Pimp My iPhone: #3: Full instant messaging

Filed under: Internet, Productivity, Social Software, iPhone

Pimp My iPhone: #3: Full instant messaging

by Nik Fletcher Jul 4th 2007

On Friday, we wrote about the iPhoneChat application that allowed you to do AOL Instant Messaging from the iPhone. Today, however, we can go one better: AIM, Jabber (GTalk), MSN, Yahoo! and even ICQ for your iPhone.

Meebo offers an IM-aggregation service via the web, however what's great about this apparently new service is that you don't need to be registered with Meebo to be able to sign in. You simply visit the site, enter your sign-in details, and Meebo will log you in to the relevant service. Whilst the service isn't specifically for the iPhone, it works just fine (and once you've opened a chat window, you can simply take advantage of the zooming and enlarge the chat window) thanks to the iPhone's Safari browser.

Meebo have been around quite a while (we featured them way back in 2005), and with emoticons, messages shown in the browser title bar - as you can see in the screenshot above - and multiple services supported, this looks to be the best way to IM with your data plan until such a time that Apple puts in place an application of their own.

[via]

Tags: AIM, GMail, GTalk, ICQ, InstantMessage, iphone, MSN, webapp, Yahoo

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Chris Moroz said 11:01AM on 7-04-2007

Just wondering if anyone has gotten this working. Gizmodo is reporting Meebo does NOT worh with iPhone...
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/iphone-web-20-standards-support-sucks-274211.php

shaun mclane said 11:11AM on 7-04-2007

@Chris I haven't had any problems with this. I did notice that in order to send a message you need to click the "Go" button in the iPhone keyboard. I don't remember seeing a "Send" button on Meebo's side, but the "Go" button works perfectly.

Patrick Sikorski said 1:16PM on 7-04-2007

I'm not able to get it to work either, I can login just fine, but I am unable to open a message window when I click on a contact.

shaun mclane said 3:00PM on 7-04-2007

@patrick I just tried it again with no problems. I'm using AIM, and gTalk to test, and both seem to be working fine. The chat window opens to the left of the screen, so you'll need to slide over to that section to see it.

Shaun McLane said 3:11PM on 7-04-2007

Ok, I just signed out and back in, and it worked fine. Here's what I'm doing:
-Sign in to just one account (gTalk, AIM, etc) - not the Meebo sign in (although I haven't tested to see if this works)
-Your buddy list will be far on the right, so slide over to that section
-My last try, I had to double-tap a buddy, and it resized the screen for my buddy list. I tapped my buddy again, and it highlighted just that buddy.
-The chat window shows up far on the left, so slide back to the left of the screen and click in the bottom white box. That will pull up the keyboard.
-After you type your message, click "Go" in the keyboard to send the message. I don't see any other way to send the message, so make sure you tap "Go."

Hope this helps

Neil said 6:08PM on 7-04-2007

I havent got an iPhone yet, but i love the meebo service. I use it regularly on my PC. The best thing is that u can chat with all ur contacts frm yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc, etc, without having to download any apps

Victor Agreda, Jr. said 5:27PM on 7-06-2007

TUAW has some tips on using meebo too: tuaw.com/iphone

T1mania said 11:55AM on 7-13-2007

Update: JiveTalk now has an application for all messaging on the iPhone including all your favs: Yahoo Chat, Gtalk, aim, msn, icq, jabber, etc. Very nice even though it's still in alpha stage which means full version will be incredible.

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