Palringo is a tool that combines many common (and less common) instant messengers into one application. Once you’ve registered for free on Palringo (if you don’t want to do this, you won’t be able to use other services!), you can add additional messengers, including ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, or Google Talk. Once you’ve entered your login information, all of your contacts appear together in the overview. However, Palringo’s terms and conditions aren’t entirely watertight; for example, Palringo Limited can track when, how much, and with whom you chatted via IM – in my opinion, a serious security concern. Furthermore, connections via the Palringo server are unencrypted (!).
If all that doesn’t bother you, you’ll get a fairly comprehensive program that’s quick and easy to understand. In the iPhone/touch settings itself, you can configure additional options such as sound notifications, vibration effects for new messages, or customize the appearance. Overall, Palringo is extremely comprehensive, yet still easy to use.
The tool always worked flawlessly for me, with no crashes or anything like that. Even establishing a connection to your own messenger clients takes just a few seconds. However, the connections are unencrypted—so it’s best to keep your banking information to yourself!
It’s possible to have multiple chat windows open at once; you can drag them left and right with your finger to keep track of what’s going on. However, it’s not possible to keep Palringo open in the background; Apple has disabled this. This would disconnect the active connection if you wanted to quickly check your email, for example.
-Advantages and disadvantages-
+ free
+ supports many messengers
+ simple and fast, runs stable
– Terms and conditions inadequate
– Mandatory registration on Palringo required
– Messenger connections unencrypted
–CONCLUSION-
If it weren’t for the mandatory registration and if the connections were encrypted, Palringo would probably be THE hit in the free app market. However, this is particularly putting off users who are naturally cautious with their data.
I can recommend Palringo, but I would ask you to read the terms and conditions – everyone has to decide for themselves!