Meebo IM + Utilities Android apps

Meebo IM

free
              

When it comes to online chat, Meebo, as a web-based tool, is flexible and adaptable in ways that client-based tools such as the standard Android IM app can't match. So it may come as a disappointment to find that the Meebo Android app restricts you to adding only a subset of your possible IM accounts directly.

Those supported include popular services such as AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and the IM services that Meebo provides to the Facebook and MySpace social networks. In contrast, the web browser version of Meebo supports 54 different instant messaging services and social networks, at the last count.

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There's a way around this limitation, though. To use more than the basic list of services above, you have to create a Meebo account, log in to Meebo through a regular web browser on a computer, and add your other IM or social network account details to your Meebo account. Then, when you log into the Meebo Android app, all of your accounts and friend lists will appear there.

If your Meebo account is configured to store instant message history or logs, those will be saved in the usual way while you're using the Android version. The catch is that you'll still need to use the browser-based Meebo client whenever you want to access them.

Meebo suffers from the same problems that many other IM clients do on mobile devices. Where network coverage is patchy, your IM accounts may regularly lose connection and log you out. And you'll find spim (spam over IM) can attain a new level of power to aggravate when your phone constantly beeps at you to read a new message.

But if you need to stay in touch over IM on the move, Meebo - despite its annoyances - is among the best Android clients, free or paid, that you can use.


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