BeejiveIM – a Pretty IM Client

The Instant Messenger is one of the first huge changes to the internet that, in my opinion, brought on a great deal of its early popularity for teen audiences. When IM went mobile, in an pseudo-text message format, it seemed almost absurd how often I would use my phone to keep in touch with all of my friends. Now, in the smartphone age, not having a good Instant Messenger app is unacceptable for anyone. Now, Google does a pretty good job with gChat, and the separate IM apps all seem to work ok, but talk about work! Switching back and forth like that is a huge pain. I need an app that has all of my IM clients together, but still keep my friends lists separate. In my search for perfection, I stumbled across BeejiveIM for Android.

BeejiveIM has the benefit of not being a new app, as it has existed on other platforms for awhile. Because of this, it has grown into a rich, feature filled application. The guys behind Beejive were smart enough to make the application more than just a port from one platform to another. The re-design of the app makes it feel home on my Android phone, which is a big deal for me. Every major IM client is represented in Beejive, and each one has it’s own separate controller, including status messages and away/offline. Alongside those controls are the notification and color controls, and backgrounds for your chats.

Unfortunately, it’s not without flaws. If I have a desktop IM app open, Beejive won’t receive the message. If I have gChat open on multiple places, the message arrives in all places simultaneously, and while the other IM clients may not have an API that supports this it should still work in gChat and AIM. Additionally, this is one of the few apps that I actually WANT to open at boot, and it doesn’t. These may seem like small things, but it’s this kind of functionality that can be found in other IM combo-clients on Android. IM Clients, which are all free, instead of Beejive’s .99 pricepoint. While this functionality could be implemented later, Beejive’s customization features are unparalleled, making it one of the better IM clients on the market.

BeejiveIM is the most reliable and user-friendly instant messaging app for your Android. This award-winning all-in-one supports AIM®, MSN®/Windows Live®, Yahoo!®, Facebook Chat, MySpace, GoogleTalk®, ICQ®, & Jabber.
Features include: Send photos/voice notes, Group chats, SMS out, Google C2DM for Push, Many more…

Latest version: 1.0.1.11 (for Android version 2.1 and higher)

While sporting a very nice UI, and custom setting to make your conversations your own, the app is lacking some functionality seen in similar IM apps of it’s kind. .99 makes it one of the more expensive apps in the market.