IM+ 4.5 for iPhone 4 Review

Chatting with IM+ is a smooth experience. Along with a sleek yet easy to read interface, IM+ also offers a good number of options to share multimedia files between your contacts. You can choose to record audio clips, videos or share pictures, which will then be uploaded to a secure server and made available through a link for your contacts. You can also instantly share your location with your contacts hostedby GPSed.com. This is a huge plus for me as I constantly like to share audio and pictures with my friends and family without having to go through the laborious process of emailing them every time I have to. However, the files do not linger on the server for too long, with a validity period of approx. 24 hours, so make sure your contacts actually do save the stuff you share.

Another great feature of IM+ is its ability to save chat history. The chat log is saved on on IM+ servers which can be accessed anytime from the app or from http://plus.im. The chat history can be filtered by daily, weekly, monthly or yearly, and is a great tool to have to access information shared previously.

IM+ also packs in a ton of options and can be customized as per the users liking. The prominent one being, of course, themes. You can  select from different pre-installed abstract or nature wallpapers, and change the opacity to your liking.. You cannot load custom wallpapers, however. Other options include Push settings which can be set to expire within a certain number of hours or days. You can also choose to turn notifications on and off, or select vibration or sound as the preferred method to notify; the notification sounds can be changed as well. Push notifications can also be used to ping every time you get a new email or a contact comes online. IM+ also features a basic browser that will be used to open links from your chat and allows you to surf the net normally as well. It’s a nice touch, ensuring you won’t have to juggle between two apps to chat and browse.

With a few nibbles aside, the biggest drawback of IM+, however, is the time it takes from connecting to displaying your contacts list on a fresh boot. While other  chat apps like eBuddy takes no less than a few seconds to get you going, IM+ takes anywhere between 15-30 seconds before you can start thumbing away. It’s a minor gripe if you are always online but if you are constantly shifting between a PC and the iPhone, the time gap can be quite irritating.

IM+ will set you back by $9.99, a decent price for a fully featured chat app that is rock solid in its service and provides a good number of features not found in many other paid apps.

P.S – IM+ also has a advert-support free version available.