Symbian in Motion

IM+ by SHAPE Services

by Zach at 4:16 pm | February 05th, 2007 | Category: Application Reviews, VoIP & IM

SHAPE Services S60 3rd Applications, part 1 - IM+

There is little doubt in my mind that if you’re reading this you have probably already heard of IM+ by SHAPE Services. IM+ is the application that won Handango’s “Best Application for Life” award in 2006 and beyond that it is currently the best selling s60 3rd application on the Handango site. Track record and Handango Champion award aside, I had to ask myself, “Is it really that good?” Well after getting a chance recently to play with this app along with a few other SHAPE products I got to see first hand what all the fuss was about.

There are several IM solutions out there for s60 3rd; some freeware and some payware. The simple fact however is that no other IM solution currently available is as well-made and user friendly as IM+. IM+ is also compatible with more IM systems than any other solution, offering access to MSN®, AOLâ„¢, Yahoo!®, Google® Talk, ICQ® and Jabber®. That’s right - you can be logged into six different IM accounts and actively hold multiple IM sessions on each of them at the same time! If you can manage that then you’re far more skilled than I am, but it’s nice to know that the option is there…

Setting up IM+ is extremely easy and the layout is ideal. When opening the app you are greeted by the main screen as IM+ automatically logs into your configured services (only the ones set up for auto-connect of course, others are listed on the main screen but will remain offline until you log in manually). Icons across the top of the screen are always present to indicate which services you are logged into. From there, the Services option within the menu sets forth a variety of options and allows you to manually log in and out of your accounts and set your online status for each account. You can also access individual account settings from within the Services option.

Once logged in to one or more IM services, your contacts are displayed under the IM service name along with their status. Despite the fact that you can have up to six contact lists being displayed at once, the display on the main page is very logical and easy to read. IM+ uses a file tree structure and gives you the ability to maximize/minimize each IM service, and then each contact category (ie Friends, Coworkers, Family, etc) if you have categories defined. If you look at the first image above or the image below you can see that each IM service is designated with a red marker and each contact category is designated with a green marker.

Chatting with your contacts is quick and easy. Just click on a contact to open a chat window. As you start typing (with T9 support) a new message box opens up automatically and then closes once you’ve sent your message. This allows you to see as many lines of your session as possible. You can also quickly insert emoticon graphics while typing a message by pressing Options or simply by pressing the joystick select button.

Sitting on both ends of the chat session above, I was amazed at how fast the response was from IM+. It’s just as real-time as any IM client is from PC to PC! Chat history can be stored if desired on the phone memory or your memory card (the number of sessions is configurable). IM+ also allows you to send files such as pictures and audio clips to any of your available contacts by pressing Options with your contact highlighted.

There really are too many options and features to cover everything in one short review but suffice it to say that SHAPE has covered all of their bases. Even the zoom levels of the contacts screen and the dialogue screen are individually adjustable.

SHAPE Services gives you unlimited use of IM+ for a one time purchase fee. Their main competitor on the other hand, charges the same amount for just one year of subscription to their IM service. When you consider that IM+ also offers more IM services, features, and options then their competitor, that’s quite a bargain! If you don’t want to take my word for it, a full featured seven day trial of IM+ is available on their download page.

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