When I first covered imo.im back in February, I wrote it was one of the best Web apps for instant messaging you’d likely never heard of, and chances are you’ve forgotten all about it since then. To be honest, so had I, but the team got in touch last week to let us know it had added some useful new features to the service over the past few months and that we should give it another look. We aim to please, so here goes.
Imo.im is a multi-network IM tool, which means you can use it to log on to multiple messaging services like Windows Live Messenger / MSN, AIM / ICQ, MySpace, Yahoo Messenger, Jabber, Gtalk and even Skype and get a single, complete contact list from inside your browser and chat with people on your list using text, voice or video. It also boasts a basic desktop client, which is unfortunately still Windows-only.
Recently, imo.im added Facebook Chat to its list of supported IM services, which was about the only one it sorely lacked when I first wrote about the app. Now that its supports chat sessions with your Facebook friends as well, it’s more than ever a close competitor to better-known startups who offer web-based IM clients like Meebo and eBuddy Webmessenger. And it supports Skype chat in addition to the classic ones, which – correct me if I’m wrong – I have yet to see integrated in any other web-based application (note that apps for mobile devices like fring and Nimbuzz support Skype chat).
Also new in imo.im is a ‘broadcast’ feature that allows users to send free messages out to other imo.im users (e.g. job openings, chat invitations, etc.) and a complementary photo sharing service that allows people to share images with other users across all networks. Finally, the startup is experimenting with a ‘whiteboard’ feature that enables users to work on diagrams, drawings and more with each other. Next up: perfecting the service’s search and chat history functionality.
Also on the roadmap is an iPhone application, which the startup aims to put up on the App Store in the coming weeks (we’ll be watching).
The company, which was co-founded by Georges Harik – one of the first 10 employees at Google and manager of several of its early products – claims it has so far attracted half a million users to try out its service even though it’s still in alpha mode looking at the logo.
Give it a whirl – no registration or download required – and tell us what you think.
Having been using it for ages, have to be honest I am surprised it didn’t get into the spotlight before. By far the most special thing is that it supports skype chat, do their desktop client (if it still exists) does not. Definitely worth checking out, the user experience isn’t as smooth as meebo’s, but on all other fronts it beats it easily IMHO.
Yes, Imo.im supports Skype chat, and you can launch the video or radio chat, even send files, but It is not able to RECEIVE files your friends send to you from their desktop Skype softwares.
Looks good!
I still prefer Digsby as my IM client, has everything this web app has and more.
Check them out if you haven’t already: http://www.digsby.com
Beware the digsby install process and the 3rd party crap they install if you don’t opt-out.
They were playing with that option for a bit but abandoned it since then. The installer doesn’t contain any crapware anymore.
Well, there’s only 1 left – the Ask toolbar but it’s easy to skip it and is very reasonable for a free app of this caliber.
Digsby is nice if you don’t want any good looking UI. If you need it (because you don’t want to become blind) you are better with the original messengers.
Still waiting for the day when WLM is supporting AIM and other networks. Thanks to BuddyFuse WLM is already supporting Gtalk (OK, I don’t know anyone who is using GTalk lol) and Twitter.
I disagree – I think Digsby looks very good and is customizable enough so you can make it look good.
One thing Digsby doesn’t support though is Skype – everything else it excels in.
See my post on Top 10 reasons to use Digsby here: http://beerpla....gsby-right-now/
As far as Digsby or IMO.im – whoever releases the Android app first will get a huge bump in a rating (for me at least).
OK, you have probably never seen the UI of Windows Live Messenger.
While I’m a little disappointed in the directio Digsby has been taking of late – getting more bloated and less simple to use it’s still the best of the bunch – the Twitter and Facebook integration rocks.
I wish there was a VoIP client that could talk to Skype and ran both native WinMo and Windows that had these facilities as well… the day I only need one client I’ll be very happy
people still IM?
It looks like a pared-down, less good version of Meebo.
Like Google was to AltaVista?
seriously… I admit that a multiple im client is good, but with texting and social networking.. I think the IM client has been on its way out of the spotlight for a long long time. Sure, I used to us ICQ, MSN blah blah and the like, but I haven’t for years now. I only use IM these days at work to colaborate with other workers across the country…
I think you’ll find you’re in the minority, I’ve found the exact opposite; IM is becoming more and more prominent for me.
Guys, why does nobody is trying to do something new? Why do we need 12 meeboo clone? Of which every of them is offering one little thing more, but the core is still the same?
imo.im is a great tool, is easy to use, is fast – but what is so exciting about it? Multi-network messenger exist since 10 years !!
I would like very much to see more in the direction of Google Wave, something that may be is usable already now?
Just a pity, that such brilliant developers spend their time on a clone concept instead of focusing on more visionary projects!
I agree that there are lots of IM services out there, but there are a couple of features of imo that have the potential to make the service pretty distinctive.
The broadcast feature (while currently full of not-too-useful content) could eventually be an interesting social networking feature if the developers can find a good way to use your social (buddy) graph to distribute the broadcasts. I suppose the same goes for their photo sharing application (which IMO is much more pleasant to use than Facebook’s).
I would like to see the whiteboard feature embedded within a widget though instead of having to open a new browser tab/window, though I’ve tried doing a voice chat while using the whiteboard and it was a pretty great experience
I definitely prefer Digsby over the other integrated IM clients out there. Eventhough it’s currently Windows only desktop app, it’s also integrated for e-mails and social networking (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace).
I love Disgby (http://www.digsby.com)
Digsby is a complete joke. Total spyware in my opinion.
Miranda, Pidgin, Xfire, ejabbered are all freely available and get you away from threat unecessary 3rd party bullshit. XMPP is a completely underused protocol. Maybe Google will help there with its wave protocol (as long as influential people like Anil Dash don’t stifle it with FUD).
What is so spyware about Digsby as a product exactly? Pull your head out of your ass, look around, and get the facts before commenting.
While I guess I should be flattered that you think I’m influential enough to singlehandedly kill an entire Google product launch with a single blog post, you’re being ridiculous. My point was that the overall infrastructure for Wave is too complicated for it to be broadly embraced outside of Google — that’s not FUD, that’s fact. By this point in Twitter’s evolution, there were dozens of clients on different platforms available. Same thing with Flickr. Same thing with blogging. It’s not true for Wave, and in fact may never be, and I’m not sure what your agenda is in saying I’m spreading fear, uncertainty or doubt for reporting that fact.
I *hope* Wave succeeds, but if it does so, it’ll be because these problems are addressed, not because folks like you are in denial about them.
What I’d like to see from imo that other online IM companies have not been so successful with is better contact managment. Why do we have to see our 200 contacts stuffed in a scrollable list on the right side of the page, while the rest of the page is empty? That paradigm is a remnant of the early dial up IM days where the amount of online users was small compared to the rest of the contact list. Now most people are online almost all the time. The trick is to organize them in a way that makes sense to us and that increases communication with our contacts.
- How can we get a bird’s eye view of our online contacts
- People who I haven’t talked to in a while
- Friends by location (nothing fancy, just IP location) if I want to make plans.
I think it makes sense for the company to also experiment with features that encourage current imo users to have strong reasons to encourage their friends to be on imo too. The pictures feature is a good start.
thx, but no thx; they just steal ur google account – they hasn’t correct contact info, I guess very danger to use web im apps.
para alert
IMO.im is neat. Only problem that I can see is that you cannot sign up. That’s the (only) advantage of Meebo. One account (Meebo) and you can connect to all your networks. Sorry, I don’t want to manually enter my ICQ #, AIM name, MSN screenname… every single time.
Meebo was great, but isn’t improving anymore. What new features did they add during the last couple of months? Nothing at all. Their forum is full of spam, they don’t listen to their users. I’ve been a Meebo user for a long time, but finally decided to move on.
Unfortunately, there is no real web messenger out there. eBuddy sucks, Meebo sucks more than ever, IMO is still in pre-pre-pre alpha … so what is the alternative? Yes, the original messengers on the Windows desktop.
Sad.
when you login to imo using different accounts, it remembers.. such that when you login using ANY of those accounts next time, it logs you into all of the services.
The destop client is just a browser component embedded into a GUI window !
It would be nice to see a standalone client
Robin thanks for the coverage!
@Marco: You can connect all your accounts on imo, and you can do it without having to sign up for an account. You just need to link your accounts.
Once you are signed into multiple accounts, you can link the active accounts in the session by clicking the ‘link accounts’ button in the ‘Accounts’ menu. This way, when you sign into any of your linked accounts, imo will automatically sign you into the rest of your linked accounts.
Good to know, thanks Ralph!
“Sorry we were unable to link your accounts.”
Looks good!
I tried their collaborative whiteboard and noticed one feature that was missing – ERASE
Results after sharing the writable link to people on twitter. It crashed after I took the pic
http://twitpic.com/mwsfx
Erasing seems to work fine for me if I hit the delete key after selecting an object.
@Joe Brooks
You can select the object and hit the delete key (or function+delete key on a mac) and that should work. I’ll let the engineers know that we need to make this feature more apparent.
Or the various services could allow for the sharing of contact lists, for interoperability.
Correct me if I am wrong, but the whiteboard is just a component from fczone.
Imo.im is so awesome I’m surprised it took so long to get some coverage. I use it all the time, it’s so much better than all that other bloatware out there (cough cough, meebo, cough).
The problem with programs like this has typically been that they break frequently, as the IM companies try to prevent use of their network resources by anyone using a non-sanctioned IM client. It all comes down to money, and the fact that third-party clients don’t generate revenue for anyone other than their authors.
Can someone even catch up with Meebo?
Why not? Meebo isn’t going anywhere much. And there isn’t much of a gap now other than a fancier UI.
And everyone will soon have to catch up with Trillian Astra in terms of UI.
wow, i just realized that imo.im runs as a webbased skype client.. not just for chat, but for making calls too! pretty awesome
It shows not-safe-for-workplace ads at the bottom of the page.Stupid.
So, to use this service I have to enter my account id and password to their server? Talk about a security nightmare. Oh, and have you read their privacy page? https://imo.im/privacy.html
“To provide you with services you have selected. For example, in order to provide the linked accounts service to you, we may save your usernames and passwords to the various instant messaging services.”
At the very least, Facebook, Twitter, and Google have OpenID support. Perhaps some of the others they support too. The fact that they haven’t implemented support for any of that is an immediate fail.
Be warned folks…when you enter your credentials on this site, they may be saved on their servers. Even with the best intentions, this is a huge problem.
User’s passwords are only stored on imo’s servers for linked accounts. Even in this case, passwords are stored in such a way that even imo developers cannot retrieve them.
i like it a lot
been using for months and sometimes i prefer to use it instead of opening all the applications (skype, msn, etc)
I told some people to try it and everyone is happy and still using it! =)
Digsby is still the best…. there is no need for imo.im… its another un-needed piece of software in an already-crowded marketplace. IM’n is definately becoming more prominent. … hence the multiple applications for multiple IM accounts… Kinda frustrating techcrunch would cover this without a quick mention of digsby… since digsby is still the best out of all…
Yeah it has the ask toolbar, but you click the check box when you’re installing so it doesnt get installed… its not that hard…
“User’s passwords are only stored on imo’s servers for linked accounts. Even in this case, passwords are stored in such a way that even imo developers cannot retrieve them.” … how do you think identity theft takes place… a database with this kind of valuable data is a prime target for hackers… they’ll get in eventually… they always do. (even if the dev’s cant)
Does imo.im provide a single instance for IM services like MSN and yahoo? Using meebo, if I log in from 2 different browsers/PCs, meebo presents 2 different instances of my identity and MSN/yahoo kicks one of them off. AIM and XMPP (gTalk) allow you to have the same identity logged on from multiple instances.
Nope. Works just like meebo in this regard. Logging on MSN the 2nd time knocks you off the first instance.
I wish somebody would make this an option. I realize they’d (imo.im) have to have the session hosted at their server.