Palringo has been a popular Instant Messaging client for S60 for years and is also available for Windows Mobile and iPhone. As of this week Palringo is available for Android. Palringo is more than the average run of the mill IM application. In addition to support for the typical IM services (AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ, Jabber and Windows Live), Palringo also supports Apple’s iChat and Facebook chat. With support for so many instant messaging services Palringo is one of the most versatile IM clients available–rivaling many desktop clients.
Palringo IM Services List
If Palringo can work out the bugs in this first Android release, it will be an obvious and popular choice among Android users looking for a superior IM application.
With the addition of advanced features, such a picture sharing and Push-to-Talk (PTT), Palringo is a force to be reckoned with. Picture sharing has long been a missing feature among mobile instant messaging client. To accomplish picture sharing Palringo uploads selected images to their server and delivers the image if they also using Palringo. Non-Palringo users will instead receive a link to Palringo’s web site where the image is stored. Unfortunately, non-Palringo users are not presently able to send images back. If non-Palringo users send Palringo users a picture, the image transfer fails. I have seen the service work, quite well in fact, but when I tested it this time around from the G1 to a non-Palringo user, the link sent came back as invalid.
Another of Palringo’s features some may find interesting, or at the very least quite unique, is Push-to-Talk. PTT has been a popular feature among Nextel users for years, so much so other carriers have introduced their own PTT services. I’ve used this service on S60 and it’s easy to use. The sender selects a contact and selects the chat bubble icon. When activated the application prompts the user to record a voice message which is then sent as a message to fellow Palringo users. Non-Palringo users will receive a link to hear the audio message in the same way they were linked to the shared image. The audio service isn’t exactly what I would call PTT as we have come to know it today, nevertheless it can be a fun feature to have.
Palringo Allows You To View Close Contacts
I can without a doubt recommend Palringo for any S60 user. But without the advanced options, Palringo is almost lost among the other IM applications. For that reason I say download and install Palringo if the advance features don’t appeal to you. Palringo does offer IM for a wide selection of IM platforms, including Facebook(something few PC or mobile applications offer). According to my source at Palringo, they are having some issues with audio on Android and anticipate PTT to be available in June. If PTT and image sharing can be perfected as they are on S60, Palringo will be an excellent addition to my handset.
Below is a short demonstration from Palringo demonstrating several of the different features.
[Palringo Video via YouTube]
7 Comments
In what way is this better than FRING?? FRING supports Skype and VoIP!!
For starters Fring isn’t availalbe for Android. I’ve never really liked the Fring interface. One thing I forgot to mention is Palringo also supports multiple accounts for eah service. Skype may be popular may be popular for some but I’ve hard it installed and running and rarely use it for chat much less making phone calls.
Well, you forgot to mention that the Palingro client is a pure Palingro client, other protocols are implemented server-side.
While this is not much of an issue for AIM, GTalk, Yahoo, ICQ, and other services, it means that all your communications (even in a safe setup like XMPP-over-ssl) is read by a 3rd party, can be logged, subpoened.
does this really have everything all in one?
This is WAY better than meebo. even though I was a meebo.com fan for use at work, their android client sucks.
I rooted my phone and this is the best replacement IM app I’ve found. Facebook chat is a big bonus.
hi,
do you know if the supported PTT is the OMA Push to Talk client?
thx in advance
I use mundu and it’s way better than Palringo.