[Liam Perry]

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.

[rockstarzzz]

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.

Get a Blackberry, possibly Curve and then update to BB10.

[cashcar1979]

IM? 2003 is calling you dude..m

[StevesBalls]

Thanks for the useful replies, guys.

[BellaRed]

Whatsapp works ok for me but I appear to be in the minority.

if Microsoft wants WP8 to catch on with teenagers then they need a solid and reliable cross platform messaging app.

[fusioncept]

IDK why it doesn't work for you, but IM+ works perfect for me.

[1jaxstate1]

get IM+. It's not as good as on other platforms but it works.

[BitPusher2600]

Nothing wrong by the way with some of us being old school, sorry it's not cool with teenagers.Anyway, I use ICQ and it runs in the background and I don't miss anything. I have no idea what to tell you about Yahoo messenger specifically, but I recently switched from BlackBerry to WP, and unless you plan on using BBM, you're not going to enjoy a better IM experience there, so says my two cents.Good luck.PS: does the summary page for IM+ mention it was updated for WP 7.8? Since that's not "official" yet, as in pushed out formally and in mass circulation, have you considered that might be why IM+ is crashing for you?I would be disappointed to see someone ditch WP over a single problem with a feature. I am miserable with the fact I can't get documents off my phone from Office without putting them online first whereas I could with BlackBerry, but I am so contented with everything else that is WP so one single thing isn't enough for me to switch. Maybe you are or aren't the same way, but don't switch if you love WP otherwise else you might find yourself regretting it. These apps you want will be updated eventually.

[HerronScott]

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.

You must have missed the announcment that Yahoo is no longer supporting interoperability between Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger as of December 14th.

Yahoo writes in the post: “Yahoo! Messenger will no longer be interoperable with Microsoft Windows Live Messenger as of December 14, 2012. Microsoft buddies will still appear on your Messenger contact list, but they will be greyed out, and if you try to send instant messages to them, the messages will not be delivered.”

Instant messaging: Yahoo cutting ties to Microsoft - GeekWire

Of course, Microsoft is retiring Windows Live Messenger in the first quarter of 2013 in favor of Skype so it will be interesting to see how that affects the built-in messaging in WP7 although I assume it will still be integrated on the backend for messaging.

I haven't had any issues with it but I'll admit most of the time I'm just using text messaging from my phone (same for my teenage son :) ).

Scott

[jasqid]

I think later this year (summer 2013) after WL msgr is phased out and Skype fully brought in, we are going to see a WP8 update that integrates the Skype calling and chatting into our phones much like how twitter and FB are baked in. Skype will be the "facetime" of WP.

[abhishek_rshetty]

Try Talk.To, I loved it

[mas90guru]

I've not really found any smartphone platform to be great for 100% reliable IM other than using SMS.

[apoelin]

I don't mean to be rude, but since I am the dev, and you called MetroTalk rubbish: MetroTalk is not an IM app. It is a Google Voice app. It's your problem if you don't know the difference. It does its job well enough given the limitations, and it's getting additional improvements as we speak. An average rating of 4.5 speaks for itself, unless you consider yourself so special, and think that all those existing users must be wrong.

[MrSean490]

IM? 2003 is calling you dude..m

Oh wise sir, please bestow upon us all your sub-space communication technology and free us all of this primitive, 2003 era, pricey and light speed restricted communication!

[WasteSomeTime]

Does im+ give push notifications like normal text messaging? Does it offer a live tile?
Sent from my SGH-i677 using Board Express

[Etyrnus]

Download the yahoo app to your PC, log in, set to send to mobile when not on PC. Only downside is they have to message you first, since it comes as text messages.

[spyderzWPC]

IM+ is a great app

[1jaxstate1]

Yes it does push. The live tile isn't much, just a number on the tile. But it works. Not the best in the world and it could use an update, but it works.T

Does im+ give push notifications like normal text messaging? Does it offer a live tile?
Sent from my SGH-i677 using Board Express

[dipayanster]

did you try icq? it works fairly good for me.

[HerronScott]

Where did the OP go? :)

Scott

[pankaj981]

did you try icq? it works fairly good for me.

Whatsapp, ICQ, Kik, IM+, Talk To, Skype (WP8)...