Don't get me wrong I love my windows phone, its great. Infact I'm a huge advocate and converted at least three of my friends to the platform. XBL, Office and the Nokia build quality make it an excellent buy.
I've tried this out for three months, and for most of what I want it to do, WP7 nails it on the head, and the 7.8 Update is great.
But I'm not loving the serious lack of Instant messaging ability on this platform. There simply isn't any. Call me old fashioned but I seriously rely on IM to communicate on my smartphone, my previous Android (a POS Huawei x1) was better and more reliable in this area than Windows Phone has ever been.
The built in 'Windows Live Messenger' or MSN messenger in the Messaging app, is half assed, doesn't stay signed in half the time, and DOESN'T connect with Yahoo buddies, a feature that's available on the PC and on any number of other platforms. Aren't MS and Yahoo in an agreement to create the second largest IM community to compete with AIM?
Aren't Yahoo and Nokia in a partnership already? Yahoo powers all of Nokia's Ovi mail and Ovi Chat systems with yahoo functionality. But yet somehow Yahoo integration in WP7 is.. Completely missing.
The third party apps you find in the marketplace are pathetic. Messenger by Aakash, MetroTalk, QuickYM... They're all awful. IM+ is passable at best, but I have to re-install the stupid thing three times a day because it has connectivity and performance issues. Push notifications are completely unreliable and, that kind of defeats the whole purpose of instant messages... If I only get them when I remember to open the app, and it actually connects.
Is there any better IM solution for WP7?
If not, I think I'll be moving to a Blackberry.
I've tried this out for three months, and for most of what I want it to do, WP7 nails it on the head, and the 7.8 Update is great.
But I'm not loving the serious lack of Instant messaging ability on this platform. There simply isn't any. Call me old fashioned but I seriously rely on IM to communicate on my smartphone, my previous Android (a POS Huawei x1) was better and more reliable in this area than Windows Phone has ever been.
The built in 'Windows Live Messenger' or MSN messenger in the Messaging app, is half assed, doesn't stay signed in half the time, and DOESN'T connect with Yahoo buddies, a feature that's available on the PC and on any number of other platforms. Aren't MS and Yahoo in an agreement to create the second largest IM community to compete with AIM?
Aren't Yahoo and Nokia in a partnership already? Yahoo powers all of Nokia's Ovi mail and Ovi Chat systems with yahoo functionality. But yet somehow Yahoo integration in WP7 is.. Completely missing.
The third party apps you find in the marketplace are pathetic. Messenger by Aakash, MetroTalk, QuickYM... They're all awful. IM+ is passable at best, but I have to re-install the stupid thing three times a day because it has connectivity and performance issues. Push notifications are completely unreliable and, that kind of defeats the whole purpose of instant messages... If I only get them when I remember to open the app, and it actually connects.
Is there any better IM solution for WP7?
If not, I think I'll be moving to a Blackberry.