| Product | Fring beta as of 07/06/2007 | Causerie Mobile Messenger 1.0 | Mundu 4.0.137 | Webmessenger Mobile Instant Messenger for Pocket PC 2003 2.6 build 070702 (a WM5-only version, “Mobile Instant Messenger for Windows Mobile 5.0”, is also available here) | IM+ 4.41 (SP: 1.38) | OctroTalk 1.19 | Live Messenger | MSN Messenger (as of WM5 AKU2.3) | Agile Messenger AMST-WMPPC-74 | imov Messenger Basic / Enterprise 2.22ee | Verichat by (ex-)Intellisync v1.42b | mChat 2.1b02 / gsICQ | Pocket ICQ 1.0 Beta | IRC clients |
| Price | Free (!!!) | Standard: $19.95; Professional: $29.99; Enterprise: request only | $11 for a lifetime license | $5.95 per month / $29.95/yr | PPC: $39.95; SP: $29.95; one-time fee, only usable on one device at a time but can be transferred | Free until the end of beta period | n/a (built-in into many (but not all) WM6 PPC / SP devices; will NOT become available as a separate download) | Either built-in or purchasable (Pocket MSN, $19.95) | Either a monthly subscription fee ($11.95 for 3 months) or a fixed lifetime price ($44.95). | Free (Basic version) / $19.95 (Enterprise version), which is a one-time fee and includes all future updates | Not available any more | Both free | FREE | Some are commercial (PocketIRC, wmIRC, just to name the two best commercial titles), some free (zsIRC, to name the best free title) |
| Trial restrictions / availability | n/a | 15-day unrestricted (except for being restricted to configure two accounts only during trial period); device ID is sent to the server so you can’t restart trial period in any way | 5 days, no restrictions | 14-day unlimited | 7-day unlimited | n/a (currently free) | n/a | n/a with built-in | 7 day unlimited | n/a with free version; no trial with enterprise version | Access to bots limited (?) | n/a (both free) | N/A | Depends; generally, not very restricted trial mode |
| PPC OS compliance | WM5+ | WM2003+; Compact Framework 2 is required! | WM5+; however much it’s only advertised as Smartphone (“Windows Mobile (6) Standard”), it runs flawlessly on WM5+ Pocket PC’s (“Windows Mobile (6) Pro / Classic”) too. | WM2003+ (note that the homepage of the app still lists PPC2k2 as a compatible platform. That’s no longer the case.) | WM2003+ | WM5+ | WM5+ | PPC2k2...WM5 | WM2003+ | All Pocket PC (even PPC2k SH3/MIPS, H/PC 2000 and H/PC Pro (2.11)) | All PPC | PPC2k+ (CF 1.0 SP3) with mChat; WM2003+ (CF2) with gsICQ | All (even SH3/MIPS PPC 2k) | All; most newer titles WM2003+ only |
| Smartphone OS compliance | WM5+ | Didn’t work on my devices (Vox screenshot; - the Vox already contains CF2 in ROM and installing it again results in THIS error message. After installing CF2SP2 on my s310, I’ve received exactly the same error | WM5+ (natively supports; actually, there’s no PPC version) | SP2003+ | SP2003+ | WM5+ | WM5+ (only comes with some select WM6+ models) | ? | SP2003+ | All SP | ? | No native SP versions; haven’t tested them on SP | No native SP versions; haven’t tested it on SP | Only wmIRC is compatible
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| Connection type? | ? | Indirect, Web browser-based | Direct | direct | direct | Not direct | direct | Direct AND SMS | direct | XMPP server; mov Software also hosts one and it’s pretty reliable, albeit sometimes dis- and, then, quickly reconnects. Note that the central server model can also lead to small problems with AIM. | Direct AND SMS | direct | direct and SMS | Direct data (IRC) |
| Landscape support? | + | - (!!!!!) (tested under both CF2 SP1 and SP2). According to the developer, this will very soon be fixed. | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | mChat: Partial: some settings dialogs become unscrollable. NO such problems exist with gsICQ because it only uses scrollable treelists instead of static dialogs | +; it’s only the Stocks icon that isn’t visible at the bottom right of the userlist dialog, but it’s still accessible in the upper main menu | All major titles; some PocketIRC settings dialogs are not really Landscape-friendly though (the in-channel/message GUI works just great) |
| VGA? | + | + | + | No (unlike with previous versions - see THIS shot showing how laughingly big fonts were) pixel doubling any more. However, on VGA devices, some of the input fields are still oversized as can be seen in HERE. This isn’t a problem on QVGA devices and Smartphones (see THIS) | Pixel doubling without hacking; with hacking OK. The lowermost buttons can’t be really seen, but that’s not a problem that much | + | + | + | Pixel doubling without hacking: a bit messed up dialogs and pixel doubling; can be hacked. Then, only the code page drop-down list will be messed up | In older (.12) versions, there were awful software-based cleartype, which can’t be disabled. Unfortunately, while forcing imov.exe to VGA gets rid of this, then, the GUI becomes next to useless - for example, you won’t see what you type. Fortunately, this is no longer the case with the current (.22) version - it's working great on VGA devices | + | + for both | + | All major titles |
| Product | Fring | Causerie | Mundu | WebMessenger | IM+ 4.3 | OctroTalk 0.9 | Live Messenger | MSN Messenger | Agile Messenger | imov | Verichat | mChat / gsICQ | Pocket ICQ 1.0 Beta | IRC clients |
| Non-stable connections: Status (current discussions) kept when disconnecting? | ? | - (!) – all chat windows are closed | -; a "<your address> has gone offline" modal (which means you can't switch to dialog windows in the background to, for example, jot down the most important stuff before it's closed; fortunately, accessing the (automatic) chat logs is very easy) message box is displayed when your connection is lost | + | +; while losing the connection, the current conversations are all closed in the PPC version (but not with SP). This isn’t a problem, though – past messages are redisplayed upon resuming the connection | + | + | + (you can continue right after your / your partner's reconnection) | + (excellent!) | +; same stands for remote users logging out | + | + for both | + | Some yes, some no. wmIRC: + (both channels and private messages); PocketIRC: channels are lost AFTER you reconnect, private messages aren’t. |
| Auto reconnect when the / a connection terminates? | ? | - (!) The “Auto Login” checkbox at the account page only seems to be telling the system to log in upon starting the app, not upon a terminated connection | -:it seems it doesn’t reconnect | + | + if and only if you explicitly enable it (“Keep alive”) | + | + (works great) | + (works great) | + | + | + | + for both | It doesn’t seem to be able to do this | In general, no |
| MSN disconnect test? | ? | + | + (both parties noticed this at once) | - (other party didn’t register this!) | +; both sides registered this at once | +; both sides registered this at once | +; both sides registered this at once | +; both sides registered this at once | +; both sides registered this at once | +; both sides registered this at once | (neither party registered the lost connection) | Desktop client sensed this at once; mChat also did in the user dialog but not in the chat windows, where the client in no way does display any kind of notification about having lost the connection. With gsICQ, the ICQ icon switched to disconnected state in 2-3 seconds, which is excellent. | (Done with ICQ): didn’t work, didn’t even made an attempt to reconnect via the default mobile wireless connection | May be problematic with some clients - timeout problems! With an IRCNet test: the wmIRC client told the user about being disconnected after about 2.5 minutes; PocketIRC: after about 4 minutes. The desktop client gave a Ping Timeout notification about this definitely later: with the wmIRC client, about 6 minutes; with PocketIRC, about 10. That is, ALL IRC clients are VERY prone to non-arriving messages because of seemingly active, but long-broken connections! |
| Easy / quick input: PDM’s | - | +; they aren’t editable | + (1 2); editable (1 2) | - | - | +; can also be edited (Menu / Edit PDM's) | - | -, unlike in the previous MSN Messenger! | +; editable | + (Menu / QuickPhrase); excellent and editable with the external "QuickPhraseEditor" tool; 1 2 3 | + (1 2). Also editable. | - | - | Mostly nope (except for for example the macro-enabled wmIRC ) |
| Smiley input / output (the latter with :-) ;-) :-O :-X :-D :-> >:-) :-P :-( :-$ :-[ :-| :-\ :-/ :'-( 8-) :) ;) :O :X :D :> >:) :P :( :$ :[ :| :\ :/ :'( 8) )? | - | Pretty reduced number of incoming smileys; however, they are animated. / + (with a dedicated look-up icon chart) | As opposed to earlier versions, now it has basic smiley support in both directions. | + / partial (1 2) | + / partial ( 1 2) | - / really partial | + / pretty complete | - / absolutely no support | + / partial | - / partial | + / partial | + / partial. The same stands for gsICQ | + / - no support at all | - / - in general |
| Command / input history quickly accessible with up/down OR a menu? | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | Some supports this (for example, PocketIRC (which has just, in version 1.2.2, received true IRC-like capabilities – that is, pressing the Up arrow will bring up the last-issued command or message) or wmIRC from a menu; the latter doesn’t work under WM5/WM6 though) |
| Readability, amount of information displayed at a given time:Font size settable (very important in native VGA mode)? | - | - | - ; you can only set the font type and color (1 2) | - not settable | + (default 3; maximal 7) | - | +. Note that you can’t disable TrueType; this can really be an issue on QVGA devices | - (!) (all the settings (excluding login/out) can be seen in here | + (default; fully enlarged) | Not with the Basic version, only in the Enterprise one. With the former fonts are very small in native VGA. With the latter, you can use any sizes and can even change the type to Tahoma (1, 2) | + very nicely settable | + , you can set almost everything (1 2 3. You can even save / load / apply them really easily if you use the profile support. gsICQ has the same settings | - (The generic settings dialog is VERY simple) | Mostly yes; for example, both wmIRC and PocketIRC can be changed |
| Other screen estate saving features (full screen etc)? | - | - (much as the context menu of the built-in Internet Explorer control offers this feature, it doesn’t work with the app) | - | - | - | - | -; you, unfortunately, can’t even hide the avatars, which really use screen estate in Landscape mode. In Portrait, they take up less screen estate. | - | By clicking an individual message, you can reduce all the others to single-row ones as can be seen in: 1 2 3 | - | - | - | - (very little screen estate, particularly in Landscape mode. In Portrait, it’s better.) | Some (for example, PocketCHAT) support (semi-) full screen mode. PocketIRC / wmIRC don’t. |
| Product | Fring | Causerie | Mundu | WebMessenger | IM+ 4.3 | OctroTalk 0.9 | Live Messenger | MSN Messenger | Agile Messenger | imov | Verichat | mChat / gsICQ | Pocket ICQ 1.0 Beta | IRC clients |
| History, copy / paste, logging:Copy / paste? Text selectable? (On SP, it MUST be explicitly supported by the clients, unlike on PPC, if the latter uses standard text area / field components with the default, operating system-level copy / paste capabilities.) | PPC: +; SP: - | + | - (only pasting to the text input field works) | - While text can be selected, it cannot be copied, not even with Ctl-C on the virtual keyboard. | + on PPC; on SP, no built-in support for this. | - (!) | PPC: +, selecting all text is also supported. SP: -; it doesn’t support copy / paste (missing from the platform) with a specific, SP-only menu. | +, incl. Ctrl-A | PPC: Pretty restricted: you can only copy the just-selected message to the clipboard. For example, in this case, only ‘dsfsdf‘ will be copied to there. It’s not possible to select anything else. SP: the same. That is, the SP version has the same Edit capabilities (unlike, say, the SP version of IM+); both Copy (only copying the currently selected row, as is the case with the PPC version) and Paste work as expected. This is good news as, unlike with the PPC version, links can NOT be invoked upon, for example, pressing the Action key on them (not even when a message ONLY contains a link and nothing else). | - (!) This, unfortunately, won't be implemented in the near future. | + everything works, even selecting all text | +, on a message-by-message basis (no individual words inside a message) and multiple messages can be selected; unfortunately, it’s not possible to auto-scroll during this (just like with PocketIRC). Note that with some CF2 versions (this has happened to me under WM6) the text input field may not be visible | +; anything can be selected; Ctrl-A / C works | Some yes, some no. wmIRC: the clicked word is copied to the input field (VERY bad); with PocketIRC, the text you select on the screen is automatically copied to the clipboard. You cannot, however, rely on Ctrl-A or auto-scrolling up – you must manually copy the contents of every page one-by-one |
| Logging? | - | - | + auto-logging to \Program Files\ Mundu IM v4.0ws\ MessageArchive\ <protocol>\ <local address>\ <remote address>\ <date>.html; note that 1, by default, logs are deleted after 7 days; this can be disabled 2, conferences aren’t logged. You can also list the logs from Menu / View saved messages (1 2 3). SP screenshot HERE. | +; enabled by default ; log files are stored under \Application Data\ Webmessenger\ History\ in a binary-textual mixed format. It can only be read by click and holding a given contact and selecting Message History (1 2). In there, it can be exported into a plain textual (NO Unicode chars are preserved!!) file with all the timestamps and usernames (good!) | PPC: +; the log files are RTF files in the main directory of the app and are incompatible with Office XP / 2003 and Mobile Word and can only be viewed from inside IM+ (1 2 3). SP: -: the Messages settings dialog has no way of enabling it, unlike the “Save history” checkbox (unticked by default) in the “General” settings dialog of the PPC version | + - all your chats will be auto-logged to your Gmail account, accessible on the Web in the "Chats" category | -; note that voice clips remain available for some time in the file system, under \Application Data\ Windows Live\ VoiceClip | - | Partial: no automatic logging possible, unlike with IM+ or the desktop (!) Live Messenger (1 2). With manual save, the output is textual only with UTF-8 encoding. (SP screenshot). Note that the quite new History&Groups tab in Preferences doesn’t have any auto-logging-related checkbox either. | With the Enterprise edition only; with it, it's working great compared to the alternates. It uses standard HTML output (separate HTML files in the root directory, timestamped with the time you've enabled logging) of all your conversations, NOT incompatible RTF files and it does auto-log. Even this feature is worth paying the extra price of the Enterpise version for - let alone its other features. However, I've found a small problem: after logging in again, however much Menu / Log Messages is seemingly checked, it won't log anything before tapping Menu / Log Messages again. That is, if you want to make sure your discussions are logged, you must manually tap it every time you log in. According to the dev, this will be fixed in a later version. | - | +, excellent. Everything is auto-logged to the History subdirectory of the installation directory. The directory has a username.idx and .txt file for each remote user. The text file is human-readable. gsICQ also offers this and works exactly the same way – it stores its log files under \History. | - | + (with very few: wmIRC, zsIRC; PocketIRC will, hopefully, receive it later) |
| Clickable links? | - | -; select / Copy in the IE context menu works flawlessly, so, this isn’t really a problem | + (highlight the gven URL's row and go to Menu / Open URL. That is, no direct clicking is possible.) | + | - | + | - (!) | + | PPC: +, SP: - (not even with messages only containing a link and nothing else) | + | + | - | - | Generally, no. However, with both PocketIRC and wmIRC, if you click a received link, it will be copied to the text input field, where you can copy it to the clipboard (selecting (with, say, Select All from the context menu) and Ctl-C or Copy from the context menu) |
| Product | Fring | Causerie | Mundu | WebMessenger | IM+ 4.3 | OctroTalk 0.9 | Live Messenger | MSN Messenger | Agile Messenger | imov | Verichat | mChat / gsICQ | Pocket ICQ 1.0 Beta | IRC clients |
| Protocol-specific: Supported protocols | Skype, MSN , Google Talk, standard SIP | ICQ, MSN, AOL, Google Talk, Jabber, Yahoo. In addition, it supports IMAP to fetch your mails from your IMAP server. This means you don’t need to run another, IMAP-capable mailer client in the background to get notified of your incoming mails, which may prove very handy. This, of course, will only work if you do have an IMAP-capable mailbox. (See the IMAP Bible for more info). The Enterprise version also supports Lotus IM (Sametime), Microsoft LCS, SIP, Reuters LCS and Jabber (SSL) | ICQ, MSN, AOL, Google Talk, Jabber, Yahoo | ICQ, MSN, AOL, Google Talk, Jabber, Yahoo and Skype (the latter with a plug-in add-on) | ICQ, MSN, AOL, Google Talk, Jabber and Yahoo | AIM, Yahoo!, ICQ, MSN, Google Talk | MSN | MSN | AIM, Yahoo!, ICQ, MSN, Google Talk, XMPP | Google Talk, AOL, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger and Jabber | ICQ, MSN, AOL, Google Talk and Yahoo | ICQ, Jabber, Mail.ru with mChat; ICQ with gsICQ | ICQ | IRC |
| AOL / AIM | - | + | + | + | + | + | n/a | n/a | +; you MUST switch to, say, MS-DOS Latin 1 in order to be able to use AIM: if you leave it at Unicode, you’ll have problems with text NOT containing any non-accented / non-ASCII char - only messages containing these are correctly displayed by the Windows Mobile client | + | + | - | n/a | n/a (IRC only) |
| Google Talk | + (with VoIP too!!!) | + | + | + | + | It defaults to this only; however, it also allows for the other protocols as “Legacy“ (2) | n/a | n/a | +; including answering invitations (1 2 3) | Must be manually configured - see Appendix A in the official docs. | + | - | n/a | n/a (IRC only) |
| ICQ | - | + | + | + | +, with selectable nick (1 and before-after) | + | n/a | n/a | +, including requests | + | + | + (the only service gsICQ supports) | + with unique ICQ capabilities (account set up (1 2 3 4; note that, at the time of writing, this didn’t work; dunno if this will be fixed any time); filling in the info page (1 2); ICQ Privacy + Web aware) | n/a (IRC only) |
| Jabber / XMPP? | - | + | + | + | ? | - | n/a | n/a | + | + | - | + | n/a | n/a |
| MSN | + (with VoIP too!!!) | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | - | n/a | n/a (IRC only) |
| Yahoo | - | + | + | + | + | + | n/a | n/a | +, incl. requests | + | + | - | n/a | n/a (IRC only) |
| Auto connection capabilities: auto login at startup? | - | + | + (must be explicitly enabled with all individual accounts you define) | - | + | + | - (albeit it’s just one screentap) | - (albeit it’s just one screentap) | + (disabled by default!) | + | + | + | + | Some of them support this |
| Scheduled login / logout? | - | - | - | - | - | + - excellent! | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Product | Fring | Causerie | Mundu | WebMessenger | IM+ 4.3 | OctroTalk 0.9 | Live Messenger | MSN Messenger | Agile Messenger | imov | Verichat | mChat / gsICQ | Pocket ICQ 1.0 Beta | IRC clients |
| New message notification; suspended mode: in-program, if multitabs are utilized, are they colored? | - | No multitabs at all as the chat interface is entirely based on the built-in Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, this means you need to switch between the chars with either through the menu (Options / View Chat Sessions) or by clicking this icon (or, if you have an external keyboard with Control, then, using Ctrl + Left or Right). Note that the chat list is rendered in a not very high window on VGA devices (on QVGA ones, it's OK), which must be scrolled to access invisible items. This is also a problem. | No multitabs, unfortunately. When a message arrives from a still inactive contact, a new splash screen will be displayed; from there, it’s easy to switch to the new message . Otherwise (if you already have an active chat session with him/her), only a sound will be played and his/her e-mail address flashed next to the “Chat” tab (it can’t be clicked for quick switching, unlike with, say, OctroTalk). To switch between active chats, you need to use the menu extensively. Unfortunately, Left/Right on the D-pad / keyboard doesn’t work for quick switching, unlike with many other apps. | Modal dialogs are shown unless you explicitly disable them | If you’re in another tab, a message telling you who sent the new message. You can use the D-pad to switch between the conversations. Also, if you’re in “Roster” mode (userlist), then, you’re taken to the new message right away | - ; actually, while it’s using a tabbed interface, only one tab is visible at a time in addition to the buddy list. However, the new message is shown at the bottom of the screen (by clicking it, you're taken straight away to the related chat window) and on the taskbar a plain icon - WITHOUT a notification bubble (strangely, the “Play sound when...“ setting doesn’t necessarily work - it didn’t work on my x51v and only worked after restarting on my Universal. After that, however, it did work without problems). To switch between tabs, you must go to Menu / Sessions (1 2) - you can’t use the D-pad for quick switching. Note that the session list isn’t colored to show who sent you the new message; however, the username will still be displayed next to it. | + the border of avatars flashing + sound + vibration when necessary | No tabs at all (users must be switched through Menu / Chats); bubbles are displayed with a direct Chat button | -, you only get a notification sound when the new message arrives and won’t have more clues about where it has come from. Fortunately, you can quickly scroll through the tabs with the D-pad - no need to touch the screen | + a bubble is displayed with quick switching capabilities | Message box + Sessions menu for switching; no multitabs | The program switches to the given tab right away (unless you configure it otherwise – the notification configurability is really excellent) | Drop-down menu is used; no colors. You can’t use any hardware button to quickly traverse between the current chats. | Mostly yes – at least with wmIRC and PocketIRC. As far as quick switching between the tabs with D-Pad left/right is concerned, PocketIRC: -; wmIRC: + (if there isn’t any text in the text input field). |
| Suspended mode usable on Windows Mobile phones? | + (only tested on SP) | + | - (!!!!!); on Smartphones, it's working just great | + | +; you must enable it manually in both the PPC and the SP versions. | + | + | + | + | + | + | + for both | - (!!!); furthermore, the sender won’t know about his/her messages getting delivered (all messages get delivered fortunately) only when the phone is resumed as the client still maintains the online status. | wmIRC: +, works just great! PocketIRC: n/a (there’re not even audio notifications with PocketIRC!) |
| What notification settings / capabilities are used? (System-level notifications only refer to the PPC platform; SP doesn’t have system-level notification settings capabilities; the ones in Settings / Sound are for the (in cases) built-in Live Messenger only. Note that, on the SP, only Live Messenger is able to show a notification icon on the taskbar upon incoming messages & similar evenets, unlike with the PPC platform.) | ? | While they aren’t system-level, vibrating does work on the test HTC Universal. | Built-in only, no system-level ones ( 1 2). Unfortunately, vibration doesn’t work either. Only audio- and LED blinking-based (this must be explicitly enabled) notifications are possible. | Very good (vibration when needed etc.): system-level setting (1 2) | PPC: System-level setting, SP: in-app | Both built-in quick settings and system-level. The latter doesn’t enable vibration by default – make sure you enable it to enable vibration! Excellent! | + ; system setting also possible | + | +. On the Wizard, no vibration, not even when it’s enabled on the system level); no notification bubble, unlike with the other solutions! | +; beeps; when the system is set to vibrate mode, it vibrates OK, unlike, for example, Agile | + Excellent, system-level – everything works, including vibration | Built-in. Vibrating works great even without, it seems, the vibrate plug-in. | Simple application-level sound , meaning NO vibration support, not even when it’s set as the default on the OS level | + (some support system-level settings; the most only in-program ones). wmIRC: in-app you can enable sounds, vibration and notification boxes; they are used if you’ve outside the app (inside, “only” tab coloring is used); vibration works great, including the OS-level enabling. PocketIRC: there’re not even audio notifications – only colored tabs. |
| Today plug-in (on SP, only OcroTalk, Live Messenger and the, in here, not listed Skype client supports this) | - | -; it, however, puts an icon at the bottom of the Today screen when active. It's not used to convey any kind of state ("there are new messages"), unlike "real" Today plug-ins of several of the alternative IM solutions. | - | PPC: + There is, but it just doesn’t seem to function properly – it keeps displaying “no unread messages” and “stopped” even when active / there’re new messages. SP: - | SP: -; PPC: +; must be manually enabled in Settings; the number of available users and unread messages are displayed | + on both the PPC and SP; Only with “New unread message(s)“ when there is something new (that is, not so good as Live Messenger) as opposed to not displaying anything except “Online“ or not displaying any text when offline | + , displaying the last three messages received. Works on both PPC and SP. | + only displaying the currently active conversations | PPC: +; only the number of unread messages are displayed (this is still better than the old MSN Messenger approach). Note that the Today plug-in of Agile is ENTIRELY incompatible with Dell Axim x51v’s - make sure you disable them if you continuously get gwes.exe crashes on the Today screen! SP: - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Product | Fring | Causerie | Mundu | WebMessenger | IM+ 4.3 | OctroTalk 0.9 | Live Messenger | MSN Messenger | Agile Messenger | imov | Verichat | mChat / gsICQ | Pocket ICQ 1.0 Beta | IRC clients |
| Misc: CPU usage while listening to incoming messages with all the possible networks logged in? | ~0% | ~0% at 624 MHz | ~0% at 624 MHz | Not very good: ~5% at 624 MHz | Excellent: ~0.2% at 624 MHz | 0% | 0% | 0% | Excellent: ~2% at 624 MHz | Excellent: ~0.1...0.2% at 624 MHz | Excellent: ~0% | ~0-0.3% for both at 624 MHz | 1% | Better titles have ~0% CPU usage: wmIRC: 0…0.4%; PocketIRC: 0% |
| Doc quality? | Excellent | Excellent online docs | Excellent docs; in addition, there is a FAQ too; Menu / Help only contains About and an upgrade checker | The online FAQ is uselessly bad compared to some of the alternates (for example, IM+). Note that the in-app Menu / Help / HelpTopics also takes you there and there's no offline docs. | Very good and, except for the OS compatibility list (4.3 is WM2003+ only), up to date | Given that the software is still in beta stage and is constantly evolving, good and up to date (albeit not so nice as, say, that of IM+). | Currently, no built-in help in last version; this may change when it's officially out as a purchasable, downloadable app - only im.htm (the old MSN Messenger one) is available | im.htm linked from the Pocket MSN help; sufficient | Couldn't find any help either online or offline | Pretty good | ? | Only available in Russian and is pretty good; the (Russian) FAQ is far more terse | Couldn't find any docs - there are only installation instructions online; the ICQ Knowledge Base doesn't seem to contain anything about the Pocket PC version | Depends on the particular IRC client; most clients are, in general, sufficiently documented, albeit there are exceptions: for example, PocketIRC.htm installed with PocketIRC is heavily outdated (last modded in 2002) and lacks for example information on DCC and other, newly-introduced goodies like favorite channels |
| Conference (MSN: Action / Invite a contact to join this conversation; ICQ: Start a multi chat icon; Yahoo: Action / Invite to a conference; Google Talk protocol itself and the current AIM desktop Windows client (but NOT the protocol!), as of now, don’t allow for group chat) | - | - | MSN: + (1 2); works great! The case is the same with Yahoo too (1 2). With ICQ, it states the protocol doesn’t support conferencing, while this is certainly not the case - the ICQ protocol does support conferencing. Finally, with AIM, it displays “No contacts to display” upon trying to initiate conferencing. The Mundu folks state they do support AIM conferencing, though - I don't know why it didn't work with me. | MSN: just like with IM+: on the mobile, you need to switch between individual windows to see all the incoming messages; however, outgoing ones are all delivered to all the participants ; ICQ: - Yahoo: on the desktop, it seems the invitation worked. However, the mobile doesn’t receive anything and everything it sends is only visible by the party it had previously a private conversation with. | MSN: A bit better than for example imov: while you still need to switch between chat windows on your mobile to see all incoming messages, outgoing ones are sent to the common chat window on the desktop. This is pretty usable if you don’t mind switching between windows on your mobile device. ICQ: - (the desktop client refuses to connect). Yahoo: - | MSN: Notices being invited to a groupchat - if you don’t do this, it’ll make you appear as offline not to cause problems in the groupchat. I, however, didn’t find out how groups like this can be joined (if at all) in the current version. ICQ: - ; Yahoo: - (the incoming join request isn’t even shown) | (MSN:) works just great! What is more, the mobile client can also invite contacts to the chatroom , not just the desktop clients. Note that, in this case, PPC -> others file / photo sending won’t work | (MSN:) works great (memberlist). Note that, unlike with LM, you can’t invite contacts to multichat from the mobile device though. | MSN: completely useless: as far as incoming messages are concerned, ones coming only from one contact are received, the others aren’t at all. Outgoing messages are distributed OK, though. ICQ: -. SP: As far as initiating conference calls is concerned on the SP, it seems it’s, in theory, possible to invite other people to conference conversations; however, it’s just impossible to select any other participant on the Smartphone . With conference calls initiated from other clients, the messages coming from the non-originating party aren’t displayed in Agile, unlike in the desktop clients – that is, it’s useless. | MSN: - (incoming messages are only visible in separate chat windows; outgoing ones are only sent to the currently selected chat recipient, NOT the other); ICQ: -. All in all, only Jabber-based conference works and only in the Enterprise version (1 2) | MSN: limited: the same as with IM+ and WebMessenger | - | - | + |
| Flags? | - | With AIM and ICQ, pretty restricted (1 2); with Yahoo and MSN, better (1 2). The latter also supports “Appear Offline” | Pretty few; no offline by default; custom | All, even with a custom one | All | Unfortunately, available/busy/away only (meaning there is no for example "Offline"). It, however, has custom status capabilities | All | All | All | All except for "Appear Offline" | All | ICQ: a plethora of flags; Jabber / Mail.ru: less. With ICQ, you can also fine-tune your visibility. gsICQ is even better in this respect; it supports extended states. Also, it supports custom messages returned to the other party when you switch on the ICQ states, unlike mChat – excellent! | All | Some clients support setting the state to away |
| Mobile flag? | + (!) | - | + | - (!) | - (!) | - (!) | + | + | + | - (!) | - (!) | - | - (!) | n/a - the protocol doesn’t support it (albeit you can supply a related IRC name any time so that your partners see you’re using a mobile device) |
| Unicode support? | + | + | MSN: + in both directions. The situation is equally good with Gtalk and Yahoo. With ICQ, it has major problems with anything accented. If you use ANY kind of 8-bit (that is, Western-European; non-Unicode) accents, even (for example, with “standard” Finnish characters), in the PC -> PPC direction, these characters won’t be displayed by Mundu on the PDA at all. In the opposite direction, the situation is even worse: anything containing 8-bit chars will NOT be sent from the PDA to the PC. If, on the other hand, you ONLY use 16-bit (Unicode) chars and non-Western European ones, these chars will be transferred and converted to their non-accented equivalents. These four cases are shown in this screenshot. Finally, with AIM, the situation is equally bad: in the PC -> PPC direction, not anything gets transferred that has at least one Unicode character in it; 8-bit accented Western (for example, Finnish) chars are just not displayed. In the opposite direction, all chars are transferred as UTF-8 – that is, unreadable by the receiver. Also see this screenshot (with the official AIM client, this) showing this all. Note that, according to the developer, this is because of the non-Unicode-friendly TOC protocol used with AIM. | AIM, MSN, Yahoo: +; Google: OK in the WM -> PC direction but not in the opposite one: Google Talk tries to send UTF-8-encoded characters, which WebMessenger isn’t able to render; ICQ: the PC -> mobile direction doesn’t use Unicode; | ICQ: Only in the PC -> PPC direction, not the other way around; MSN: +; Yahoo: + | + in both directions with all protocols | + | + | + (any encoding can be configured ); works with all networks | +, except for ICQ, where no Unicode chars are displayed locally; however, Unicode chars entered on the PDA get transferred to the PC client. With Yahoo, when you enter a Unicode char on the mobile device, it’s not visible locally either; however, it gets transferred | MSN: - | - in neither direction | Partly (PPC -> PC only) | Most titles support non-8859-1 8-bit codepages |
| SOCKS proxy support? | ? | - | -; no HTTP either | ? | ? | ? | + | + | ? | + | ? | mChat supports both ICQ and Mail.ru proxies (1 2). The ICQ-only gsICQ also supports ICQ proxies | +; also supports HTTPS proxies | n/a |
| Product | Fring | Causerie | Mundu | WebMessenger | IM+ 4.3 | OctroTalk 0.9 | Live Messenger | MSN Messenger | Agile Messenger | imov | Verichat | mChat / gsICQ | Pocket ICQ 1.0 Beta | IRC clients |
| Location-based services? | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | +. Must be explicitly enabled & the related routing capabilities to other users (in THIS screenshot, without coordinates being given; also note the “Route From / To” menu items in the bottom right). It makes it possible to know the distance from another user. I haven’t tested this, but if it’s correctly implemented (for example, with GPS support – that is, not using static coordinates but dynamic ones), it can be of GREAT help in helping people track each other. | - | - | n/a | n/a |
| Multiple logins with more than one account to the same network (as is the case with Trillian)? | - | + (2 logins) – GREAT!! No other title is capable of this! | - | - | - | - | - | - | - (only one account definable for each network) | - | - | - | - | - |
| ... and to different networks? | + | +; note that you can only have four accounts logged in at a given time, unlike with other solutions, which, in general, allow for an unlimited accounts to be logged in. his, if you have more accounts, may prove to be a problem and should immediately be addressed by the developer. | + | + | + | + | n/a (MSN only) | n/a (MSN only) | + | + | + | + | n/a | n/a (IRC only; no PPC IRC client supports multiple IRC networks at the same time. However, with different IRC clients, this is easily doable.) |
| Offline (non-mail) messages? | ? | + | Only with Yahoo and ICQ (both incoming and outgoing supported). Note that View / Offline only lists incoming messages and doesn’t let for sending them; View / EMail “only” lists the online e-mail messages received. By selecting View Details in there, you’ll be taken to the Web mailer interface of the given service via the built-in Pocket Internet Explorer. | + | - (1 2) | - | - (only e-mail is possible) | - (only e-mail is possible) | Supposed to be able to send; it, however, didn’t arrive (MSN) | Only with Enterprise version | ? | + Standard messages sent to offline users are delivered when they log in | - | All simple /msg-capable ones, only depending on whether MemoServ is supported on the particular network |
| User control | | Adding / deleting buddies and (pretty basic) getting buddy details (1 2). Group operations are only accessible when you add a new buddy. | The usual stuff | The usual stuff | The usual stuff with user groups | Add / Remove / Rename (2); responding to requests also works | The usual stuff | The usual stuff | The usual stuff, with user groups: 1 2 | The usual stuff | All | Usual stuff, including groups. Note that, with gsICQ, you can even quick search a contact | The usual stuff with user groups | - |
| Voice chat? | Just the BEST of all in all respects - much better than OctroTalk and Skype, particularly if you don’t have an unlimited data plan and/or have a slower (sub-UMTS (GPRS or EDGE) connection). | - | - | - | - | Google Talk only, except for EDGE connections, + and works great. No MSN / Yahoo Messenger support. (N.b. in earlier versions, with Yahoo! (unlike with all the other protocols, where, in the buddy list, Menu / Call is greyed out), it was supposed to work but it didn’t in my tests - it just kept displaying Yahoo Transport and the Yahoo link and that was all. Probably this is why it was later removed in its entirety.) | + (discrete files with limited maximal length: 1 2; NOT compatible with the desktop Live Messenger’s Voice Conversation mode! That is, you can only receive and (if you don’t disable it, auto)play distinct audio files sent to you by the other party) | - | MSN: Partial: only sending from PPC to PC (the Push to Talk button records a clip, similar to how Live Messenger works and, then, it uploads it to the Agile server, where it, then, becomes accessible. The latter is vastly different from Live Messenger’s approach) | With the external TABLETmedia app; an upcoming version will also include Googletalk VoIP support | - | - | - | n/a |
| Product | Fring | Causerie | Mundu | WebMessenger | IM+ 4.3 | OctroTalk 0.9 | Live Messenger | MSN Messenger | Agile Messenger | imov | Verichat | mChat / gsICQ | Pocket ICQ 1.0 Beta | IRC clients |
| File transfer? | - | With Yahoo, the file transfer (download to PDA only) doesn’t work (it should); with AIM, it does. MSN: -; incoming file transfer attempts crash the app (tested under both CF2 SP1 and the new SP2 on two different test PPC's). Note that the app will crash in some other situations too: 1, a chat partner floods you with messages (crashing happened to me once in MSN) 2, in some cases when you use the predefined messages. | From PDA to PC only (via Mundu’s central Web server), not in the opposite direction. Also has access to the built-in camera; however, it didn’t work on my HTC Universal (a PPC). It works great on Smartphones, though; some examples of my Vox: 1, 2, 3, 4 | - | - | - | Both directions; examples: From PC to Windows Mobile; the other way around: 1 2 3 | - | - (partial: only images and only for sending. Receiving isn’t possible, unlike with Live Messenger) | - | It used to work in both directions; however, it, now that the service is discontinued, no longer works (1 2 3 4). | - , file sending requests result in garbled text like this | - | + (with few: PocketIRC, Glam IRC; non-firewalled internet connection required for DCC chat / send request origination; otherwise, these clients can only acts as request targets) |
| Text formatting (AIM : full formatting; Yahoo: Bold / Italic / Underlined; IRC: the same + colors + inverse)? (MSN: Edit / Change font only changes the font of the entire current / following messages; that is, it offers no real formatting capabilities; ICQ and Google Talk: absolutely no formatting capabilities) | ? | - | - | - | - | - (?) | n/a (MSN doesn’t support styling) | n/a (MSN doesn’t support styling) | - | - | ? | n/a (no formatting in ICQ / Jabber) | +: While the desktop ICQ client doesn’t support styling, when you connect to the AIM client on the desktop, everything works | Most of the better titles support styling. wmIRC: everything except reverse colors. PocketIRC: everything |
| Product | Fring | Causerie | Mundu | WebMessenger | IM+ 4.3 | OctroTalk 0.9 | Live Messenger | MSN Messenger | Agile Messenger | imov | Verichat | mChat / gsICQ | Pocket ICQ 1.0 Beta | IRC clients |
| Quick edit shortcuts (Ctrl-A, Delete, Ctrl+arrow etc) | ? | Basic cursor keys work, along with Shift; Ctrl doesn’t (incl. Ctrl-A). That is, you can’t quickly highlight for example a given word. | +: Everything cursor control- and text highlight-related except Ctrl-A | + (the lack of this was one of the biggest problems with the old versions; the inability to position the cursor in the input field is also fixed) | +: Everything cursor control- and text highlight-related except Ctrl-A | +: Everything cursor control- and text highlight-related except Ctrl-A | +: Everything cursor control- and text highlight-related except Ctrl-A | + Everything works, even Ctrl-A | +: Everything cursor control- and text highlight-related except Ctrl-A | +: Everything cursor control- and text highlight-related except Ctrl-A | +: Everything cursor control- and text highlight-related except Ctrl-A | +: Everything cursor control- and text highlight-related except Ctrl-A | + Everything works, even Ctrl-A | Most of them support this (PocketIRC and wmIRC included – except for Ctrl-A). |
| Bandwidth usage (transmitted/received bytes in kilobytes): login, 10 minutes and a long-time test with one-hour long data. Figures stand for MSN unless otherwise stated. | ? As far as VoIP is concerned, it’s the most bandwidth-friendly solution: WAY better than OctroTalk and Skype and perfectly usable over EDGE connections. Only MS Portrait can be compared to it, bandwidth usage-wise. | While, at first (asit’s using the PIE plug-in to render chats and, seemingly, refreshes everything upon receiving new data), it seems it’s using the same very bandwidth-inefficient, Web-based approach as Microsoft’s own, Wap-based http://mobile.live.com/GoLive. This isn’t the case as is explained in the post at Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:09 pm in THIS thread. Note that the browser-based rendering approach MAY results in another problem: when you use an on-screen keyboard, it may be hidden when the other party answers. This wasn't the case with my HTC Universal; some users, however, have complained of it. Note that the HTML-based rendering engine has another very bad side-effect in some cases: when you have more than one screen of text, you will have to manually scroll down upon every single new message. According to the developer, this was caused by the switched-off JavaScript support. | n/t | Login: 3k/4k; 10 min: 0.4k/3k | Login: 5k/10k; 10min tests: ~2k/4k; an hour-long test: 14k/17k. Note that you should NEVER disable Services/ Connection/ Keep Alive; otherwise, the app will most probably disconnect after the first 5-10 minutes (with MSN) without noticing the other party. | Login: 3k/4k; Google talk (Jabber): 1.3k/11.4k / hour. With an additional MSN log-in, 18 hours: 9k/ 96k -> 0.5k/5.3k / hour. With ICQ, 2.2k/13.5k / hour. | See MSN | Login: 3.4k / 3.9k; 10min: 2.2k/4k. In a long-run test, it disconnected after about 18 hours; it used 221k/301k before doing this. -> 12k/16k / hour | Login: 4.5k/10.1k; 10min: 0.5k/3k; log-time test: 5.5 hours: 40k/89k -> 7k/16k / hour | Login: 3k/10k; 10min: 0.8k/3k; 11 hours: 71.7k/161.3k -> 6.5k/14.6k an hour | Login: 0.7k/2.8k; 10 min: 0.5k/3k | Login: 2.8k/4.4k; without pinging, 1.3k/10.3k / hour; with pinging (default 30 sec. parameters), 17k/50k / hour | n/a | wmIRC, IRCNet: login: 0.7k/2.8k with a one-page long intro message; 1.5k/11k an hour |
| (MSN) avatars? | - | - | Unlike with earluier versions, they're now supported; note that most other protocols work too (Yahoo/ Gtalk/ Jabber/ ICQ) | - | - | - | +; it can also be changed from inside the Windows Mobile Live Messenger, along with the personal message | - | - | - | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
