IM+ for Windows Phone beta: comments and suggestions

[Alexander]

Please let us know what do you think about beta version of IM+ for Windows Phone in this thread.

Note: this thread is for comments and suggestions only.
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Beta version of IM+ for Windows Phone is available for download at:
http://www.shapeservices.com/en/product ... &page=beta

[clmbngbkng]

I find that when I go to send an IM I'm hitting the smiley button a lot. I think this is because I'm used to that being the location of the button to send text messages; the furthest button on the left. The button to send emails is also the furthest one on the left.
I was wondering if you could switch the send and smiley button to the follow the same pattern.
Thanks!

EDITED: Cause I left out a few words.

[Bi-Box]

Hey,

also my review about IM+ (I´m german sorry for my englisch )

The App are slowly if you have a to much friends.
I have "only" 300 friends in facebook and if I connect to facebook i need to scroll down to the end of the list more than 50sek. (Wifi and 3G)

And please add a german (and other languages) translation. :)

[inoxdragoon]

I've used IM+ since Windows Mobile and glad to see it finally on WP7. This is one of the few killer apps i've been waiting for. I'm not sure if this is where I should submit bug reports, or if you guys are even taking them in at this point (since its already in for approval).

Anyway, Love the app so far, but I have a few items I've noticed.

1) Only saves account info if you exit the app. this is problematic for Facebook, as I had to fumble around in the facebook mobile site to trigger connect again.
2) Only saves settings changes if you exit the app (e.g., turning sounds off will only turn the sounds off if you close, then relaunch the app)
3) Keep Connected doesn't work, as far as I can tell. I know its not a multi-tasking app (yet... hurry up mango!), but it re-signs in to my messengers when i press start, then relaunch the app (but not navigating back to the app using the back button)

I've only been using the Beta for a few hours, and its obviosly a v1.0, but it's a strong first showing. Look forward to future releases. :)

[domineus]

the major complaints I have are
scroll speed can be really bad if the list is long
organization according to IM used
ability to customize background wallpaper (like the ipad/iphone variant)
settings only enabling after program exit can be counterintuitive

so far so good

[rcelectron]

I find that when I go to send an IM I'm hitting the smiley button a lot. I think this is because I'm used to that being the location of the button to send text messages; the furthest button on the left. The button to send emails is also the furthest one on the left.
I was wondering if you could switch the send and smiley button to the follow the same pattern.
Thanks!

EDITED: Cause I left out a few words.

I second this idea... put the post button on the left side!

[rcelectron]

Turning on auto-correct for the keyboard. The keyboard does not do auto-correct. It has the word suggestions, but it does not auto correct...

[freedompeace]

Thank you for such a beautiful app, Shape :)

Comments:

• Awesome UI! It's probably THE BEST UI I've seen from a third party app! I love it!
• I love the well designed icons and navigation. It just works and is very intuitive!

Suggestions

• Please add WLM support.
• When adding contacts, it would be nice if we could scroll down the page. In landscape mode, the keyboard hides most of the password bar, leaving only about 2px available to tap on. It would be awesome to be able to scroll down to tap on it, and check (tick) the options available.
• Automatically close the IM status manager when we select an option, rather than making us press the back button. That's the expected behaviour for WP7, and it would be awesome if IM+ was consistent with this.
• Under Settings, change the heading from "Contacts List" to "Contacts" and "Push settings" to "Push", and perhaps decaptialise all the pivot headers. The two-worded headers, in my opinion, don't look as good because the gap between the two words and the gap between two different header items are the same width apart. Decapitalising the headers makes it more consistent with the WP7 experience.
• Move "IM+ Account Manager" to the settings. Most people would only use this when the add accounts for the first time, then forget about it. As such, it doesn't need to be a button on the app bar that can be accidentally touched when its never used.
• Under "IM+ Account Manager", the icon that has "edit" is a wrench, like that of "settings". I suggest changing that to the pencil icon, which is more consistent with the experience for "edit". You can see this when editing contacts under the Microsoft People app.
• Although this isn't something you can necessarily change, scrolling through a large list of contacts is very laggy. This is more to do with the framework given though, and any solutions would probably include hacks, since I tried putting 100 items into a view myself and it was really bad.
• Allow us to dismiss in-app notifications, as the WP7 experience would.

I admit that most of the suggestions are aesthetic, but it makes the app feel that much more "native". Rather than being something different, people just feel as though its part of the ecosystem and have no trouble using it, as opposed to having to learn a completely new type of app.

I hope everyone agrees with me when I say that the UI and experience with WP7 is the best in the mobile world today. As for other aspects, ugh.

[Cyruss1989]

I am actually pretty happy with the 1.0, but here are some points I would change :)

I would like to have an option to control my chat history.

What would be great is a different tile, because yellow doesn't look to good on my blue homescreen. A smarter Live Tile would be a good idea also, for example display on which account you have got a message.

Another option I would like to have is to sort the contacts by the different IM services.

[freedompeace]

I am actually pretty happy with the 1.0, but here are some points I would change :)

I would like to have an option to control my chat history.

What would be great is a different tile, because yellow doesn't look to good on my blue homescreen. A smarter Live Tile would be a good idea also, for example display on which account you have got a message.

Another option I would like to have is to sort the contacts by the different IM services.

I actually love the yellow home screen icon :)