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It’s been a while since we’ve talked about BlackBerry instant messaging on BBGeeks. We did have a deal on the IM+ messenger an all in one service. Problem is, it costs a cool $50, and most people, at least the ones I know, aren’t willing to drop that on an IM client. That, and there are reports out there of the client crashing BlackBerry devices left and right. So we’re still looking for another quality client. Some prefer EQO, but let’s look at another: Palringo.

This is a 100 percent free IM client, which makes it appealing right from the start. Add in the ability to send voice and picture IMs, and you have to wonder just how they’re able to offer this without charging. That’s what we’re out to discover.

Setup and registration

To get this for your BlackBerry, just head to the website, palringo.com, and

You’ll then have to set up your IM accounts. You do this right through the BlackBerry interface — there is no place on the website to do this, or at least any that I could find after a considerable time clicking around. When in the main screen, hit the menu button, and scroll down to “Services.” Scroll to the right, and click on “Add Service.”

You’ll get a choice of their supported IM hosts: MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, XMPP/GTalk/Jabber, and Gadu Gadu. Click on the service of your choice, and you’ll be brought to a screen asking for your information. Complaint: The password fields are not encrypted. Yeah, it might not be a huge deal, but I always feel better when those asterisks pop up when I enter my passwords. (Hint here: Under “server” with GTalk, use “gmail.com”.)

Further hint: Because your BlackBerry automatically capitalizes the first letter of a string, you might run into some issues with case sensitivity. I had problems with having the first letter capital, whether in the username or password field. Everyone has their little trick to get around this. I just type the first letter twice and delete the upper case one. But to each his or her own.

After you fill out the fields (correctly), you’ll be kicked back to the main screen, where Palringo will log you into your account.

Playing with my IM accounts

I went ahead and set up accounts for GTalk, AIM, and MSN. From the main screen, I can click the trackball to the right and view all of my contacts. When signed into more than one service, the list gets quite large, and there doesn’t appear to be a way to jump down a full page (spacebar, alas, does nothing). That can be remedied by signing in and out of individual services, which can be done quite easily. Just click in the trackball when the account is highlighted.

Clicking in the trackball when the service is highlighted also gives you a few more options. You can set your status to “away” or “busy,” sign on and off the service, add a contact, or remove the service.

Pressing the menu button on the main screen will bring up a different menu, which will allow you to sign in and out of Palringo altogether and manage your chats. This is where you can add services, contacts, and groups. A general settings tab appears, too, where you can set your status across all services. You can also edit your nickname or change the settings. These settings allow you to login automatically, have the program beep when you get new messages, and set the font size.

When clicking the trackball when a contact is highlighted, you can view that contact’s properties, which include the nickname, status message, service, and email if applicable. This is also where you initiate a “private chat,” which is your basic IM.

Once you get to the IM screen, you’ll notice a number of options. The first is the basic text, which needs no explanation. The next is voice. Here you can click the trackball to begin recording a voice message. Click the trackball when you’re done again, and it will upload your audio and send the link to your buddy. He or she can then click the link to hear the audio. The final option, images, is not available on BlackBerry devices without a camera (obviously), but camera devices should be able to pick images out of their library, or take photos instantly to send.

Positives

I’m able to use nearly all the major instant messaging clients with ease. The integration is smooth, so it’s like I’ve got all my contacts on one service. There were very few bumps in the road when testing Palringo (though there were a few, which I will get to later.)

It didn’t crash my BlackBerry, which shouldn’t exactly be a positive, but since so many other IM clients do, this is definitely a good thing for Palringo. The ability to send different types of instant messages is a plus, especially when you’re on the go. Sometimes it’s just easier to speak my message and send it then take the time to type it out.

Negatives

Their website interface isn’t very helpful. The only support they offer is via an email form, which obviously doesn’t provide immediate answers to questions. Even an FAQ section would be useful. They do have forums, but many questions are never answered by Palringo staff, and on the ones that are, the answers are very general and not helpful with specific problems.

The service disconnected a number of times, which has been a widely mentioned problem in the forums. They say they’re working on it, so we’ll see if it will improve. Their server had problems while I was testing this, and my fellow IMers weren’t able to receive my voice chats for a period.

Finally, the Web interface didn’t update my contacts after I added the services. I’m not sure if this is just a delay issue and they’ll show up eventually, but this takes away from the attractive feature of creating groups from the Web interface, rather than the phone itself.

Final thoughts

It’s tough to complain about a free service that doesn’t crash my BlackBerry. As noted above, there are a number of negatives which detract from this service, but not enough to render it unusable. If you’re still searching for that elusive all-in-one IM client, give Palringo a shot. It’s not like there are many risks involved.

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