Verbs ($2.99) isn’t quite ready to compete with full featured IM applications like Beejive (currently $4.99), but its minimal interface and speed make it interesting enough to keep around, if only to see how it grows.
There are currently only two reasons to want Verbs right now: its clean interface and its Google Talk support. If you’re a user of any other instant messaging service, you’ll have to wait for an update (though I have been told AIM and MobileMe support are coming soon).
That brings us to the interface, which is what attracted me to Verbs in the first place. Verbs feels like it was designed more with an eraser than a paintbrush, given the minimal number of objects on-screen at a given time. There’s a screen for accounts (just Google Talk and Cloud App for now), a contact list that shows online, offline, and starred contacts, as well as the actual chat screen (which is divided into Safari Mobile style tabs).
The great thing about this design is that you’ll never really feel lost. You set up an account, you tap on a contact, and you start to chat. If you want to send pictures, your contacts will receive links via CloudApp.
Overall, Verbs feels very light and it works very quickly, and it can be a refreshing change from a busy IM app like Beejive.
However, there are a number of things that need to be improved before I can really call Verbs home. Landscape support for the chat and contact views is sorely missed and should have been there from day one, especially this far into the App Store’s history. I’ve been told that landscape mode is next on the list after AIM and MobileMe support, but it can’t come soon enough, as far as I’m concerned. There are so many times where the landscape keyboard feels more comfortable than typing in portrait, and I think it’s a must for any messaging application.
The next little change I’d like to see in Verbs has to do with its notification system. Verbs opts to use local notifications instead of push notifications, which means that you don’t actually get to customize anything about how these notifications alert you (no badge, sound, or pop-up toggles in the Settings -> Notifications section of the iPhone).
The other issue that stems from local notifications is that they tend to stack: every incoming notification pops up over the last one, and it’s up to you to press the Close button for every single one. IM+ is guilty of this, too, but I think it tends to hurt Verbs a little more, since closing so many pop-up boxes simply doesn’t suit the minimal feel of the rest of the application.
The last issue I have with Verbs is that I’m never quite sure when it will sign me off. There seems to be some sort of internal timer in the app that will log you off after a period of inactivity, but it’s not terribly clear what that timer is set to. I’d much rather have a quick dialogue with options for 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, etc.
I may sound like I’m being quite harsh on Verbs, but that’s really only because I think it shows a lot of potential. I may not be totally in love with certain aspects (like the Safari-style chatting tabs), but I think I could get used to them because I really dig Verbs’ clean design and lightning speed.
I haven’t decided which app to use as my main IM application, but it has been a *very* long time since I’ve even considered an iOS alternative to Beejive, and that in itself should show how interesting Verbs is.
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Verbs was provided by Include Technologies for review on iSource. For further information regarding our site’s review policies, please see the “About” page.
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