Meebo, the reigning champion of web-based chat, has just released their entry into the iPhone app arena. I had a chance to speak with meebo's CEO, Seth Sternberg, earlier today about the release, and they truly do have a surprisingly innovating iPhone app on there hands. Simply point MobileSafari at meebo.com and the site will send you to the iPhone portal (a technique about which our own Scott McNulty had a few thoughts to share) where you can sign into any of Meebo's supported services - including AIM, Yahoo!, MSN and Google Talk - or you can sign in with an account you have already registered with meebo. From there, things get very interesting (note that the screenshot below was snapped in Camino since I'm just not cool enough to get Erica's iPhone screenshot utility up and running).
First, if you registered an account with meebo and added your credentials for one or more chat networks, you'll appreciate the fact that everything transfers over to the iPhone app. Custom status messages, your buddy icon, even the history from chat sessions on your desktop computer - they all appear in the iPhone app. Your buddies are listed alphabetically, but any current chats float to the top of the buddy list for easy access, and this is a bit of UI where meebo has some unique innovation going on: the entire iPhone meebo experience centers around a home screen that is your buddy list; it takes up the entire display, and it even rotates and scales gracefully for landscape mode. No tabs here, which can be a mixed bag for the experience.
Tapping on a buddy slides over to a new chat window with nothing but an icon to get back to your buddy list, a box to type in and the send button. Chat history (if there is any) populates pretty quickly, even over EDGE, which is an area that Seth said the company focused quite a bit: ensuring the entire app was light on data, simple to use and ultimately fast. Tapping the buddy list icon of course gets you back to the list, and any chats you started automatically float to the top. This is where the lack of tabs can be both a blessing and a curse: while the buddy list is nice and large, making it far easier to to read and navigate than any previous iPhone chat apps, it still takes at least two taps - not including any potential scrolling - to get out of a chat, back to the list and into another chat; more taps if you need to scroll. It's a unique approach to solving this kind of a problem, but ultimately, I think meebo made the right choice.
All things considered, meebo's iPhone chat app is hands down my new favorite. I haven't been chatting much on my iPhone yet, but meebo's streamlined experience, fast load times and easy navigation make this a slam dunk that has finally sparked my interest in trying out mobile chat. I was even more surprised about how well they've done on this 1.0 app when Seth shared that this is meebo's first mobile app of any kind. While the company has done web-based chat for years now, they've never ventured onto any mobile device platforms. That said, I think they just about knocked this one out of the park. If you own an iPhone and need to chat, meebo.com is easily one of the best options available.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-16-2007 @ 4:20AM
jared said...
cool now someone tell me how to end a conversation
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8-16-2007 @ 5:19AM
bossman said...
David, u do realize that tho u blocked out most of the sn's in the screenshot u missed 1 really obvious one. jus an FYI
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8-16-2007 @ 7:01AM
artifex said...
Does that screen show you or someone else with the auto-set "on the phone"? That's awesome if meebo does that for you. (I wonder how it knows?) Or did you type that? I don't know what those icons mean.
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8-16-2007 @ 7:43AM
Mike said...
This is really cool, but I'm not sure I like it more than the JiveTalk solution. As you mention, there are no tabs, which JiveTalk does have. More importantly though, is that the Meebo solution has no way to close chats, as far as I can tell. That's just... stupid. It is prettier though, and it feels lighter than JiveTalk. Plus, I think the JT guys plan to charge in the future...
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8-16-2007 @ 8:34AM
Gunnar said...
If I used anything but the AIM network Meebo would be great. But as it it, I think FlickIM is the fastest iPhone chat I have tried plus i like the dark interface and multiple chat tabs.
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8-16-2007 @ 9:13AM
Michael said...
Not my fav, crashed safari after 30 seconds, and is REALLY slow, my favourite is still flickIM even though meebo seems to have a slight touch of iChat.
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8-16-2007 @ 10:15AM
Luna Lovegood said...
Looks like a scintillating conversation
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8-16-2007 @ 10:23AM
David Chartier said...
Thanks for the heads up on my little slip up with the image folks. Fixed now.
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8-16-2007 @ 10:25AM
David Chartier said...
#3: That's a friend of mine, and they're using Salling Clicker with a bluetooth-enabled phone to make their Mac automatically set that status when a call comes in:
http://salling.com/
Salling Clicker is a fantastic app, I own a license, and I can't wait for Apple to enable apps on the iPhone, as I'm sure he would bring Clicker to it.
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8-16-2007 @ 10:40AM
liz said...
oh yeah I can't close chats either, which sucks when I get the AOL System Messenger telling me i am logged on more than once because the app keeps kicking me off and then i have to sign back on again.
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8-16-2007 @ 10:40AM
liz said...
Uhh I can't scroll on any of my conversations, so if I miss some IMs from a person, i'm screwed.
also the buddy icons of a person obscure their IM text if they have sent a long message.
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8-16-2007 @ 11:16AM
artifex said...
I'd love to use Salling but it doesn't show support for my Moto v551. Looks like Blue Phone Elite does, though. What do you think about that software?
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8-16-2007 @ 12:34PM
David Chartier said...
#12: Never used Blue Phone Elite, to be honest. Couldn't tell you. I think Salling gets all the attention though, and it won an award from Apple.
That said, it won't do you any good if your phone doesn't work with it. If Blue Phone Elite offers a demo, it could be worth trying out. Being able to control your Mac with your phone and bluetooth is a wonderful thing.
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8-16-2007 @ 1:59PM
Pants said...
Meebo lacks buddy list catagory support and any chat client that doesn't give the option of "hide offline buddies" is silly. When I look at my buddy list, it shouldn't be hundreds of screen names long.
I'm still with Mundo on this one.
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8-16-2007 @ 2:35PM
Jordan said...
how is this better than jive talk. No tabs. No way to close a conversation. Not faster. There is no attempt to make the UI similar to the iPhone UI like most good iPhone web apps. Could someone explain what I'm missing here?
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8-16-2007 @ 4:18PM
Spasso said...
JiveTalk crushes this.
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8-16-2007 @ 8:08PM
gunisugen said...
Yes, Jive Talk is much better. Still waiting for a solution that will allow it to run in the background and alert of any new messages while the iphone is on standby or I'm in another app. I previously used Shape IM on my 8125 and it did this perfectly. Hopefully someone is working on this feature.
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8-18-2007 @ 10:49AM
Stephane said...
This is my first post, so please bear with me here.
I, like many others, love the iPhone and think there is great potential for the device. However, I am also troubled by the lack of native third party applications due to Apple’s locked system. I have seen numerous posts from iPhone users begging to have their favorite Mac widgets ported over to the iPhone. While I think that would be great, I don’t see Apple rushing to do this until they can somehow monetize these widgets. Well yesterday, as I checked out Amazon’s new iPhone-specific web portal, it dawned on me that Apple can create a huge revenue stream by getting into the ad business, while also giving us all the other widgets we love so much.
Imagine the following:
You plug your iPhone into your computer one day and discover a new tab called myMall. Under this tab is a listing of popular retailers, whose online stores you’d like to have synced to your iPhone. Think ‘bookmarked,’ but much better because when you next turn on your iPhone you find a button on the home page called myMall. Clicking it leads to a page similar to the home page, but each new button is a native widget for the retailers you’ve chosen to sync with iTunes. Now, the appeal here is the absolute ease and pleasure in maneuvering these widgets to carry out purchases.
Imagine now that you have chosen to sync the Barnes & Noble widget with your iPhone. Then, one day, you’re sitting on the bus and see someone reading a book you have been meaning to read yourself, but kept on forgetting. Well, instead of making yet another mental note, what if you could do the following:
1. Click on your B&N widget.
2. Type in your search into a VERY simple and elegant page.
3. Have all of your results come up in the Cover Flow format, with only product pictures showing. (let’s face it, Cover Flow is great, but wasted on the iPod).
4. Scroll back and forth through the result and click on a cover to make it flip and reveal product details (synopsis, ratings, review, other formats, etc.)
5. Quickly add items to your shopping cart.
6. Pay for your items using one of the credit cards saved on your iTunes (this is already done with songs so it can’t be that difficult to build on), or enter new credit card information.
7. Have your item(s) shipped to an address that is saved in your iTunes account, or enter a new shipping address.
8. Enter a pin number of sorts to confirm my order and finalize the transaction.
I realize the process listed above ‘appears’ long, but anyone can see that the actual use of this ‘widget’ would be as fluid and simple as the google maps interface that is currently present on the iPhone. Further, with something like this generating revenue for Apple they should have a greater incentive to provide the non-retail-oriented widgets (like AIM, To Do Lists, lyrics search) that we all been clamoring for.
That is the idea, and I would love some feedback from any and all on its feasibility and:
1. How it can be refined.
2. The ideal pricing structure between Apple and the participating retailers.
3. Security issues regarding the storage of private financial data on iTunes, and any holes I'm not thinking of right now.
4. How Apple’s relationship with Google can be utilized here.
5. The potential reaction from ad giants such as Google.
6. Possible legal ramifications.
7. A list of stores that would work well as iPhone widgets. Personally, I would love to have the following store widgets on my iPhone: Barnes & Nobel, eBay, JetBlue, 1800Flowers, Nike, Best Buy, Cirtcuit City, Walmart, Apple Store, Game Stop, Puma, Pottery Barn, Ikea, Amazon, Ticketmaster, Yankees (team specific widgets?), Fandango, Moviefone, Gap (simple retailers, but no giants like Macy’s?), Expedia, Hotels.com, Sephora.
8. Oh yeah, good idea or bad idea?
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