As the world moves more and more onto social interaction via Internet, the need for good quality IM clients becomes more and more obvious. There are services such as the Blackberry service that we’ve all come to love, but it’s tied to one OS that hinders flexibility. Luckily for us there’s no dearth of IM clients on Android. Unluckily however, there’re far too many and it becomes tiresome and time consuming to pick the best of the lot because let’s face it, there are some pretty low quality apps out there. Today we’ll have a look at 5 of the best IM clients you can use on your Android smartphone.
Fring
Fring is one of the most popular and one of the oldest chat clients available today. I remember using it on my old Nokia Symbian and it was fantastic. Luckily it’s just as good on Android too. Fring supports all major chat networks like Google Talk, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo etc. One of the major features of Fringe includes free voice calls to any other Fring user anywhere in the world. It also supports group video chat. A novelty feature is DVQ technology, which according to Fring vastly improves video call quality. The app has an intuitive interface and is overall relatively light on system resources.
Download it here
Trillian
Veteran users will remember Trillian, a brilliant IM client on Windows. Its made its way to Android as well and it’s doing a pretty good job. To use Trillian you’ll need to have an Astra account, which only takes a few minutes to make. When you’re done you can login to all popular chat clients like Facebook, MSN, Google Talk etc. The interface for Trillian isn’t as flashy as some of the other clients but it works. Tabbed interface makes it easy to keep track of multiple conversations. One of the best features of Trillian is its ability to share conversations in real time between different instances. For example if you leave Trillian signed in on your PC and you receive a new message, logging Trillian somewhere else will allow to you read that message. It also has a very reliable push notification system, which is a little iffy with some other clients. It can also forward messages to your email account if you were offline at the time you received them.
Download here
Beejive
If you’re looking for an IM client that throws in the kitchen sink when it comes to features and bells and whistles, look no further than Beejive. It’s one the most feature rich clients on Android at the moment. It comes in two version, a lite version which only allows 3 IM accounts, and a very expensive 10$ version which allows for unlimited accounts. It supports all major protocols like MSN, Google, Facebook, AIM etc. There’s no Skype support however, which is a let down considering the price. The interface is very well thought out. The three tabs on the top allow you to switch between your unified contacts list, your conversation lists and the networks you’re currently connected to. You can set individual statuses for each network, something that Trillian cannot do. The push notification system is also very reliable. You can also send pictures, audio and GPS coordinates.
Download here
Nimbuzz
Like Fring, Nimbuzz is also one of the oldest IM clients available today coming from the Symbian days. Nimbuzz requires you to sign up before you can start using it. After that users can login to all popular networks like MSN, Google, Skype, ICQ, Yahoo and many more. The app has a beautiful layout and is very pleasing to the eyes thanks to the use of colorful tones across the UI. Nimbuzz, just like Fring, allows you to make free calls to other Nimbuzz users. To call any other number minutes have to be purchased. The push notification system works very well and is reliable most of the times. The app is very light on system resources and won’t have you reaching for the charger very often.
Download here
Let us know your pick in the comments section below.
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