Instant messaging is a very common and quick way for people to communicate. Many people “live” in their iM client. Most smartphones have third-party applications that enable you to use iM, and many if not most internet-connected phones have added aoL instant Messenger (aiM) support as a standard function. every Macintosh computer comes with the aiM-compatible ichat program, so the lack of ichat on the iphone was somewhat surprising. Thankfully, the iphone developer community has produced a number of solutions for this iM dilemma.

Solutions to this problem fall into several major categories. app store applications such as aoL’s own aiM client work predictably: they have the annoying feature of logging you out when you quit them, due to the “no background app” policy for app store apps.

Web-based solutions have the worst integration with the phone and are a bit sluggish, but they work, and at least they stay connected when you quit them. some jailbroken iM clients offered persistent connectivity but then decided to “go legit” and get into the app store, losing this feature in the process. Finally, a couple of hacks based on push email and backgrounding have created somewhat of a solution. d As of this writing, it is anticipated that Apple will be releasing a more comprehensive push architecture for application developers that will accommodate the needs of IM apps.

Web-based iM applications

FlickiM

FlickiM (www.lickim.com) is a web-based aiM application representative of a variety of web-based iM products. it remembers your login information and reconnects automatically when you navigate to it. it has corner message windows that pop up when you receive a message in a conversation you’re not looking at, which you can tap to go right to that chat. it also has full support for landscape mode (of course the large widescreen keyboard prohibits reading the chat, but if you’re more comfortable typing with the larger keys, you’re good to go). also you can conigure it to notify you via email or sMs when you receive a new iM. also, it has a variety of skins to match your personal preference. if all you use is aiM, you’re good to go quickly with this client.

Beejive’s Jivetalk

Jivetalk is available both as an app store application and a web application (http://iphone. beejive.com). it supports aiM, icQ, Msn, Y!iM, Jabber, and Google Talk, and you can store multiple accounts for each protocol. By default, the keyboard closes every time you send a message. if you click the gear in the top-right on your buddy list, you can correct that and set other options. For a web app, it works quite well. The web app uses the same servers as their lagship app store product.

App Store apps

Although there were several excellent native iM applications on jailbroken phones, the siren song of app store riches made everyone “go legit.” as a result, there is little left in the installer/cydia world for free or shareware iMing.

As of this writing, Mobilechat, iM+ chat, and beejive’s Jivetalk are the main options for multi-iM messaging. Mobilechat is relatively inexpensive, but iM+ chat is almost $10 and beejive is almost $15. however, they both operate services that act as an intermediary between you and the iM network, keeping you logged in, so they have real ongoing service costs to support the features of their application. iM+ has a free version with reduced features that you can try out. beejive can even email you or text message you when new messages come in, which can help notify you if you’re doing something else on the device and close it to create a “background” experience.

Free apps

The various instant messaging apps are categorized in the “social networking” section of the app store, and the major social networks (Facebook, Linkedin, etc.) tend to supply some sort of iphone application.

Jailbreak Solutions

Instant messaging is supposed to be instant, not delayed until you run the iM app. and if your phone doesn’t beep or buzz to let you know that you have a message, messaging isn’t very effective, either.

If you have a jailbroken phone, you have a couple of additional options for using iM products in a way that works like it should.

Backgrounder can be used to let an iM client run in the background, so that you can go on to run other applications and remain logged in. it’s easy to use simply hold down the home button slightly longer than normal, and you’ll get a “Backgrounding enabled” message. if you have your ringer switch set to silent, aiM will vibrate the phone briely whenever an iM comes in, and it will continue to be logged in in the background. You can run any other app play video, take calls, and so on and your instant messaging session will still work.

Connect to irc on Your iphone

Stay logged into iRc no matter where you are.

The decades-old iRc protocol remains one of the most popular communication methods, especially for those “in the know” in the computing world. and it’s a great way to get support for iphone hacking. This hack covers two ways to iRc on your iphone or ipod touch. remote irc to Your Mac

if you have a Mac, and you chat on iRc, chances are you’ve used colloquy a powerful and lexible os X iRc client. and now, thanks to a new plug-in, you can monitor your Mac-based iRc connection from your iphone/ipod touch’s safari browser. here’s how:

1. The irst step is getting colloquy installed on your computer. The latest version can be found at www.colloquy.info/downloads.html.

2. after colloquy is installed, you will need to install the Web interface plug-in, which can be downloaded from www.colloquy.info/downloads/colloquy-web-interface.zip. put the plug-in into /Library/Application Support/Colloquy/PlugIns.

3. set the password that you have to type in when you ire up the connection on your iphone. Fire up Terminal in your /Utilities folder, and type in the following: defaults write info.colloquy WebInterfacePassword yourpassword

4. start colloquy, or restart it if it was already running.

5. if your iphone is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your Mac, you can go to http:// ipaddress:6667 (where ipaddress is the ip address of your Mac), type in the password you set earlier when prompted, and you’re good to go. however, if you want to connect to it from eDGe or from a remote network, you’ll need to make sure that port 6667 is properly forwarded to your Mac. This process is a bit different for each router.

You can refer to your router’s manual or use www.portforward.com to set this up. once that’s all straightened out, head to http:// ipaddress:6667. if you don’t know your ip off the top of your head, inding out is as simple as visiting www.whatismyip.com.

Now your iphone will be controlling your Mac’s colloquy remotely. it will let you talk in whatever rooms you’ve currently joined on your Mac. (You won’t be able to conigure your connections using your iphone.) You can scroll through your list of rooms or the messages in a room by scrolling with two ingers. if you tilt your iphone to landscape view, you can read the iRc log in widescreen. You can’t type this way however, as the keyboard would’ve eaten 80% of the screen, so they didn’t bother adding it.

You’ll see the same chat on both your iphone and your Mac, so you can jump seamlessly from your iphone to your Mac and back without losing track of the conversation. also, if your connection dips out for a minute or more, the messages will be sent to your phone when your connection comes back on, so there are no messages lost in the void.

Any other details, updates, or answers to questions you might have can be found at www.colloquy.info/iphone.