I am still confused about how chat works on the 8700c -- and in general -- because I'm not a big chat client person in real life.

If I have a GoogleTalk account can I use VeriChat or IM+ to talk to an AIM person? Or do I have to have an AIM account to talk to an AIM person in that setup?

Finally, I know there's a new version of IM+ out and VeriChat is always updating: Which program is now most favored for ease-of-use, reliability and general beauty?

Thank you!

I used ramble for aim and then I decided to bite the bullet and get Verichat because you can use all of the IM out there.

I have some of the features of both IM+ and Verichat and Webmessenger on my tips site. They have all worked for me but I am not a heavy user. I don't know for sure about your Google Talk answer but I thought that you needed an AIM account since all it was doing was aggregating so to speak. Verichat right now is the only one that allows you to log into two ID's on a single service at one time. I have to update my page later this week. All of them now have some good shortcuts going.

Thanks for the answers!

So to talk to an AIM-er via VeriChat I have to have an AIM account, right? I can't use VeriChat to talk to an AIM person, yes?

Yes you can. Difference is Verichat is annual fee. IM+ is one time fee. Features vary slightly. Need to take a close look and try them out. They work great in a corporate environment. More finiky if not, since it's carrier dependent. You can always use a hosted BES so there are no problems with third party apps.

The google talk set up has its own threads and can made me work to free I think. I like all the IM clients I have on my tips page.

I am printing out your tips now, Stinsonddog, thanks!

I thought the VeriChat servers "negotiated" between clients so you only needed one IM account like GoogleTalk to "chat" with any other of the other services without having to sign up for an MSN, AOL, ICQ, etc. account...

I love the standalone BlackBerry GoogleTalk client. You get a note in the message window there's a chat waiting for you. That alert and visual absorption makes chatting instantly recognizable and easy.

That is one reason i like verichat. Ramble can be used for AIM but it isn't as good. You don't have to have all 4 clients for verichat like 4 diffrent names but if you want to use them you do. I have 1 person on msn and thats my wife at work, the rest of my contacts are on aim. Try them out, they usually give you at least 2 weeks trial period. I just bought Verichat recently and hope that another one that won't charge money will be out within a year.

most of my damned friends are on MSN and I haven't found a good solution for MSN yet. Well, one that is free or one-time-fee.

Hi All --

Thanks for the great advice! Yes, I finally figured out if you want to talk to a person on a chat system you have to be on that exact chat system but VeriChat allows you to be on five systems at one time via one program. Whew! What a ride.

My wife and I tried out VeriChat for day -- loved it -- bought it twice. We prefer GoogleTalk's interface and behavior but had to uninstall it with VeriChat running and running GoogleTalk, too. So we fired up all our old, forgotten chat accounts on all the services and now we're good to go. On Cingular we've been running VeriChat nonstop for two days with all services active and everything's great. No disconnects. No crashes. Battery is fine.

Did you try any of these?
BlackBerry IM Chat Apps/FAQ - MSN/AIM/ICQ/Yahoo/Google [UPDATED]

Try Yak-On for MSN & AIM. One time fee.

I've not yet played with Yak-On, I might give that one a run. Thanks!