Any word on IM (Google Talk, Yahoo Chat, etc) integration?

[slick5150]

The messaging feature built into WP 7 seems underutilized at best with only Facebook Chat support. Any word on whether they're baking support for Google Talk, Yahoo messenger, or any other instant messaging clients into the WP8 OS? Would be a most welcome feature considering the lack of great IM clients currently available in the marketplace.

 

[HeyCori]

IM+ supports Google Talk.

 

[eric12341]

More people use Facebook chat than yahoo etc nowadays.

 

[slick5150]

IM+ supports Google Talk.

I'm aware, but it's slow and clunky. Would be far nicer to have that function built into the OS.

 

[jhoff80]

Yeah, I still know a bunch of people who use AIM, so it'd be nice if that was built in too. webOS had this done perfectly, but no other OS has matched it on that.

 

[N8ter]

More people use Facebook chat than yahoo etc nowadays.

Lol. No. Hardly anyone uses facebook chat. It doesn't support Video (Yahoo!, WLM and Google Talk does, on Mobile and [WLM only on] Desktop) or Voice and it also doesn't support much as far as File Transfer is concerned (just Pictures, IIRC). The fact that FB has a ton of users doesn't mean more people use their chat functionality than Yahoo!. Hardly anyone uses their Messages interface, either, that's why Facebook pulled a fast one on a lot of people and set the Facebook.com address as the default without telling them. Nice tactic, there...

Additionally, Yahoo! and WLM are interoperable, so when you use one of the two, your potential friendlist is the size of the two combined. In addition to that, WLM and Yahoo! both integrate with Facebook Chat so you get that as a bonus as well. Google Talk interops with AOL Instant Messenger, IIRC.

I doubt more people use FBC for IM than Yahoo, WLM, or Google Talk. I really do. Sure, more people do use Facebook itself, though. Their IM apps are absolutely terrible.

 

[N8ter]

Lol. No. Hardly anyone uses facebook chat. It doesn't support Video (Yahoo!, WLM and Google Talk does, on Mobile and [WLM only on] Desktop) or Voice and it also doesn't support much as far as File Transfer is concerned. The fact that FB has a ton of users doesn't mean more people use their chat functionality than Yahoo!.

Additionally, Yahoo! and WLM are interoperable, so when you use one of the two, your potential friendlist is the size of the two combined. In addition to that, WLM and Yahoo! both integrate with Facebook Chat so you get that as a bonus as well. Google Talk interops with AOL Instant Messenger, IIRC.

I doubt more people use FBC for IM than Yahoo, WLM, or Google Talk. I really do. Sure, more people do use Facebook itself, though. Their IM apps are absolutely terrible.

To the OP. Count on Skype and WLM integration.

As I stated above, WLM gives you access to Yahoo! and Facebook users. I wouldn't really count on Google Talk or AIM. Microsoft wants to push their own services.

The only way you'd see the others is if you buy an app or if an OEM like Samsung is able to port over a lot of their TouchWiz functionality - which includes an IM client that supports WLM/Y!/GTalk and integrates intot he Contacts app on their TW4+ devices (It's part of Social Hub).

Another solution is to get your friends to use ChatOn. It works on basically all platforms and it works well. Has more features than the average IM client, as well, and it is PUSHed to the device. Not sure if it's available for non-Samsung Windows Phones yet, though. Haven't been keeping up with that.

If eBuddy XMS is on WP7 that may be another and potentially better option since they use a PIN system similar to BBM and wouldnt require giving out your phone number to all your contacts...

 

[c8m6p]

Don't count on Gtalk. Google will do anything not to have their apps on WP. We still don't have an official youtube app. (I wouldn't even consider the current one an app)

 

[anon(5344611)]

I wished that at least Skype chat would be built in, but by the looks of it, Skype will be just a standard app with the ability to display an UI like the phone app.

I agree, webOS integrated some services really well, and Microsoft could do the same for chat and IM, so I hope at least some new ones get integrated.

 

[holzlondon]

I personally think it would be cool to have WhatsApp baked into the IM facility of WP8. I know it won't happen, but its cross-platform nature for smartphones makes it a good candidate in my opinion.

I know there is not desktop of web version of WhatsApp, but more and more people use their smartphones instead of anything else.

I think it would be worth it

 

[sreII]

Don't count on Gtalk. Google will do anything not to have their apps on WP. We still don't have an official youtube app. (I wouldn't even consider the current one an app)

Extremely cute. Google talk is an ordinary XMPP service, and it works pretty much like email, you are able to start up your own xmpp-server and start chatting away to your university buddies, (who might be connected to @kth.se etc) or gtalk-buddies.

You are even able to (just like email) start a server which only allows sending between users on that system. You know who did make such a xmpp-server? Facebook!

So Windows 8 already have a nice working "gtalk"-client built in. It just won?t allow you to connect to anything else than facebook. So if you wanna be a poser whiner, at least whine at the right company, which in this case aint google it is microsoft.

 

[brmiller1976]

Google has maliciously blocked Microsoft from interoperating in the past, with YouTube as well as search. It wouldn't surprise me if they've done the same with Gchat.

After all, Microsoft won't allow Google to harvest private user data and resell it to advertisers, which is how Google makes its $$$.