I paid $50 to buy IM+ (after a trial), but failed to test it fully before I bought it. If I had, I probably would not have bought it. There seems to be no support, or support forum, at the maker's website. Meanwhile, I can't figure out how to fix/configure/workaround these issues:

* I want it to give me a popup, an audible warning and change the desktop icon when I lose connection to a service -- and I want it to retry at regular intervals until it reconnects. I'm tired of finding out I've been offline for a service for hours without knowing it.

* I don't care when any of my contacts goes on or off line. I'm tired of getting warnings about that.

* I want a more noticeable notification when I get a NEW conversation (as opposed to a new entry in a conversation) so I don't miss them. Just changing the icon on the desktop isn't much help.

* It's a PITA to close and clear a conversation. It's too many clicks. It should be the default on the menu whenever you have a conversation open.

* When at the services screen, pressing the escape button should default to merely minimizing the app, not closing it. Closing the app should require an affirmative step.

I'm hoping that someone can point me to a userguide or FAQ for IM+ which is more useful than the little bit of information on Shape Services's (maker's) website. I wish I had my $50 back (foolish me for buying too quickly), but since I can't, I'd like to make this app run better than it does.


FLAMER DISCLAIMER: I tried searching for "IM+" but the forum moderator doesn't have indexing setup to search for that. I tried searching for "IM Plus" and got nothing. Searching for "Shape" gave too many hits to be useful. So don't flame me for asking what's probably been asked 100 times before.

- For losing connection, something you may need to live with or switch to JiveTalk which seems more reliable at keeping a connection and reconnecting. Try changing connection type to "TCP/IP" instead of "BIS", another connection type may be more reliable.
- You can turn off those conacts online/offline notifications. Turn off "Online alerts for all contacts" in the Notifications area.
- You can make new conversations pop up by going into foreground, this is a pretty noticeable notification. Configure the "When IM arrives" in the Settings area.
- You can assign a hotkey to close or clear conversations, just enable keypress shortcuts and then assign a keypress, such as ALT+Backspace or RightShift+Enter,etc.
- There's a hotkey for minimizing application.

Also you're talking about forum administrator -- volunteer moderators don't have the power to modify the search system. But you're right, the indexing doesn't work on the "+"

Currently, I am a registered user of both IM+ and BeeJive, and they have leapfrogged each other this year, so might be worth having both, as one can be the backup for the other. For now, BeeJive gets my vote at the moment (Nov 2007) -- see my comparision. Both are installed simultaneously on my BlackBerry, and I can run one or the other, or both at the same time (logged onto different networks), although that's not necessary as BeeJive allows me to have multiple concurrent logins on one network by itself...

- For losing connection, something you may need to live with or switch to JiveTalk which seems more reliable at keeping a connection and reconnecting. Try changing connection type to "TCP/IP" instead of "BIS", another connection type may be more reliable.

I'll try those suggestions. Thank you. However, nothing is 100% perfect at staying connected or reconnecting, so I'm still very interested in some way for IM+ to notify me in a conspicuous way when I have lost a connection.

Thanks again.

I've just installed JiveTalk. Man, I wish I'd seen JT before I blew $50 on IM+. I've used JT for about 10 minutes, but I can already see that it's head and shoulders ahead of IM+.

I hope that ShapeServices gets motivated to improve IM+, but I suspect I'll be buying JT before my 30 day trial is up.

Thanks, Mark, for the tip and the great comparison you wrote.

Dear graystrickland, thank you for your feedback. We will take it into consideration while working on IM+ in future!

For now please note that SHAPE Services has announced a new IM+ release version 5.2!

We improved IM+ with:

* Multiaccount support,
* Baterry life extended due to contact list and dialog formation optimization,
* Auto response message added in auto-away,
* Shortcut for Mute Sounds added,
* Enable/Disable missed events,
* Time for Online/New messages’ notifications extended,
* Some bug fixes.

Please follow the thread http://www.blackberryforums.com/afte...tml#post786512

Best regards,
Irene Collins