Nokia-IM only

Review for Ovi Contacts

30-01-2009 09:49

I have been testing different versions of Nokia Chat and now Contacts on Ovi and while the software itself is a decent XMPP/Jabber client with additional functionality I myself do not really want to go the trouble of having to invite and convince my friends to join yet another messaging service. I know that I can also ask them to accept my OVI account as a yet another friend but all this is annoying since I did not want yet another XMPP/Jabber identity in the first place.

What I really needed was the decently made and network access point utilising IM client, where I could configure my various existing identities in Google Talk / Microsoft Live Messenger etc. The Contacts on Ovi succeeds in making that first part, decent and network access point utilising IM client for S60. It however fails to deliver even the same kind of functionality as the instant messaging client on N810, which can have multiple accounts and in the future also multiple plugins for connecting to various other Instant Messaging systems. That is the way I think instant messaging clients (and email clients) for mobile terminals should be done to be useful.

I can understand that having only an OVI account is probably more of a business decision, where Nokia wants to have a control point, which ties the customer more directly to Nokia services. The same thing applies to Nokia messaging, but this decision is also a key issue why I do not see Contacts on Ovi or Nokia Messaging worthwhile applications and services to use.

Technology good, implementation of the service not so good.

Comments

Submitted by ziggyzack on 21-02-2009 03:38.

Indeed. Users want 1 IM application per device - that's the critical point when IM becomes universally useful. If people need to juggle more than one IM app, they'll just phone instead.

I'm downloading and trying this out because I'm interested in what Nokia are pushing out, and hoping that these ovi servcies will develop into a good use of mobile connectivity.

Submitted by Rich_Enduro on 21-02-2009 13:22.

i think everyone thats gone to the trouble of signing up to this message board is unanimous in agreeing that we need to be able to use our existing IM accounts. I'm sure kristian will be able to persuade his superiors that if Nokia want to take this app out of an experiment in whats possible and make it available to the mainstream then Nokia needs to be flexible with its approach. there's no point having the most advanced IM application out there if only a small minority are going to use it?

Submitted by bozza111 on 24-02-2009 10:41.

i totally agree , i think the app will be a failure if we have to try to convince everyone to sign up to yet another im service....
....
However .. If we could add people by mobile phonenumber we could just add our friends who have contacts installed.

Even better would be if the app checks our already existing contact list to see if anyone is using this app. This way everyone who has a nokia with this app can contact eachother easily.. What do you all think about this idea??

Submitted by bozza111 on 24-02-2009 10:42.

Submitted by kristian on 22-03-2009 17:29.

Thanks for your good suggestions and feedback.

-Kristian