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Instant Messaging on the Blackberry - Who Do You Use?

Posted in Mobile by Dan at 10:27 pm

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Ok, I’ve taken the plunge and am evaluating a Blackberry. What software do you guys recommend? What do you use for Instant Messaging? Any fun facts I should know?

14 Comments, Comment or Trackback

  1. Ian

    JiveTalk. By far the best BB IM client.

    The Google Apps suite is nice too. GoogleMaps in particular works nice on BBs. And get yourself Opera for browsing. The new version is the closest “real” browsing experience I’ve come across, sans iPhone.

    Quid pro quo Clari..I mean Dan. What model BB are you evaluating?

    Jan 4th, 2008

  2. Dan

    Curve 8310 :)

    Jan 4th, 2008

  3. Ian

    Not bad. I would have gotten that instead of my Pearl if I didn’t suffer from big-dumb-finger syndrome.

    Jan 4th, 2008

  4. Evan

    Dan, if you’re looking at AT&T, they provide a free IM app that is very nice. It has a pretty good design, and responds well. It works with AIM/Y!/Live. My one pet peeve is that you can only use one service at a time with it. It’s accessible from the MediaNet home page.

    Another alternative is the Blackberry Y! and Google Talk apps. You can download those from mobile.blackberry.com

    A must have (if you’re a Facebook addict) is RIM’s Facebook app. You just have to go to m.facebook.com in the MediaNet browser (at least on AT&T, you can’t use the BlackBerry full-web browser) and it will prompt you to download it.

    Another one of my “use it all the time” apps is Yahoo! Go, from mobile.yahoo.com/go. It’s got news, weather, sports, Flickr, stocks, maps/driving directions, and other good stuff all rolled together in one big app.

    OK, last one. You must have Opera Mini for BlackBerry. BlackBerry’s built-in full-web browser is a little lacking, IMO. Opera Mini renders much, much better.

    I think that’s it. I’m fairly new to the BB world (June), but I’m loving it so far. Enjoy your Curve!

    Jan 5th, 2008

  5. mmoroca

    GTalk is the word. Other interesting software: TwitterBerry for your Twitter replies, Google Maps, Facebook…

    Jan 5th, 2008

  6. Terry

    Get a iPhone! and wait till Feb:)

    Jan 5th, 2008

  7. Dan

    i have an iPhone :)

    Jan 5th, 2008

  8. Jesse

    I have a Curve 8320 and I run several IM apps all at once: AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!, GTalk, and BlackBerry Messenger. All are logged into their own account (yes, I have too many accounts) and everything works quite well. My only complaint is that I can’t log into more than one of any type of account. I have an AIM account for work and for personal use, so I had to choose one or the other to log into. I am debating getting a 3rd party AIM client so I can us it to log into my personal account. All in all, I love my BlackBerry and hope that you enjoy yours just as much.

    Jan 5th, 2008

  9. THE KURT

    All the apps listed seem spot on and I live by them, If I were to add to the list would be Viigo for all your RSS needs, after using it I hardly touch Opera anymore. As for messaging the BB pin messenger works great if you can get your friends to make the jump to a blackberry. It adds super easy picture, audio clips, to your messengering.

    Jan 5th, 2008

  10. Chris

    My wife misses her Curve(GPS, syncing, great camera with flash!), she is warming up to the iPhone but Curve is great.

    My favorite program for those crazy sites I read all the time RSS reader viigo(.com)
    Google Suite - Search, Gmail, Maps (hopefully 1.1.3 will update so they are comparable), picasa, Docs, Sync get them all.

    Don’t forget the 2 GB MicroSD card (buy.com) and a crystal plastic snap-on case (ebay).

    My questions: Is it possible to Clone a SIM card so you do not have to swap SIM cards from phones (I know, don’t have both phones even turned on at the same time) but wanted to know if this works for anyone?

    Jan 5th, 2008

  11. Jon

    JiveTalk - http://www.beejive.com/products.php

    By far the best IM client for BB.

    Jan 5th, 2008

  12. David

    JiveTalk is better than oz messenger which at&t offers in MediaNet. Oz messenger uses sms messages instead of the data to send a receive instant messages. Also with JiveTalk you can logg in to more than one account at the same time.

    Google’s softwear is also great to have, the new calander sync works very well. Maps is now able to use the built in GPS of the Curve 8310. The mail application also does a really good job with gmail.

    Opera is also significantly better than the built in browser with the curve.

    Jan 5th, 2008

  13. Mike

    Do you have a BES anywhere? (Typically in the company that you work for.) Then you could also install IM clients for either LCS/OCS, Sametime or Groupwise Messenger…

    Otherwise the free apps that RIM offer are the Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger (I think only available on a couple of North American carriers). Also if you’ve got friends or colleagues that use a BlackBerry you could use BlackBerry Messenger.

    Jan 6th, 2008

  14. chad

    …. Dan… I hate to say I told ya so :)

    Jan 7th, 2008

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