When the iPhone was announced in January of 2007, and subsequently launched in June of that year, many users (including myself) were expecting an iChat-like application that would let us instant message and harass our friends over services like AIM, GTalk, ICQ and more. When it was clear that Apple had no damn intention of including anything of the sort, consumers were a bit let down. Even us l337 jailbreakers sought solace in apps like ApolloIM, but were never fully satisfied.

After many firmware updates throughout the course of 2007 and 2008, there was still no clear sign of any decent instant messaging application. Even when the iPhone 3G & iPhone OS 2.0 was announced, with full ability for new applications, an official option for chatting with friends just didn’t exist.

Many developers rose to the challenge once OS2.0 launched, including AOL themselves. Most applications just didn’t work the way users wanted (a nice way of saying they sucked). In my experience, many of the IM apps wouldn’t connect over Edge or 3G, and at times had difficulty connecting even over WiFi.

And then, realizing the error in Apple’s ways, one company sought to make the most complete, full featured, and easy to use IM application for iPhone to date. And in my opinion, they’ve almost completely succeeded. BeejiveIM was created in San Francisco by the aptly named Beejive development company. Having worked on BeejiveIM versions for Blackberry and Windows Mobile phones before, Beejive had some experience in making IM work on mobile devices.

Available for $15.99 from the iTunes App Store, this native and highly customizable iPhone app supports AIM/MobileMe/MSN/Yahoo/MySpace/GoogleTalk/ICQ & Jabber, allowing users to access all of their IM clients from one user friendly interface.

BeejiveIM provides full access to all of these services over Edge, 3G & Wifi, and it definitely works. I was able to connect in any area I tried, including areas that only provided 1-2 bars of service.

Not being happy enough with a fantastic fully-functioning IM application, BeejiveIM flawlessly integrates many kinds of on-the-fly file transfers and personalization options, not to mention faux-”push” support.

Sending photos to your friends is easy, and you can attach a photo from your library, or take a picture directly from the camera. This is the same for voice notes.Press the audio icon, and you can record and send an audio file to your friends directly through the IM window.

Personalization is also a key factor in BeejiveIM’s success. Contact names are linked to your address book, but you also have the ability to easily rename contacts. You can even customize your chat skins and add many different emoticons.

And best of all, BeejiveIM has a unique ability to work around the iPhone’s lack of push capabilities. Once you leave the application to answer the phone, check your e-mail, or play a game, Beejive stays logged into their servers for an amount of time you specify so messages can still get to you when Beejive is opened back up. Beejive can also send you an e-mail while it’s closed so you’ll be instantly notified of an IM. Beejive even has the ability to e-mail your chat logs, so you won’t miss any important conversations once you get home.

Overall, out of all the instant messaging applications I’ve used for iPhone, BeejiveIM takes the cake. It stands out from the crowd for several reasons, and it’s just like chatting on your desktop; full-featured chatting experience away from home. I can’t really think of anything else I’d like to see in an app like this, it’s fulfilled all my IM needs. Until we get video support that is…

Lame Review: 5/5

BeejiveIM 2.0 for the iPhone & iPod Touch is available in the iTunes App Store for $15.99.
www.beejive.com