If you’re a devoted IM’er and have owned a BlackBerry or a pre-App-Store iPhone, you probably know of BeeJive – or at least know it by its previous name, Jivetalk. Their BlackBerry IM solution is generally considered the best IM offering on the platform, and the BeeJive iPhone Web App nailed out a solid instant messaging solution long before full blown third party applications were an option. Over the weekend, BeeJiveIM made the jump out of the Web App realm, with its first iPhone App Store release.
With a handful of free IM applications (IM+, Palringo) already out there, BeeJiveIMs $16 dollar price tag might incite a few nasty words from first-glance pessimists. Sure, it’s a bit blingy – but for anybody who IMs on the iPhone for more than a few minutes a day, it’s worth it. This thing is looking to be the best iPhone IM solution by leaps and bounds. Compared to the free solutions which seem to have a hell of a time just staying open, we’ve seen nothing but stability from BeeJiveIM.
Whatever your IM platform of choice may be, BeeJiveIM probably supports it. In the initial release, it’s ready for AIM, MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, Jabber, and Myspace IM. If you’ve got MobileMe or Exchange/ActiveSync set up, BeeJive can send you messages to alert you of new IMs when the application is closed, serving as a temporary alternative to the ever absent Push notifications everyone’s waiting for. It also features chat history, support for sending SMS over AIM/Yahoo, and for the sake of clumsy fingered fools like myself, landscape keyboard support.
Be on the look out for our full review in just a few days.