BeeJive
IM client for multiple services
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BeeJive, When IM Matters More than Anything Else

01.19.09 @ 2:15pm    Michael Alexander   Score: 8/10    Price: $15.99   10 Comments

beejive iphoneThere’s been a lot of buzz about Beejive’s BeeJiveIM lately. That’s easy to understand because BeeJiveIM is a very capable IM app. It puts everything IM-ish under one roof, which other IM apps don’t do quite as well. But geez Louise, is it really worth $15.99? Well, that depends on just how much you use IM when you’re on the go.

Beejive supports AIM/iChat/MobileMe, MSN/Windows Live, Yahoo!, MySpace, GoogleTalk, ICQ and Jabber, allowing users to access all of their IM clients from one user-friendly interface.

Beejive enables you to manage buddy lists, turn on status messages, real-time chats, push email, click to call, be connected after you close the app, send email directly from the chat screen and send and receive voice clips and images. You have portrait and landscape modes to work with too. However, other IM apps do many of the same things.

One feature I believe is unique is BeeJive’s ability to automatically restart following dropped phone calls or the loss of cell coverage. I also like the idea that my usernames and passwords are stored on my iPhone and not on Beejive’s servers, even though I seldom share state secrets with my chat buddies.

Is BeeJive able to justify its considerably higher price compared to free IM clients such as Pinger, Fring, NimBuzz and Palringo? All these apps, including BeeJive, have IM as a primary function. What’s the value-add?

Some of these apps do things that BeeJive doesn’t such as support Facebook and Twitter. They also feature the ability to make calls via VoIP, group chats, location services and other necessities.

Don’t get me wrong: None of these other apps are perfect or more capable than BeeJive. Some are ad supported, some put your usernames and passwords on their servers and at least one I’ve used has a penchant for crashing.

If you use IM all the time when you’re on the go and that’s what you care about most, then Beejive probably is worth the price. Of all the IM apps, it does that single thing better than any other app. However. if you use IM less often, give the others a try. Sure, they have warts, but they’re free and some come with a few useful features that BeeJive lacks.

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category: Editor's Picks, IM, Social Networking


10 Responses

  1. 8lias Says:
    January 19th, 2009 at 3:46 pm

    If BeeJive supports Facebook, picture, voice (useful when driving), themes (dark themes for chatting in the theater, don’t blame me). Then I would justify the $16 price tag. As of now Palringo and Nimbuzz are my best friends for chatting on the go.

  2. johnny rambo Says:
    January 19th, 2009 at 9:54 pm

    Hey, can the reviewer or somebody please explain exactly how the new sending of photo and voice clip features work? are these files uploaded to an external server and sent thru IM as download links or are the photos viewable right in the app chat window as a direct transfer? Also are the photo and voice clips savable? What if a friend sent a voice note, am I able to email it to someone else? or grab the photo and IM it to another buddy?

    How does the staying connected while exiting the app feature work? if you do not set-up their email push, are new unread IM’s still loaded into the app upon return?

  3. Michael Alexander Says:
    January 20th, 2009 at 4:43 am

    Try BeeJive’s Web site and support pages for additional info:

    http://www.beejive.com/iphone/
    http://www.beejive.com/support/iphone/2.0.0/

    If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, let me know.

  4. AJ Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 1:38 pm

    I found that this is a pretty good app. If you use IM a lot, I would definitely say it’s worth the money. I would like it better if it would support Facebook chat like it does for myspace..however hardly anyone I know uses myspace consistently anymore.

    To answer the above questions..the picture and sound are saved on beejive’s servers and sent to other user as a clickable link. I’m not sure how LONG it stays on the server (hours, days?). Since it is a clickable link, you can simply email the link to whoever you want.

    You can set it up to keep you logged in after you exit for either a few minutes or as long as 24 hours after you exit (I use iphone version of this, so comes in handy since there is no background programs allowed). You can also set it to automatically show you as away when you exit if you choose with custom away message. It will still save your chats for the next time you log in even if you don’t use the push email/push to text message feature.

  5. Will F. Says:
    February 6th, 2009 at 4:25 pm

    I have setting set to “keep me connected” for 24 hours after you exit, and I still do not receive messages while the actual beejive IM window isn’t open

    Unless this gets fixed or someone can show me what happend, I feel like I absolutely wasted $16

  6. joseph Says:
    March 19th, 2009 at 5:08 am

    hi guys..

    im having some problems with my Beejive… everytime i log in it goes directly to youtube but first this PC LOADER LETTER thing pops up and when touched it goes to youtube and plays the office… any help would be greatly appreciated…

    thanks..

  7. jed Says:
    March 27th, 2009 at 12:40 am

    hey joseph im actually having the same issue, tried reinstalling it even used the older version but is still doing the same. just happened and i dont know what caused it, problem is my you tube isnt even working. so people who the the fix please do inform us. thanks

  8. joseph Says:
    April 5th, 2009 at 7:46 pm

    still no resolution for my problem?

  9. Developers Rush to Update their Apps with Push Notification Services - iPhone Apps | AppCraver Says:
    July 8th, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    [...] BeejiveIM, from Beejive, is among the first of these apps to be available. BeejiveIM supports AIM/iChat/MobileMe, MSN/Windows Live, Yahoo!, MySpace, GoogleTalk, ICQ and Jabber, allowing users to access all of their IM clients from one user-friendly interface. [...]

  10. keeks Says:
    July 29th, 2009 at 7:22 am

    im not sure if its possible yet or not… but is it or will it be possible to run the beejive msn and pc msn at the same time??? i.e stay logged in on both and receive msgs from both?? hopefully someone understands what i mean….lol….

    i just want to be able to log in to beejive msn on my iphone 3g and also on my laptop but have any incoming msgs delivered to both…..

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