BeeJive For Blackberry App Review

When I upgraded to my Blackberry 8900 about a year ago I was on a quest to find a quality multi-im client to bypass having multiple instant messaging apps.  RIM's Google Talk, Yahoo, and other im apps work great, but if you're like me and chat with friends across multiple networks, having multiple apps can hog precious memory.  I tried most of the free Blackberry compatible im clients out there but they all fell short of satisfaction.  BeeJiveIM was always in the back of my mind during my testing of free apps, and having used the trial version, I knew it was a great app.  The only thing that kept me away from it was the steep price.

Recently BeeJiveIM updated their im client for compatibility with OS 5.0, and dropped their price dramatically.  I had already used up my trial, so after reading rave reviews on a number of blogs I decided to go ahead and purchase the app.  So I've been using the app for a couple of months now and would like to throw my $.02 into the pot of BeeJiveIM reviews.  Hit the jump for the full review.

BeeJiveIM is one of the most popular im apps for the Blackberry platform.  It is incredibly fast, stable, handles large contact lists, and offers plenty of customization.  BeeJive offers support for most major im platforms including: AIM, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, Windows Live, Myspace Chat, and Yahoo Messenger.  The BeeJiveIM homescreen icon is a dynamic icon that shows whether you're logged in, and what your status is.  It also shows a message counter to indicate how many unread messages you have.  (This is one of my favorite features and is shown below)

The performance and layout of the app make it soar above the rest of the im clients, but what really sets it off is the amount of customization you can do.  BeeJive has preloaded a number of wallpapers to use in conversations.  You can also edit the color of the chat bubbles to a number of preset colors.  Contact lists can be sorted by service, status, or groups.  It supports direct file sharing, and even has a chat room feature to add multiple contacts from different im networks into one conversation. 

The app will run in the background, and has a very small memory footprint.  I haven't noticed any lag associated with the app itself, or lag on my device.  OS 5.0 users also can choose a custom LED notification color through the app itself.  All in all BeeJive has to be the #1 instant messaging client for Blackberry.  With the new updates and lower price, it's a must have for any Blackberry user.  It's everything you could want in an im app. 

Application:  BeeJiveIM
Developer:  BeeJive
Price:  $9.99
Devices Supported: All Blackberry Devices
OS Supported:  4.5+

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