15 free GTalk mobile clients on Java-enabled phones
Social Network and IM service are already important parts of many people’s life. Heavy users need not only SNS and IM clients on PC but also mobile clients on their mobile phones. Here I would like to summarize mobile clients for different SNS/IM networks on different platform.
Though smartphones have more and more market share, Java-enabled non-smartphones still have the biggest users base. In this post I will list 15 free GTalk mobile clients on Java-enabled phones based on the estimation of their popularity. Most of these mobile software provide features much more than just GTalk mobile client. Non-free software like IM+ are not taken into account.
1. eBuddy seems to be the most popular mobile IM software. Since it has multiple versions for different platforms (Web, PC, Smartphone, non-smartphone and others), its users base on Java-enabled non-smartphone may be not the biggest. I didn’t use it by myself.
2. Fring is my favorite mobile IM/VoIP software. But its Java ME version, which is called miniFring comes out much later than its smartphone version. I had problem to install miniFring as it supposed only compatible with SE mobile phones.
3. Mig33 is one of first mobile IM clients I tried on my old Motorola E680i, but I didn’t use it a lot. It seems that the users base of Mig33′s own IM network is quite large.
4. Nimbuzz is one of the top 3 mobile applications on Getjar. Its Java ME version is also one of the mobile IM software I used a lot on E680i. Users of J2ME Nimbuzz can talk with buddies on GTalk via Call-in mode (access number).
5. Palringo is an IM software I only have tried its Symbian S60 version, which can have multiple accounts for the same SNS/IM network.
6. Morange used to be my major mobile IM software 2 years ago, as at that moment it provided better user experience than other competitors. However, after 2 years the improvement of Morange is not that much.
7. Talkonaut is another mobile IM clients I likes. Users can call their IM buddies from their Java-enabled non-smart mobile phones via the callback feature of Talkonuat. Of course, they need to have credit in their account to use this feature.
8. Instango is a Java mobile IM clients that I haven’t tried by myself.
9. EQO came into my sight as early as Nimbuzz, but I didn’t have too much impression about it.
10. MovaMessenger is something I only learned from mobile20.com.cn.
11. I tried Reporo long time ago and found it not so impressive. Maybe it works better as a mobile SNS than a mobile Java client of GTalk.
12. Trutap has some interesting features but I find it has quite some issues to use. Maybe the developer has difficult to set the target users group of Trutap.
13. Mobiquest is another mobile software that I only knows the name.
14. GTMobile is a project hosting on Google Code
15. MGTalk is a project hosting on SourceForge and it used to be the mobile client of GTalk recommended by Google.
According to my own experience, Talkonaut, Nimbuzz, Morange provide better user experience. But they also have higher requirement for mobile phones’ hardware. That is why lighter clients like MGTalk also have their user groups.
