development beta I was sent by the developer, which means it MIGHT be supported in the future.
Note that the currently available SP version is the lack for the dynamic Portrait- Landscape switching support (as opposed to both Agile and IM+). This will be VERY bad news for Vox users that very often slide out and in the keyboard (screenshots: 1 2). If you know you will switch the orientation, start with Landscape mode because, otherwise, you won’t see what you type after switching from Portait to Landscape as can be seen in the previous screenshot. Then, you “only” lose part of the Portrait screen estate (1 2; after switching back to Landscape, there, everything will be OK). The problem is present, but to a much lesser degree, on the PPC platform too (example of the results of a dynamic rotation HERE. After this, rotating back on the PPC didn’t help either – as opposed to the SP version).
The developer has already fixed this (to a certain degree) but I don’t know when the new version is made online.
Differences between the PPC and the SP versions
The SP version is almost exactly the same as the PPC one, which is certainly very good news, given that the SP port of, for example, IM+, is clearly inferior to the PPC one. This means all the goodies of the PPC version are present in the SP version too; for example, clickable links.
Other niceties & screenshots
There is a very nice feature in imov messenger not present in any other IM product: Location Based Services, which must be explicitly enabled & the related routing capabilities to other users (in THIS screenshot, without coordinates being given; also note the “Route From / To” menu items in the bottom right). It makes it possible to know the distance from another user. I haven’t tested this, but if it’s correctly implemented (for example, with GPS support – that is, not using static coordinates but dynamic ones), it can be of GREAT help in helping people track each other.

OctroTalk 1.19
(PPC screenshot; roster screenshot with session list)
This product is still in beta phase, meaning you can freely download and use it.
Updates, differences
There are some differences but, in general, the client hasn’t received really groundbreaking features. Its VoIP features, in addition, are clearly inferior to those of the Fring client. For example, the Yahoo Messenger-compliance hasn’t been implemented (they have enabled it in an earlier beta – but it didn’t work then; maybe this is why it has been dropped in the meantime.) Also, send to MSN doesn’t allow anything (the same is the case on SP – it seems it only works with Google Talk (it’s enabled in there – haven’t checked its functionality though). It also lets for file sharing – I haven’t really checked this functionality either (it surely doesn’t work over MSN).
Chat preferences don’t let for setting many things (PPC is the same). It’s not possible to select / copy anything.
Differences between the PPC and the SP versions
There are no differences.
Fring (version as of 07/06/2007)
(The same on PPC; in-call with MSN)
I’m absolutely sure you will LOVE this client if you’d like to make calls to / receive calls from your MSN / Skype / Google Talk / standard SIP buddies.
It’s better than both OctroTalk and Skype for Windows Mobile in some respects. First, it’s compatible with several VoIP protocols, unlike with the two other, which are one-protocol only (Google Talk and Skype, respectively). Second, it uses its own, really bandwidth-friendly VoIP protocols instead of the bandwidth-intensive native protocols used by both OctroTalk and Skype for Windows Mobile. This means it works even over slowish GPRS connections, assuming they use at least two slots in each direction (the traditional 4/1 down/up slot-setup isn’t really good because of the slow upstream, which will just not be fast enough for upstream voice).
Using its own, low-bandwidth protocol also means it uses a central server to convert between the internal protocol it uses and the official protocol used by MSN, Skype and Google Talk. This introduces some additional delay, which, in cases, can be as high as 3 seconds (my measurements) from Europe (using the server in the UK). In many cases, however, the latency is considerably lower. That is, give the service a try to find out whether you can live with the latency.
Downloading, installing
This client differs from other ones in that you must provide your SMS-capable cell number to the download page HERE. After registering, you'll immediately get an SMS with the source URL like the one in THIS screenshot. Just click the link and let the default Web browser (in most cases, Internet Explorer Mobile) download it. Make sure you let it also run the CAB file so that it is installed. After starting the program after install, just enter any username / password pair in the starting screen to register. After this, all you need is setting up your MSN / Google Talk / Skype etc. login credentials, as with the other IM clients.
Bandwidth usage
As has already been pointed out, Fring is especially good at conversing bandwidth. When it senses it’s on a cell (not over Wi-Fi or, what is equivalent to the client, USB ActiveSync) connection, it uses the least bandwidth-consuming vocoder, which is even better than the GSM codec used by MS Portrait, one of the most advanced Windows Mobile client in this respect. Over Wi-Fi (and USB ActiveSync), it’ll use a more bandwidth-consuming vocoder with conversely better sound quality.
I’ve made some VERY serious tests of the client with three protocols and compared the result to those of OctroTalk, Skype for Windows Mobile and MS Portrait. Fring turned out to be the MOST bandwidth-efficient VoIP solution for Windows Mobile. This means if you MUST do VoIP on your handheld and you don’t have an unlimited data plan (but pay a LOT for data usage), Fring is your best choice.
Chatting-wise, it doesn’t have much to show off with (no logging, no smiley support in any direction, no clickable links (not even in the PPC version), no copy/paste on SP – it works on PPC). It has no problems with dynamic orientation changing. Note that, while it doesn’t use the standard mobile flag either, it uses a quick description showing the client uses a mobile device.
Differences between the PPC and the SP versions
It seems there’s no difference between the two versions.
Mundu IM 4.0.137
Updates, differences
Mundu IM has received some (much inferior to all other IM products – except for Fring) basic smiley support in both directions. Also, it now supports MSN avatars.
Its camera support also works on the Vox (1 2 3 4).
All the past goodies are here; for example, auto-logging and built-in viewing of past conversations.
Differences between the PPC and the SP versions
There’s no separate PPC version; that is, the PPC needs to run the SP version. This also means there’s absolutely no difference between the two versions.

Webmessenger Mobile Instant Messenger 2.6 build 070702
Updates, differences
Fortunately, the VGA font size problems are fixed and one of the biggest problems with the old version, the inability to position the cursor in the input field is also fixed. As far as VGA devices are concerned, however, some of the input fields are still oversized as can be seen in HERE. This isn’t a problem on Smartphones (see THIS)
The PC-part Skype plug-in is still required, should you want to chat with Skype users. It still doesn’t support copying text to the clipboard – and there is still no for example logging.
Differences between the PPC and the SP versions
The two ports are exactly the same.
Screenshots
Settings dialogs: Contacts, Connections, Notifications (1 2; on the MS Smartphone), Misc, IM Networks. There are some other changes; for example, setting the status is can not only be done in the old way but in another, specific tab as well.
Causerie Mobile Messenger 1.0.9
The latest, current version, 1.0.9 was released some days after my publishing the review (which discussed 1.0).
SP-wise, while the developers state it’s SP-compliant, it didn’t work on my SP devices (see screenshots & more info in the comparison chart).
Live Messenger
Unfortunately, it seems it will never be released as a separately downloadable IM client. While some people (see for example THIS) state it’s available at Microsoft’s TechNet for download, I don’t think it’s true.
Of course, there are “hacks” linked for example XDA-Developers, MoDaCo and HowardForums letting for installing it on any WM5+ device, but I’m not allowed to link these. Hope you understand.
The SP version is as advanced as the PPC version:
file sending / receiving
voice clip sending / receiving
conference support: 1 2 3; an in-conference screenshot
emoticon input / output
Unfortunately, the problems and shortcomings of the PPC versions are also here: no logging etc. The settings dialog is similarly simple. Furthermore, it doesn’t support copy / paste (missing from the platform) with a specific, SP-only menu – bad news!
Web-based services
Note that there is also a Web-based service at http://mobile.live.com/GoLive (just enter the address into a PPC / SP browser as can be seen in HERE). I haven’t included it in the review as it is, being a Web-based service with all its problems (need for manual refresh; no callback; huge bandwidth usage etc), NOT recommended on any Windows Mobile devices. Incidentally, at the time of this writing, it didn’t work on any of my Smartphones or Pocket PC’s – only a gradient background was displayed as can be seen in HERE (HTC Vox Smartphone) and HERE (HTC Universal PPC). Note that there’s a tutorial to GoLive HERE. Alternatively, you may also want to give a try to eBuddy Mobile, which offers a way of accessing MSN, AIM and Yahoo.
Verdict
As with the Pocket PC, giving GENERIC advice on picking the BEST IM client on Smartphones is impossible without knowing your requirements and preferences. I can, therefore, as with the PPC case, only give you some generic advice:
if you only need to use textual messaging, use the built-in Live Messenger (when available) – in general, it’s the most powerful MSN client, unless you need logging and copy/paste support. Should you need logging, your best choice is either imov (hope it will REALLY receive auto-logging; that is, where you don’t need to (re)enable logging before your conversations – the developer promises it) or Mundu IM – or, if manual logging requests are OK, Agile.
if you don’t need logging, you may want to check out any other client
if you need to use voice (especially over restricted / slow / non-unlimited connections OR with strictly MSN parties – there are no other clients supporting MSN VoIP), then, Fring is the way to go. It works even over EDGE connections astonishingly well and, unlike the two alternatives, doesn’t consume much bandwidth. You, however, may encounter increased latency, if it gets on your nerves, then, switch back to other, direct alternatives.
UPDATE (07/08/2007): Smartphone Thoughts frontpage

how about an update with Slick?

So...Whitch one of these IM's is the best?

how about EQO? www.eqo.com
and morange www.morange.com

Thank you for the great coverage on IM on smart phones.
Can you cover slick also. I am using slick now. Looks good.
Cheers
crankx

Palringo? Its awesome......maybe you could make a review?

jacknmary said:
Palringo? Its awesome......maybe you could make a review?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I've fogotten to update this thread with links to my latest reviews... you can find the new reviews at http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Instant Messaging, VoIP, other p2p communication ; for example, that of Palringo at http://wiki.xda-developers.com/inde...tiplatform instant messenger client: Palringo

This article needs to be revised to add the official Windows Mobile AIM client from AOL. http://beta.aol.com/projects.php?project=aimwinmobile&loc=2 . The official AIM client is actually very good.

Why not talkonaut and microsoft portrait?
Plz add google talkonaut (IMHO the best instant messaging client) and microsoft portrait (which lets u have video chat with another windows live user).

Been using Nimbuzz, the best one I've seen. Everything from im to facebook, etc.

(Multiplatform) REVIEW: RDM+ by SHAPE Services': a decent remote desktop access tool

I’ve long been promising a full comparison, benchmark and (compared to alternative solutions) pros/cons list of SHAPE Services’ RDM+, a really decent, multiplatform remote desktop controlling / accessor solution. Now that they have a MASSIVE rebate, I dedicated some time for some thorough testing on no less than four different mobile platforms: Windows Mobile Pocket PC (with touch screens), Windows Mobile Smartphone (without touch screens), Symbian S60 (Nokia N95) and BlackBerry (BB 8800). Sorry for being four-platform again: a geek like me just loves toys and wants to play with all the major gadgets and major mobile operating systems available (not only Windows Mobile).
Note that SHAPE Services have another, purely Java-based (meaning there's NO native Windows Mobile client and you must use a MIDlet manager) remote access client, TSMobiles. I'll review it VERY soon.
Please note that this isn’t a full review, just a “list” of the pros and cons and my benchmark results and a complete comparison of the (in some respects, pretty different) implementations on the different platforms. You’ll want to read my previous Windows Mobile Remote Desktop Controller Bible to get more information on what for example the benchmark results stand for, what the different features really mean etc. Again, I will NOT explain anything in here already explained in the Bible. Read it to get a picture of what I’m referring to in the current article.
Note that the current, tested versions are as follows: 3.6.6 (Windows Mobile); 3.6.8 (Symbian / Java; BlackBerry). By the time you read this review (probably months or even years later), it may be heavily outdated. Of course, I’ll try to keep it up-to-date by constantly posting “UPDATE” sections at the bottom. Make sure you check them out. Also make sure you check out the links in this article: they link to a lot of screenshots.
1. Bandwidth usage benchmarks
Using exactly the same method as with the old benchmarks, with exactly the same set-up so that the bandwidth usage results can be directly compared:
(On Windows Mobile [on Blackberries, it's 24 bit], default) 8 bit color depth; measured twice
8k/970k (up/down)
6k/966k (up/down) (both quite good)
(exactly the same results with smooth scrolling – this is excellent)
1 bit color depth (that is, monochrome): 5k/556k (that is, almost half of the bandwidth required in the default, 8-bit mode)
24 bit color depth: 6k/1MB
Idling (without anything happening: no visible animations, cursor etc): 3k/10k a minute (excellent result – compare it to the very bad results of, say, GoToMyPC or, even worse, PPC Tablet)
Cursor blink test: 2k/11k a minute (again, excellent – compare this to the very bad results of I’m InTouch)
The transfer speed is excellent on Pocket PC’s via a Wi-Fi connection; I had no screen refresh problems even with 0.5s waiting between the page down events on a VGA (!) device, in Landscape mode, using 800*600 desktop resolution. The Java client running on the Nokia N95 was pretty fast, too. It’s only on (current) BlackBerries that you might encounter somewhat slower screen updates, it seems.
2. Pros
Fully compatible with the MS Smartphone platform (and with Symbian / BlackBerry / the iPhone)
Pretty good bandwidth usage (in no way so good as GotoMyPC though) – about in the same class as RDP 5, RemotelyAnywhere, LogMeIn and Tight VNC and much better than less-sophisticated clients like Z2Remote.
absolutely no cursor blink or smooth scroll overhead
very fast transfer of new screen contents, unlike with, say, I’m InTouch
processes, services (with the same functionality as in the Windows XP admin tools – see THIS and THIS)!, windows list, system info, hardware info
GUI-based remote system restart / logout / shutdown
native console window with access to all tools like ipconfig (example screenshots: 1 2); copying the contents of this dialog to the clipboard works with the on-screen keyboard
very cheap if you only plan to deploy it on one client machine
no yearly fees, unlike with most of the commercial, Internet-based alternatives
file up/download (still NOT available on BlackBerries) – screenshots: 1 2
support for all special keys (both from menu and on-screen keyboard): 1 2 3 4
support for all mouse buttons (but NO hardware button support – see below)
doesn’t lock out the remote desktop user, unlike RDP-based solutions; it doesn’t force a forced screen resolution either
multiple clients are allowed to access the desktop at the same time
traffic meter (just to be on the safe side) with both “total” and “last session” meters
connections (along with their password) are saved in an address book (screenshot HERE, also showing the main address book menu); no need to re-enter them
message sending from server to (all) connected client(s) in a dedicated window; this will be shown in a dedicated message box on the client(s). Note that there’s a Send Text feature in the mobile client too (on all platforms); it, however, just sends the text in as pure text (no dedicated dialog box will be shown on the desktop). On non-Windows Mobile platforms, there's an additional way of sending messages which will be presented in a dialog window on the desktop.
supports both Portrait and Landscape (switched on the OS level) – good news for for example Dell Axim x50v / x51v users suffering from the Landscape polarization issues of the low-quality screen
a lot of predefined keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl-Alt-Del etc.) – screenshots: 1 2
average memory usage (25M) on the desktop (screenshot showing this HERE) – there’re much worse titles in this respect (for example, the latest I’m InTouch version)

3. Cons
no desktop PC client – BAD! In this respect, most of the alternatives are clearly better
no copy/paste features (clipboard synchronization) at all (unlike most Windows Mobile alternatives) between the remote desktop and the local PPC – this is a major problem.
Fortunately, there are still some ways of (not very sophisticated) ways of transferring clipboard / textual data between the desktop and the mobile: file transfer (bidirectional); Send as text
upon file download, target folder selection uses a somewhat awkward WinCE file selector. On MS Smartphones, you can’t select the target folder at all (screenshot 1 2 3 - as you can see, on MS Smartphones, you can only save files to the root of your storage card. At least you can rename them to avoid name clashes...)
it has a tendency of refusing to step into subdirectories on both Pocket PC’s and Smartphones in file system mode. Then, the entire client (!) needs to be restarted (simply reconnecting won’t work).
if you spend too much time idling in a menu doing nothing, the connection will terminate
no configurable hardware buttons (unlike in, say, PO Pocket Office) to be able to quickly issue, say, right clicks (to avoid having to either bring-up the context menu, click the R button on the on-screen special (hideable) keyboard (these both are shown in THIS screenshot)) on-screen. Fortunately, the Action button is overridden to send a left click.
slowish file transfer (without any kind of compression / optimization with compressable content) on Pocket PC’s and MS Smartphones – but, at least, it’s present. (Interestingly, it is considerably (about two times) faster on the Symbian S60 / Java-based Nokia N95.)
no full screen on Windows Moile Pocket PC’s and MS Smartphones: the lower menubar can’t be hidden (on Blackberries and Java phones like S60 devices, this isn’t a problem at all – there, it does use full screen); MS Smartphone screenshot
no sound transfer (unlike RDM in WM6)
D-pad is used to control the mouse even on touchscreen devices and can’t be reconfigured to emulate the desktop-side cursor keys. At least it offers a quick way of scrolling the window. Note that, on touschreen-less MS Smartphones, you can switch to the “Direct Input” mode; then, the D-pad will directly emulate the cursor keys on the desktop. This feature isn’t accessible in the Pocket PC version (dunno why - it should be!).
The cursor block on built-in keyboards / thumbboards behaves exactly the same way as the D-pad. While one would, in most cases, except it can be used to emulate the desktop-side cursor keys, this isn’t the case – it can only be used to control the virtual mouse cursor on Pocket PC’s. On MS Smartphones, as has already been explained, if you switch to the “Direct Input” mode, you can use these cursor keys to directly control the cursor (just like with the D-pad) – but, again, not on the Pocket PC version.
no “track the cursor” features (when a small-screen mobile client wants to track what the active user enters in, say, Word or Internet Explorer)
no screen dragging with the stylus in zoomed-in mode on Pocket PC’s (D-pad- or on-screen arrow-based quick scrolling works OK though)
no remote PIM (appointments, e-mails etc.) access, unlike with (the brand new, soon-to-be-reviewed version of) SoonR or I’m InTouch. The same stands for remote file search.
can be expensive if you have more than one mobile clients – you’ll need to purchase a license for each of them
no “Hovering cursor” operation – much as, by default, you can position the cursor anywhere on the screen without issuing any mouse clicks, the new position of the cursor will only be transferred to the client when you actually issue a click – this pretty much negates one of the advantages of the hovering. This is, of course, pretty much understandable if you take into account that on no-touchscreen MS Smartphones (but NOT on the Blackberry / Java versions, where you can switch to a strictly scrolling mode, without any cursor, when zoomed in) the D-pad is also used for positioning the cursor (in addition to scrolling); there it’s understandable if there’re no ways of hovering. On Pocket PC’s (where you’ll mostly use the touch screen to position your cursor), however, this behavior could be changed.
no bitmap caching – upon zooming in/out or returning to a previous place (when scrolling around), the page will reload. This is painfully slow on for example the Blackberry (at least on T-Mobile’s connection using TCP/IP; over the same T-Mo subscription & connection, the Symbian S60 N95 was way faster)
on the Pocket PC sending mouse button (left) clicks is somewhat slower than in most other clients becase you can’t configure the client to treat screen taps as left clicks. That is, the PPC client could be enhanced in that on natively touchscreen-enabled devices a screen tap (or double screentaps) could mean a left click). On all platforms (including the Pocket PC) the Action button is used for left clicks – on non-touchscreen models, this is perfectly OK.
except for the screen blinking at the start/end of the session and the tray icon’s background changing to (not very noticeable) green, no REALLY obvious feedback on the remote desktop (unlike with, say, LogMeIn, with its clearly visible, protruding dialog box) of it being remote controlled.

4. Differences between the different OS versions
In the following section, I refer to the version offered for non-Pocket PC and non-BlackBerry, Java-capable smart phones (like the Symbian S60 series) as the “Java” version to avoid misunderstanding. The official literature calls them “standard” version, along with the Pocket PC one (as opposed to the BB version). Interestingly, the software retailers call the Java and the BB versions with the same name (“RDM+: Remote Desktop for Mobiles”), while they call the Windows Mobile version “RDM+: Remote Desktop for Windows Pocket PC”. Pretty much messed up naming convention, I’d say
the Java and the BB version (as opposed to the PPC one) are able to send messages displayed as a dialog box (example HERE) from System manager / Send Message (screenshots: 1 2), not only Send text, which just inserts some text at the cursor
the PPC / MS Smartphone version is able to send function keys and modifiers (F1…F12, Ctrl, Alt etc.); the PPC version even has an on-screen quick keyboard. The Java / BB version are only able to send over special characters, NOT function keys or modifier. Note that on BB and Java, there is only one menu key used (the left softkey on Java and the usual Menu button on BB ); in there, sending special characters are called “Send shortcut”.
the BB version has two additional menu items: Text cursor on and, when zoomed in, Scroll mode. The latter makes it possible to scroll the viewport much faster than with the cursor displayed, should you quickly need to change scrolling directions. The Pocket PC version only has an on-screen arrow block to do this (I’d still prefer faster, hardware D-pad-based scrolling)
the BB version doesn’t support file transfer (yet); however, it’s the only to allow for peeking into files on the desktop without transferring them. Fortunately, it downloads the files in chunks – only the actual (about 100-150 lines) viewport is downloaded at once. In Line mode, you can edit the lines in text files; it’s only then that you can copy any text from the desktop to the Blackberry clipboard.
the Java version is much faster at downloading files (1:07 for a 450 kbyte file over HSDPA) than the WinMo one; my Pocket PC’s and Smartphones transferred files much slower. For example, downloading a 2.5M binary and a 1.5 textual file to the built-in storage took 5:35 and 6:08, respectively, over an, otherwise, very fast Wi-Fi connection on my HTC Universal; I got similar results with the Dell Axim x51v and the HTC s710 / Vox, both operated over (very fast) ActiveSync connections. Fortunately, there isn’t a measurable file transfer overhead, data usage-wise (but there’s no compression either).
4.1 Symbian S60 quick elaboration and screenshots
I’ve thoroughly tested the current (Java) version on my Nokia N95 too; it worked flawlessly and decidedly faster than the BlackBerry version (unfortunately, the BlackBerry is pretty slow to run third-party apps – hope this will be fixed in the new, 4.5 / 4.6 operating system version(s)). Some screenshots: Main menu, with the entire desktop in the background; file download 1 2 3; zoomed-in state; system manager. As can clearly be seen, it has pretty much the same features (and problems) as on the Pocket PC (except for the ones explained above). In addition, as it’s Java, you can’t hide the connection icon in the upper left corner (this is a major problem with running Opera Mini on S60 too).
5. Licensing / pricing
Your license is one handheld-only. Should you try to register it on more than once handheld, you’re presented an error message. Licenses, of course, are transferable, should you upgrade to a new device and stop using your old one.
The price of the client, as with SHAPE’s other products, isn’t particularly low, but I think it’s worth the price if the cons I’ve listed aren’t a problem. After all, you’ll hardly get a file transfer-capable, central-server based (meaning it can pass corporate firewalls, unlike, say, RDP or VNC) remote desktop access client / service for such a low price: don’t forget that LogMeIn Pro and similar, file transfer-capable services all cost about 50$ a year. They, on the other hand, don’t limit the number of handhelds you can install your client on– but, again, that’s only a problem if you have more than one handheld device you’d like to use to access your desktop.
6. Verdict
If you have a Windows Mobile device:
While this app has some clear drawbacks compared to some of the alternates (for example, no easy PIM/e-mail access, no (easy) clipboard synchronization between the remote desktop and the local PPC, can’t hide the lower menu bar, buttons can’t be overwritten etc.), it’s still a very decent program and is definitely worth checking out. Of course, you yourself will need to decide whether the above-listed cons are a major stumbling block for you. I, for one, have purchased a Pocket PC license (in addition to a Blackberry one) because of the file transfer support and the company’s very good support / upgrade policy / history.
If you have a Blackberry device:
much as you may find it a bit slow (“thanks” to the slow Java virtual machine built into the current versions of BlackBerries), I still recommend taking a look at this app. Note that the SHAPE Services folks promise file transfer capabilities soon. Up until then, you only have remote file viewing capabilities. Knowing their constant flow of updates (I’ve also purchased their IM+ for my BB and, in the last two months, there have been two updates already), I’m absolutely confident they will deliver file transfer to BB users too – this was, by the way, one of the main reasons I’ve shelled out 26 euros for the BB license.
If you have a Symbian S60 (or any compatible device with a decent Java environment) model:
I recommend this application – there’re very few decent remote controllers for the Symbian platform. This is a very nice one with most goodies (for example, file transfer) you can expect – even by Windows Mobile standards.
I really hope the developer implements the missing functionality: automatic and/or much easier clipboard synchronization, at least a desktop Windows client (preferably for free for existing customers) so that you can streamline the remote desktop controller apps on your remote desktop computer, should you also want to access it from regular desktop PC’s; bitmap caching when scrolling around; real full screen mode on Windows Mobile and, also under Windows Mobile, button redefining capablities.
Particularly now that you can get the client license for a 40% rebate (pretty good deal if you’re in the EU – outside the EU, not that good a deal, though), I really recommend that you give the trial version a try. I, myself, have voted with my wallet: I’ve purchased both the PPC and the BlackBerry versions (along with a SOTI Pocket Controller license – but that’s a story of another article).

Free upgrade: how to add branded flagship features to your smartphone

Firmware flagship smartphones - this is often something more than just Android. Top devices are literally stuffed with functions that are not found in the base versions of the operating system. But it's not necessary to go broke for a pass to the VIP-segment. The already existing smartphone can be equipped with an advanced camera, like Google Pixel, or make it display information on the screen off, as in Samsung's flagships. About how to add useful functions of flagship devices to your smartphone - read in the article.
The difference between a top-end device and an inexpensive one lies not only in the advanced hardware "stuffing". Most of the interaction with the user is borne by the software part, which provides owners of expensive smartphones with the maximum convenience of use and advanced features. Owners of the same budget models are often deprived of many useful functions. However, the issue of software on the Android platform is easy to solve. And "pumping" your device - just a matter of time and several applications.
Practical Magic
Management of gestures - as a series "Game of Thrones". Up to the last you say that you will not watch, and then you are drawn in - and you can not tear yourself away from the screen. Samsung flagships have used a lot of relevant options for a long time, and in the new iPhone X svaypas are the only option for managing the smartphone. To assess the convenience of such a method, it is enough to acquire a specialized application, for example, iGest or All in one Gestures. You can go even further and organize gesture support on the disabled display with Knockr (for OLED screens). However, you will have to accept the increased power consumption of the device. Manage the smartphone without touching the display will help the program Air Swiper. Among its capabilities are the following functions of gesture management:
automatic activation of the screen when receiving SMS and opening a message;
turn the screen on and off;
turn on the silent mode by holding your hand over the proximity sensor;
turn on / off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Face ID for everyone
The new is a well-forgotten old. The analogue of the revolutionary technology Face ID from Apple was actually implemented in Android 5.0 and in later versions, too, has not gone away. The function of Smart Lock in its time did not stick, but the new trend from Cupertino spurred her popularity. To take advantage of the flagship option on any modern smartphone, you do not even need third-party software - just include the full-featured face recognition function in the Smart Lock menu. You can additionally protect any applications from running by unauthorized people with the Visidon AppLock program.
Advanced camera from Google
The hardware characteristics of the camera are only half of what is needed for a good photo. The second software is responsible, and the flagship models with it are traditionally full order. The camera application for smartphones from Google uses machine learning techniques and in HDR + mode allows you to transfer the smallest details in the shots even in shadows and in overexposed areas of the image. Most notably, this application - Google Camera - is available for a large number of devices. And even with the settings you have to tinker, the result is worth it:
Photo Sphere function for creating circular panoramas;
blur effect, as on a mirror camera;
panoramic mode with high resolution;
maximum resolution of the viewfinder;
convenient settings and a large shutter button;
modes HDR and HDR +.
Object recognition
Became public and the service Google Lens, formerly the privilege of the line of Pixel. The program gives users the opportunity to learn information about the surrounding objects through a smartphone camera. The list of useful functions includes the identification of attractions, the time of work of these institutions, translation of the text directly from the image and much more. Special manipulations for the installation of new items will not be required, it is enough just to update the "Google Photos" package to the current version.
Partly cloudy
Cloud storage is a convenient way to expand the device's memory and create backups. Many eminent brands even switched to their own storage services, keeping users in the internal ecosystem. However, it is not necessary to become attached to gadgets of one manufacturer. Add more space for your files and configure their synchronization with any of the available services. For example, Dropbox, "Cloud Mail.Ru" or "Yandex.Disk." All of them offer both free access with limited volume, and expansion of the storage using different tariff plans.
The miracles of cloning
To transfer from the top machines it is possible not only functionality. Even to modify the interface of your smartphone under the "clean" Android in the spirit of Google Pixel - no problem. The recipe for "pixelization" is simple. First, install the Nova Launcher shell, then go to the interface settings and perform some simple manipulations:
choose the shape of the bottom panel "Rectangle" and make it transparent;
adjust the position of the search bar (top or bottom);
Change the grid of the desktop and the bottom panel (the number of columns, rows and icons on the desktop);
For complete authenticity, we turn on the weather display next to Google's search bar;
change the icons and the type of folders using Pixel Icon Pack 2 Free Theme UI;
edit the application menu - display, grid of icons and background color;
we finish the composition by installing the branded Google applications "Phone", "Contacts" and "Messages";
PROFIT!
Always On Displays
Until recently, this technology was available only on some smartphones with AMOLED-screens, now anyone can try it on their device. To view the time and missed notifications, you no longer need to unlock the smartphone - the utility will display important information directly on the screen. And do not worry that the battery will be discharged faster - it will involve a limited number of pixels without turning on the backlight. Of course, only in the case of AMOLED-displays. However, there is a beta version of a similar application for TFT-models: judging from the reviews, the usability is worth several "extra" percent of battery per day.
Smart Case
Samsung S View - a proprietary "chip" of the Korean manufacturer. Covers of the corresponding series are equipped with a transparent window, through which you can see the screen. A sort of Always On Display in miniature, but with advanced features: right from this window the user can answer calls, see the name of the playable melody, get quick access to the camera. A magnetic sensor automatically locks the display when the cover is slammed and vice versa. If the same cover was found on the gadget of another brand, then to get the same functionality it is enough to install the application S View. The program is compatible with any Android-smartphone and uses a proximity sensor instead of a magnet.
LED-indication
The possibility of notification of events with the help of LED-indicator and button illumination, like the Nexus series, became available on all Android-devices. Both Light Flow and Led Reminder will help you to implement both scenarios. Missed calls, SMS, low level of charge - only a small part of the notifications, customizable with the specified software. In addition to saving time (you do not need to unlock the screen to find out about the missed event), the battery consumption also decreases, because waiting for an incoming message does not have to constantly turn on the backlight. There is also the option of disabling the indication at night.
Of course, this is not all the proprietary features that can be found in the firmware of those or other smartphone manufacturers. Perhaps, it is not worth copying them completely - there are shortcomings in top solutions, too. Android is a flexible platform, and in today's article we have considered only the best features of flagship devices, leaving behind the scenes dubious or completely useless. And you had to "finish the file" your gadget to squeeze out of it more functionality?

copy / paste from here http://doctorflopsy.com/2018/05/17/free-upgrade-how-to-add-branded-flagship-features/
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