The apps I’ve tried so far are Truphone, Agile Messenger, IM+ Messenger, MSN Live Messenger, Fring, Gizmo and Slick Messenger. Most are Instant Messenging clients that connect to anywhere from 1 network (MSN) to about 5, including ICQ, AOL, Yahoo, Google Talk, Skype, MSN and various others. If each has pros and cons, I’ll list them and give them a basic rating.

Truphone (http://www.truphone.com)

As you may know from my previous article, Truphone was an instant favourite of mine. It’s a Voice over IP application that’s main strength is that it completely integrates with the phone. I’m still yet to find an application that works so well with the N95′s interface, and at the same time never get in the way with annoying popups, or long processes to connect and make calls/send messages when required.

The Truphone Home Screen

Setting up Truphone is as simple as installing the app following the instructions on the site, creating an account and choosing an Access point to connect to the server with. Then anytime you’re in range of an internet connection, either via WLAN or 3G you have an icon (a phone over a globe), which allows you to make/receive calls on your specially assigned Truphone number, simplly by Clicking Intenet Call (instead of Voice/Video Call). Like using Skype on a computer it’s not perfect and requires a reliable wireless connection or full 3G for anywhere near normal phone call quality. But it’s crystal clear when its good, and dirt cheap too. In fact, if you sign up and use the service before March 28th, Truphone will give you free calls to most Western countries, both landlines and mobiles.

The N95 with Truphone connected (as shown with the top right icon)

Pros:

• Perfect Integration with the phone, no annoying popups, or drawn out call/connection processes
• Cheap calls and messages
• Works over both WLAN and 3G internet services

Cons:

• Call quality can suffer with less than perfect network connection (calling an Australian mobile left a lot to be desired, I’m assuming because of the added latency of the mobile network at the other end).
• In times of low network service, the constant polling for a better net connection is murder on battery life.

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Agile Messenger (http://www.agilemobile.com/)

I tried Agile Mobile Messenger about the time I first installed Truphone, it really filled in the gaps in regards to an IM Client. Like Truphone the integration with the phone is second to none, and everything really just works. The only thing that lets it down is lack of Skype support, but in reality I can do without it, especially when using such a full featured app. The protocols supported are Google Talk, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, XMPP, IMPS, AOL and AIM, and whilst surely noone can use all these protocols at once, it seems to cover pretty much all bases at once.

Agile Messenger Home Screen

One thing that impressed me about Agile was the extensive options and settings in relation to alerts and connection settings. The ICQ “uh-oh” sound was bad enough 10 years ago, and the two other IM clients which defaulted to this, and were forced to this were a definite down point, enough to make me turn them off and uninstall them. Luckily enough Agile doesn’t suffer from this at all, and has an extensive array of choices to manage alerts, sounds and vibration for incoming messages and events. A top notch message client

Pros:

• Perfect phone integration
• Cheap Life time registration
• Good Support accross pretty much all IM protocols

Cons:

• Battery life problems whilst constantly polling for connection (see a trend happeneing here)
• No Skype or other VOIP support

Rating 4.5 / 5

Fring Messenger (http://www.fring.com)

I tried Fring after my initial trial of Agile Messenger ran out, and was quite pleased with the results. It isn’t (yet) near as refined as Agile, and this is reflected in its interface, but it does seem to have a fair few of the features to back it up. The thing I liked most with fring was its intercompatibility between all chat/messaging protocols, and I could connect to my Skype account as well as the SIP provider Fring uses. Until recently I hadn’t often used Skype, but I have family/friends back in Australia who use it more than any of the other chat services and I’ve found the voice quality fantastic compared to most other computer -> computer solutions.

Fring Home Screen

Pros:

• Connects to pretty much any chat protocol, everything I’ve used thus far, anyway (Google Talk, ICQ, AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Skype, Fring SIP service, etc)
• Like Truphone the Internet/Voice calls are well integrated into the phone, and Skype to Skype is useful

Cons:

• Clunky interface
• Battery life death in low connectivitiy situations due to scanning

Rating 4 /5

I’d planned to have a look at the other clients listed at the top of this post, but to be honest I really couldn’t find anything good about them at all. Slack Messenger, whilst having a nice looking interface was chunky, slow, and often refused to connect. The other clients had obvious negatives like connectivity with one protocol/network, in the case of MSN Live Messenger, and the Skype client, though 3 UK’s implementation of the Skype service is great with almost flawless connections over 3G GSM constantly.

Whilst I was recommended IM+ by a few people I found it didn’t compare the other three clients I’ve reviewed, so I’d put it in fourth place. But it’s a pretty even competition between Truphone, Agile and Fring depending on whether you want a fantastic, cheap VOIP service on top of an amazingly integrated client (Truphone), or a full featured and equally well integrated IM client (Agile), or a mix of the two (Fring).

With all this testing of IM/Messaging clients it once again became bleedingly obvious that the only real issue I have with the Nokia N95 is the battery life. I’m used to laptops with a usable battery life of 1-5hrs (and as low as 5 minutes, or a completely dead battery), and it seems reasonable that when used heavily in a situation a high powered phone would have similar life. Despite this, it becomes occasionally restrictive to have to carry around two batteries or be shutting down programs all day just so you can make a phone call on the way home.

To explain why I’m 3 hours late home from work because the pub was calling… of course.