BLACKBERRY INSTANT MESSAGING

BLACKBERRY   INSTANT   MESSAGING

Instant Messaging is a great tool, enabling you to communicate with friends and family via messages that appear on their screen as you type and hit enter on yours. Its immediacy beats even email and, with their QWERTY keyboards, BlackBerry devices and IM are a match made in?heaven.

To complicate things, there isn't one messaging platform, but a large number of competing ones. You probably already have a favorite on the desktop and, the good news is, your preferred network probably has a client for BlackBerry.

Once you have downloaded it, using the link preloaded on the BlackBerry, if your network-branded device includes links for these, you might expect to find your new application in the Downloads folder -after all, that is where applications such as Google Apps and Google Maps reside. However, on your BlackBerry, you'll actually find it in a folder called Instant Messaging, from where you can launch it and sign in.

RIM provides a helpful web page, mobile.blackberry.com/ . Scroll down until you find an icon called 'IM And Social Networking', click this and you'll be presented with a list of your favorite IM applications.

BLACKBERRY INSTANT MESSAGING

 Recent Blackberry handsets have their own, built-in messaging application that works via RIM's servers, so you'll need a Blackberry data plan for it to work. To use Blackberry Instant Messaging, you have to add contacts - and, to do that, you'll need your Blackberry PIN, a unique number assigned to your handset that can be found by selecting 'Options' from the menu and scrolling down to 'Status'. Add it in, send someone a message and, once they have accepted you, the identifier will change from the PIN number into their name. Once you have built up a contacts database, you will be able to send a message to multiple contacts at the same time.

 GOOGLE TALK

 The best way to find Google Talk For Blackberry is to search for it using your handset's web browser. Installing it requires you to wade past reams of dreary Terms and Conditions, and, surprisingly, to reboot your phone to get it working. Naturally, you also need to have a Gmail account, if your device is connected to a Blackberry Enterprise Server, your IT department must have a policy set to allow Google Talk to work.

  AOL INSTANT MESSENGER
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) is probably the most popular aspect of the AOL legacy. AIM on Blackberry gives you full, real-time conversations, the ability to send pictures to other users, delightful emoticons and the facility to have several conversations at once. The program also keeps you togged in, so you are ready to chat at a moment's notice.

 ICQ
This is the original instant-messaging service and was bought by AOL a few years ago. Rather than just shut it down, AOL kept it going alongside AIM and, pleasingly, it's available for Blackberry too.

 YAHOO MESSENGER

As with the other clients, Yahoo Messenger will pull your contacts list on to your BlackBerry, enable you to change your presence status and allow you to input custom messages. You can also invite multiple users into a single conversation and the application has recently been updated so you can add avatars, emoticons and custom ringtones.





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