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Verbs: hands on with the stylish new iPhone chat client
Verbs is a brand new entry into the crowded market of chat clients for iOS devices, but it's got a couple of factors that make it worth considering over alternatives like Meebo, Beejive and Trillian. First and foremost, Verbs is gorgeous. It's got an extremely clean design, with Retina-ready graphics and lots of fantastic details that make it a joy to use. Second, it supports uploading and sharing files in chat via CloudApp. Multitasking, a must for any iPhone chat app, is also part of the package. At $2.99 in the App Store, Verbs is slightly less expensive than its paid competitors, although still more expensive than the free Meebo app.Although Verbs is quite possibly the best-looking chat client available on the iPhone, it's not without some serious drawbacks. The biggest problem is that it only supports Google Talk right now -- AIM support is on the way -- so it's currently outclassed by multi-protocol competitors. The other problem is that the CloudApp feature, while cool in theory, is unreliable in practice. I'm not sure whether it's due to an issue with Verbs or an issue with CloudApp, but files will often upload to the cloud without being sent to your chat buddy. Including other cloud sharing options -- Dropbox, anybody? -- would give Verbs a huge boost.
Now that we've been over the pros and cons of Verbs, scope out the gallery below for a closer look at that beautiful user interface.
Comments
4
Subscribe to commentsxxdesmusDec 20th 2010 2:48PM
I think the comment in the iTunes store sums this one up:
"beautiful UI, but useless IM application"
Meebo, Beejive, or eBuddy are all way better than this. Meebo is free and has a decent enough (if not sparse) UI.
frikoDec 20th 2010 11:39PM
@xxdesmus
So you actually downloaded it and used it?
DazDec 20th 2010 3:20PM
Personally, I've always used a range of applications. IM+ is an old application, but it works pretty flawlessly and the UI isn't to be sniffed at. As for mobile IRC clients, it's difficult to beat the ported-from-mac Colloquoy for me.
I think this particular app has great potential to be expanded on, but with their current expected timeframes, I can't see that happening any time soon to a degree where it could compete.
KeithDec 22nd 2010 4:28PM
I prefer OneTeam for Gtalk - it may be especially for Gtalk but it has better functionality, looks nicer (in my opinion) and has a pretty nice offline push function. I think it was only 59p too, I just wish the icon was as nice as Verbs!