Way back when, in jailbreak days (before the App Store launched) I tried out Agile Messenger and thought it was clearly the best and most complete instant messaging (IM) app for the iPhone at the time.
Ever since then I ‘d been looking forward to seeing Agile Messenger make it across to the App Store “ and I was very happy when it recently did. In the meantime, I ‘ve tried out a few iPhone IM apps and none have appealed as much as Agile Messenger had back in its jailbreak version.
As you can tell, I had high hopes for Agile Messenger “ hoping that an old favorite wouldn ‘t let me down in its App Store incarnation. Hit the jump to see how that has worked out
What Does It Do?
It ‘s an instant messaging client that supports a wide range of IM services “ including: MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, GoogleTalk, and Jabber.
Its features include:
- Always-on connectivity
- IM to email forwarding to notify you of incoming IM messages
- Voice and Picture messaging enable you to send instant voice and picture messages to any IM contact
- Portrait and landscape mode keyboard
- Side swipe navigation through chats
What Does It Do Well?
My favorite thing about Agile Messenger has always been, and remains, its elegant user interface. I love the way the app looks, but saying that probably creates a wrong impression here, so I ‘ll try to expand on that just a little.
For me, the most used and most effective apps on the iPhone are those that have very well-designed UIs – where navigation is obvious and intuitive, where you effortlessly find action buttons exactly where they should be for ease of use, where everything just feels natural and comfortable to use right from the start. Agile Messenger is one of these apps, and much of what it does well stems from this. Some quick examples of this:
Menus are invoked from unobtrusive top-bar buttons, and slide out and down to provide actions that are relevant to where you are within the app
And sub-menus also slide out to offer even more context-sensitive commands. For instance, here ‘s a sub-menu relevant to the contact I ‘m in conversation with, available from within the chat screen for that contact ..
When you have multiple conversations going, they are presented on tabs
And it ‘s simple to switch between these chats “ just tap on the tab you want to go to, or just swipe sideways to move forward and back through them.
The voice and picture messaging options work well, and adding a wide variety of emoticons to your messages is also easy to do.
It ‘s easy to do things like change your availability / status for multiple accounts, add new contacts, and move contacts to different groups
There is a good range of settings and preferences to work with “ you can even change the fonts used in chat screens
The ‘Agile Gateway ‘ option lets you stay connected even when you close the app, and sends you email alerts when new IM messages come in. This can be turned on or off, per your preference
What ‘s Not So Good?
One action you cannot take from within the app is deleting a contact. It would be handy to have this ability. Apart from that, I have no major complaints about this app. It works very well, and is solid and stable.
There may be a few IM apps out there that offer a few more features than Agile Messenger “ but for my needs, all the essential features are there and they ‘re implemented so well that I don ‘t feel it ‘s missing anything worth worrying about.
Overall
So yes “ my old favorite has delivered, and lived up to my expectations, in its App Store version. This was my favorite IM app way back in jailbreak days “ and I ‘m happy to find that it fills the same place now that it has moved over to the App Store.
I ‘ve tried quite a few IM apps on the iPhone, but this one is the keeper for me, the one I use every day.
You can find Agile Messenger in the App Store now, priced at $9.99.
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TAGS: Agile Messenger, iphone apps, iPhone IM apps, iPhone instant messaging apps
