Hey guys. I'm getting an 8700G w/ tmobile's blackberry service. I was wondering how reliable the instant messaging services are. I am interested mostly in AIM for messaging, and I read an article saying that there were problems with disconnects? Is this true?

T-Mobile provides RIM IM Clients which aren't available with Cingular, so I can't say how they perform.

However, I'm using IM+ and it works great.

I use VeriChat, and have no problems at all. I've used it in the States and in England, where I was chatting with folks from Texas and from Hawaii at the same time. No disconnects at all. I'm on T-Mobile, if that might make any difference.

Don't use the OZ client that comes from TMobile, it uses SMS messages instead of data. There are a few third party AIM clients that use data. Do a search for "AIM" and you'll find a bunch of threads covering this topic very well.

For me Ramble IM does not stay connected, but Yak-On does. TMO's IM works, but costs extra to use it.

I was using the OZ one and was not aware they counted as SMS messages rather than data on T-mo. Either way, I have unlimited text messages so that was not a big deal had i known.

I recently downloaded / installed the official Yahoo messenger from Yahoo and really like it. The OZ one was OK but sometimes I would have trouble connecting and would have to shut wireless off than on for it to work.

Some of the cool things I like about the yahoo branded one:

1.) While in a convo, it shows you when the other person is typing just below where you type just like on a PC.

2.) If someone else is typing to you it will show that too. You can use the wheel (I have not found a shortcut yet) to move down, click, then click "switch conversation" to move to that convo, and vice versa.

3.) Custom away / busy messages

4.) Ability to edit contact details such as specifying their first, last, and nicknames, email addy, etc.

5.) Appears that I am on a PC to the other user. I have even been told it tells them when I am typing.

And others... Some other chat clients for BB may do this and more, but I have not used but OZ and this one.

i use verichat and i am pretty happy with it. my biggest complaint with it is the alert when you are in a different app. other than that it's pretty solid. i use to use it on my treo 650 and i must say that version's interface was better.

I'm with T-Mobile and I was using OZ. It has the best interface and the emonicons are cool. My only complaint is that you can only connect to one messenger at the time and I wanted to be on both AIM and MSN.

I'm now using GoogleTalk and installed the MSN and AIM transport. It's great I have all my contacts and buddies in the same application and best of all it's free.