[General Topics] mrdata1701b:
I have seen many messages go by discussing what is the best software for instant messaging. Up until recently, I had been using Agile Messenger. It was quite unstable when I first started using it a couple of years ago, but it is much better now. There is a cost now, which I think is high, but I would be willing to pay. Before buying into Agile though, I felt I should review my other options, and I have run into problems with each. Can anyone either help me get past these problems, or perhaps suggest another solution? Here are the programs I have tried and the problems I have experienced.

Agile Messenger - I have become very happy with the software, but I am not fond of subscriptions. I would much prefer to be able to buy the software outright. I may be able to get over that, but I discovered something else. I like to try the different ROM's that show up on this board and I have noticed that my customer ID in Agile changes with the different ROM's. Does this mean I need to buy a new license each time I change my ROM? I have written email to Agile about this and a couple of other questions and I have never heard back. I am concerned about the lack of support. There are also security questions that have been presented elsewhere on this board about having a middleman handle your connection to the various chat services since the middleman needs to know the username and password to connect.

IM+ - I tried this program, and I like the fact that I can purchase it and be done. I also like that it seems to connect directly to the chat services, thus getting rid of the middleman problem mentioned above. I have been experiencing a problem though where I appear to be online, both from my side, and from the side of my buddies, but messages do not go through. I have also experienced situations where I have successfully sent messages to friends, they replied, but I did not receive the replies. I find this type of unreliability to be intolerable, especially since you can not tell if it is happening. As far as you know, you are sending messages but your friends are not responding when they very well might be. I have tried reinstalling after a hard reset with the same problem.

IMOV - From what I can tell, this is just a XMPP (Jabber, Google..) client. It relies on relays on the Internet to access any other chat system such as AOL, or Yahoo. This introduces the problem with the middleman above, but further, these relays are practically anonymous. At least with Agile, I have some idea (though not a perfect one) who I am entrusting my credentials to. I do not have that with the relays used by XMPP. I guess I could research the available relays and find one I trust, but I am not looking to do that right now.

Verichat - I have not tried this in a while. It is another subscription based system and is a middleman. I guess my thought is that if I am going to pay an ongoing fee AND have a middleman, I would rather have Agile.

Okay, this has gotten to be a long post, but I think it presents my current position. I communicate with users of AOL, Yahoo, Google, and MSN. I can not get all of them to see reason and just all change to IRC or XMPP :-D

I am running this on a Universal (i-Mate Jasjar) with Windows Mobile 5. I am posting in general because I am sure this is a topic that affects many of the XDA phones.

Thanks for any input you can provide.