GLOBAL – SMS addicts unite. Now you can send messages to your friends, for as long as you like, for free. IM for Nokia lets you connect to your friends, colleagues or family members through Nokia’s own instant messaging client. Read on, where we’ll tell you all about it.

Phone calls are one thing. SMS is another. Both very good ways of chatting to people. However, if you’ve got free WiFi access or a reasonable data plan, then instant messaging may well be a preferable option.

IM for Nokia is an instant messenger program that allows you to send messages to anybody else who has the same app installed, as well as one or all of the following: Ovi Mail account, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and MySpace IM. IM for Nokia is currently available from Ovi Store, but will come pre-installed on new devices over the coming months.

Getting started

Download IM for Nokia from Ovi Store, load the app in the applications menu of your Nokia phone and log in using your Ovi account username and password, the same one you use when downloading from Ovi Store. Press the menu button on the bottom left of the screen and Add friends. Type in your friends Ovi email address to add them to your contacts list and when they’re online, you’ll see them added to your Friends list. You can also log into the other accounts – such as Google Talk – by going through the same process, but selecting the appropriate account.

How to chat

Find one of your friends in the list, press their name and your phone will open a chat window. Type your message into the text bar at the bottom of the screen and when you’re done, press the send arrow next to the text box. Forgot that smiley face? Press the face button to send that much needed

After you’ve finished your chat, press the options menu again, scroll down and press the Hide option. This will keep this app running in the background so that people can still contact you throughout the day and vice-versa without having to log in again.

The nice homescreen widget reminds you that you’re online and if you’re chatting to anybody, plus the included button for switching to Do not disturb for when you’d rather be left alone for a while, or the Invisible mode, amongst others. If you’ve got a device that’s running S40 as its operating system, the homescreen widget is still available, however there’s not the option to change your chat availability.

We left IM for Nokia running throughout the day, connected to WiFi and it was a good fun way to chat amongst ourselves without accruing any costs.

Download the app and get some other friends on-board to start messaging. IM for Nokia is available for Nokia X6, Nokia 5230, Nokia N8, Nokia E7 and some more. It’s also available for Series 40 phones, too. Check out Ovi Store for more details. All the links to IM for Nokia in this article point towards the Nokia N8 version in Ovi Store, however there are slightly different versions for the other models – for these, search ‘IM for Nokia’ when at Ovi Store to be taken to the correct page.

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