Note: This interview was conducted a few days before WWDC 2011.

What’s your name? Kai Yu

What’s your company’s name? Beejive, Inc.

Where are you located? South of Market in San Francisco (AT&T death zone)

What’s your website address? www.beejive.com

What’s your Twitter name? @beejiveim. Also beejive on facebook.

What apps do you make? BeejiveIM with Push, BeejiveIM for iPad, Beejive for Facebook, Beejive for GTalk.

What apps, other than your own, are currently among your favorites? Garageband for iPad (my kids love this one), FlightTracker Pro, NYTimes (use this all the time, but don’t like the implementation and bugginess, but content wins), MLB.tv, DropBox

How long have you been a developer? Professionally for 17 years.

How long have you been an iOS developer? Since the first SDK came out.

Do you develop for any other platform in addition to iOS? If so, which one(s)? Android, BlackBerry OS, dabbled in WinMo and S60 a few years ago.

What primary computer setup do you use for your iOS development? Mostly on a MBP17 + 27 inch cinema display. Sometimes on just a MBAir, which forces me to be extra careful about dependencies in order to avoid the really long build times.

What iOS device(s) do you personally use most often? Verizonn iPhone, iPad 2.

What mobile devices, other than iOS, do you currently use? We have a bunch of Android and BlackBerry phones around the office, though these are mostly just for testing. Last one I tried to use extensively was a Droid 2.

What’s your favorite thing about developing for iOS? Definitely the quality of the Libraries. Wish I had done more work in Cocoa before iOS, it’s really a joy to work with.

What’s your least favorite thing about developing for iOS? XCode leaves a lot to be desired, especially around refactoring, though it’s gotten better. On the business side the app approval process is quite a drag. Apple does what it has to do and the review folks there do the best they can, but at the end of the day the process is opaque. All of our eggs are in one basket.

What feature would you most like Apple to add to the iOS SDK? On the UI side, better notifications and better task switching. I’m actually not a huge fan of the Android notification system either, it’s way too busy. The iOS system is perhaps too simplistic, maybe the folks over there can come up with a happy medium. The current double tap home button task switch takes too many touches. This may be as simple as expanding the UI for running apps to more than 4 icons per screen (just an idea).

On the SDK side, I’d like to see Apple expose more of their private APIs, especially on the UI side. They’ve managed to expose more stuff with each revision, so hopefully this will continue at a good pace.

What feature would you most like Apple to add to the App Store? For the end user, better app discovery mechanisms. The existing cataloging system is way too simple, and App Store genius doesn’t work well yet. Better discovery mechanisms will help developers as well, so we can better target potential end users. I already touched on the review process earlier, always wishing for more transparency and better communication with the reviewers.

If we were to eavesdrop on you while you were coding, what curse word would we hear you use the most? You fkg doofus, usually aimed at whoever wrote the piece of code I’m looking at, sometimes it’s myself.

What do you do when you’re not coding iOS apps? Playing with my daughters. Following the Red Sox.

What should we look for from you next? In addition to some exciting updates to our existing apps, we’re working on a new iPad app…

What do you think of efforts from companies like Facebook with the new messages, Google with Wave, [and now Apple with iMessage] to conflate IM with SMS, email, etc. into a one-protocol-fits-all solution? Is that the way communications is heading or will there always be a place for standalone IM? I think there is always a place for IM. We have different expectations for the different types communications, and merging them into a one-size-fit-all subtly changes the end user’s expectation, without filling the voids left behind. For example, we generally expect emails to be longer, often richer, and it’s OK to respond to emails within a day or longer. With IM, the messages are shorter and expected response time is much faster, and you expect a conversation. SMS is somewhere in between. If anything the merged interfaces makes everything look more like IM, which I don’t think is correct either. The problem that we’re trying to solve is to better organize our communications with each other, so it’s not so fragmented, but I don’t think putting everything in a single thread is the best solution.

Thanks Kai!

Interested in knowing which are the best, most must-have instant messenger (IM) apps for your iPhone? Eager to get you chat on via AIM/MobileMe, MSN/Windows Live, Yahoo!, GoogleTalk, Facebook, MySpace, and/or Jabber but need to know which client supports what and how well? Well read on for TiPb’s top 5 most recommended IM/instant messenger clients for iPhone!

Beejive IM

Beejive is probably one of the most popular IM clients for iOS, and for good reason. It supports almost any messenger client you can think of and is completely customizable. Beejive has been making IM clients for a very long time, and it shows. I remember purchasing Beejive for my Blackberry several years ago. Even then, it was an extremely reliable choice.

It comes packed with features such as support for multiple accounts, push notifications, picture sharing, custom backgrounds and chat bubbles, and much more. I have always found it to be extremely efficient and easy to use. Most hardcore users prefer Beejive due to the amount of clients it supports. It also has the longest session option I’ve ever seen, which is 7 days (eBuddy also offers 7 day support). This means less time outs and having to re-connect.

Beejive has support for the following IM clients –

• AIM/MobileMe
• Facebook IM
• Google Talk
• Jabber
• MSN/Windows Live
• Myspace IM
• Yahoo! Messenger

[$9.99 - iTunes Link]

eBuddy Pro

eBuddy is another IM client that has a pretty large user base. It boasts several great features such as themes, push notifications, picture sharing, and much more. eBuddy also offers a free version of the app that is ad supported and has fewer features. So you can always try before you buy.

When it comes to comparing eBuddy with other clients, it seems to offer about the same Beejive does. A lot of it is really going to come down to personal preference. I personally prefer the overall layout and setup of Beejive but if Beejive wasn’t around, I’d have no issues using eBuddy as my full time messaging client.

eBuddy has support for the following IM clients –

• AIM
• MSN/WIndows Live
• Google Talk
• ICQ
• Hyve
• Yahoo! Messenger
• Facebook Chat
• Myspace IM

[$4.99 - iTunes Link]

IM+

While eBuddy and Beejive have rather large user bases, so does IM+. These are probably the three most used clients for iPhone users. IM+ offers just as much as the previous two. And again, it’ll probably come down to personal preference. It boasts most of the same features of the previous two but also has some other features that make it unique such as viewing Twitter feeds and advanced chat histories. I like the fact that you can access chat history on your device or on the web. This can be extremely convenient for people who need to save chat histories for work reasons.

IM+ also offers a free “lite” version if you’d like to try before you buy. It supports the following IM clients -

• AIM
• MSN/Windows Live
• Google Talk
• Facebook Chat
• Myspace IM
• ICQ
• Twitter
• Jabber
• Skype

[$9.99 - iTunes Link]

Verbs

A lot of people may be asking why I’m including a client that doesn’t support half the features the big 3 support. The answer to that for me is simple; Verbs looks like a client Apple themselves wrote. The UI itself is simply gorgeous. As of now, Verbs doesn’t support the feature set the others boast, but I think it’s a client to keep our eye on.

If the developers of Verbs can add support for several more clients and integrate a lot of the same powerful features, they’ll do very well. Currently Verbs only supports local notifications, meaning if you close out the app from multitasking, you won’t receive notifications. This is what’s keeping me from using it on a daily basis. If they can issue updates to better the app in a timely manner, I think they’ll acquire a pretty good sized user base. It’s also a bit cheaper than some of the other options.

Verbs currently supports the following IM clients –

• AIM/MobileMe
• Google Talk

[$2.99 - iTunes Link]

Kik Messenger

Kik Messenger has an extremely easy to use interface and push is extremely quick. But there’s a catch. Kik is proprietary. The other user must be using Kik messenger also. They provide cross-platform support for iOS, Android, and Blackberry. The downside is that you won’t be able to link AIM and some other popular messaging clients. If your messaging needs are small and the few people you need to talk to have Kik (or you can get them to download it), this will work just fine. Apps like Whatsapp Messenger and Ping! also offer the same proprietary system as well. It’ll really come down to which you prefer to use the most (and probably which one your friends use).

[Free - iTunes Link]

Bonus: Official IM apps

If you only use one IM/chat service and for some reason really want the “official” iPhone app for that service, you’re in luck — there are several in the app store:

• AIM AOL Instant Messenger comes in 2 versions, free with adds and cheap without adds. [Free - iTunes link] and [$2.99 - iTunes link]
• Facebook has built-in chat as well as feed, messages, places, groups, events, photos, and more. [Free - iTunes link]
• Myspace gives you access to chat as well as updates, photos, comments, messages and more. [Free - iTunes link]
• Skype not only lets you use Skype chat but also make VoIP and even video calls. [Free - iTunes link]
• Twitter is technically less IM and more DM (Direct Message) but if you want to chat in 140 characters this is the app. [Free - iTunes link]
• Windows Live Messenger with support for Windows Live, Y!, and Facebook, as well as social feeds for Facebook, Flickr, and Myspace, and access to Hotmail. [Free - iTunes link]

Your top apps?

So there you have them, our top 5 best iPhone IM instant messenger apps to get you going. Be sure to check out our Picks of the Week and iPhone App and Games Forum for more recommendations, and if we missed any of your favorites leave them in the comments below!

The popular IM client BeejiveIM is now available on iPad. It offers much of the same functionality of it’s iPhone cousin, but really takes advantage of the iPad screen real estate. Here are the key features that BeejiveIM boasts to bring:

• Reliable and efficient networking: be connected 24/7, and it’s gentle on your battery
• Be connected even after you close the application. Get notified instantly when you get a new message with push notifications
• Works with multiple IM networks, multiple accounts per network: AIM/iChat, MSN, Yahoo, GoogleTalk, Facebook IM, ICQ, Jabber, and MySpace IM
• Send and receive files, including pictures and voice notes. View and forward received documents.
• Desktop-like instant messaging with all of your IM buddies from a single intuitive user interface.

I have spent a little time with BeejiveIM for iPad and I find the experience to be wonderful. The UI is strait forward and the app is very stable. Notifications come in quickly as well. I dare say that BeejiveIM offers the best IM experience currently available on the iPad.

If you pick this one up, let us know what you think!

[$5.99 - iTunes link]

Live from Macworld 2010, Rene and Leanna talk to Kai Yu of Beejive about BeejiveIM [$9.99 - iTunes link] for the iPhone… and iPad, as well as multitasking and push notifications.

YouTube Video link

BeeJive IM [$9.99 - iTunes link] for iPhone and iPod touch has just gone 3.1 and now includes group chats (on IM services that support the feature, AIM, Yahoo!, GTalk, MSN), and meta chats (allows you to merge contacts with multiple IM services into a consolidated stream — So Bob’s AIM and Bob’s Gtalk just show up under Bob).

We’ve been testing out the beta for a while but now that 3.1 is live, we’ll be able to test it much more extensively and provide updated results as soon as we have them. Meanwhile, if you get a gaggle of chatters all grouped up together, give it a while and let us know how it works for you!

BeeJive is my IM solution of choice. I don’t use a lot of the more advanced features, but the reason I keep going back to it is just this: speed. It gets me in, working, and back out fast. And BeeJive IM 3.0 with support for iPhone 3.0‘s new Push Notification service is no exception. In fact, it rules.

One of the problems with Push Notification is that while the actual alerts are speedy, acting on them is not. Take IM for example. If you enable Text Alerts, an SMS-style popup window presents, tells you the IM app has a new message, and lets you Dismiss or View. If you View, the iPhone then has to 1) close the alert, 2) launch the app, 3) re-establish the app’s server connection (Push Notification uses a different, Apple-powered server), 4) download the IM to the app, and potentially 5) issue the app’s own internal alert if that’s enabled as well.

That can be some overhead. Sure, maybe iPhone 3G S (for speed, remember) will quicken the pace, but BeeJiveIM on an iPhone 3G was impressively responsive already.

Testing it over the last couple days, alerts presented, I tapped them, and everything listed about was handled smoothly and quickly. So, again, I was able to get in, work, and get back out fast. It’s everything that was great about BeeJiveIM 2.0, plus the convenience of Push.

BeeJiveIM 3.0 for iPhone and iPod should be hitting the iTunes App Store any time now. We’ll update with the link as soon as it’s live.

Screenshots after the break!

Yeah, BeeJive is totally teasing us now. Instant messaging (IM) is one of the most anticipated services when it comes to iPhone 3.0′s Push Notification service, and BeeJive aims to deliver and soon.

Best of all — (see screenshot, above) — they aim to deliver it free to all current customers. Maybe as soon as WWDC next week?

BeeJive makes one of the best instant messenger clients on the iPhone — or any platform, see our review — and with version 2.1, it now includes:

• Support for Facebook IM, including the ability to login from multiple locations, update your buddy picture and Facebook status updates
• Wallpaper selection inside the application, giving you the ability to select your own wallpaper
• Performance enhancements

But wait, there’s more. It also includes a very creative — and comedic! — way of dealing with iPhone App pirates. Sort of a carrot and stick (or baseball bat and axe kick) approach:

We have recently implemented new anti-piracy measures in BeejiveIM for iPhone. We have tried to keep our approach fun with an error message and a video. But we hope our message is clear: please respect the work of developers.

We agree. Go get BeeJiveIM now [iTunes link]. Or, if you really want it for FREE, BeeJive was awesome enough to give us two (2) promo codes to give to you, our equally awesome readers. How can you get your hands on them? Just head on over to our Forums and find out!

When the original BeeJive IM for the iPhone won our App vs. App Instant Messenger Showdown, Brian thought it was a killer app with some killer features, just a tad shy of IM perfection. We agreed and named it our 2008 TiPby Editors’ Choice Award winner for best Social Networking/IM app. Now that version 2.0 has landed — and Apple’s Push Notification Service still very much hasn’t — can the old best be the newer better? Read on to find out!

What Was

Brian’s original BeeJive review summed things up thusly:

BeejiveIM is simply one of the best applications available in the App Store: it is polished, it is well constructed and it is stable. It overcomes the lack of background apps and push notification on the iPhone by coming up with its own solution. It handles multiple accounts very well and is designed almost perfectly. The BeejiveIM team certainly needs to be commended for such great work. In the end, both IM Clients are great but BeejiveIM is simply in a class by itself.

What Is

The biggest change to BeeJive 2.0 is no more simple nor profound than this: it’s now media aware. Not only can you send plain text, you can send photos and voice notes, and receive and view files (the typical list supported by the iPhone including music, video, MS Office, iWork, etc.) The already super-customizable Settings now lets you tweak the send/receive sounds as well. And integration has stepped up to include hooks into the iPhone contacts list, keeping everything nicely consolidated.

Adding photos and voice notes is managed via a drop down menu. Tap the title bar at the top and the options appear arrayed around the four corners of the menu (other chats, iconified by their pictures, run across the middle for easy switching — easier still if you’ve enabled the geeky shake-to-switch feature in the setting).

Linking a Buddy to an Address Book Card is fairly straight forward: you tap on the Buddy list, tap on the picture of the Buddy you want to link, tap on “Link to Address Book Card” and the contact listings will slide over. From there, tap the “+” sign top left to add a new contact, or choose from an existing one.

What We Hope Will Be

Since the aforementioned Push Notification Service from Apple — where a centralized server sends out sounds, badges, and alerts similar to how calendar events pop up or the Email icon shows how many unread messages you have — is still vaporware at this point, some of our hopes and dreams for BeeJive (and other IM, Twitter, and push-worthy apps) are in stuck in limbo.

Workarounds remain: BeeJive’s server will keep you logged in as long as you like and send you email alerts when you have new messages — which are pushed if you have Exchange ActiveSync or MobileMe set up.

SMS may be desirous to people in the USA, but since I’m not, and most companies can’t afford to send SMS messages outside the USA anymore, it’s not on my radar.

More broadly, as mentioned in last week’s editorial on Twitter, SMS, and how interface is the application, in general we’re still waiting for that one UI to rule them all. Transparently sending and receiving IMs, Tweets, SMS, presence and status, short emails, or whatever pipe you hook up behind them should be the Next Big Thing. If Apple doesn’t build it in, hopefully BeeJive or another player will add it on.

Conclusion

If BeeJive 1.0 was TiPb’s favorite iPhone IM app, then BeeJive 2.0 clearly makes a good thing better. Given the limitations on multitasking inherent in the iPhone SDK, BeeJive has instead focused on improving the media communications experience of IM, something which will no doubt appeal to the types of users using iPhones.

Pricing and Availability

BeeJive IM 2.0 will be (or is, depending on when you read this) available via the iTunes App Store and will run you $15.99. If you want a premium IM experience on your iPhone, it’s definitely worth the premium price.

TiPb Review Rating

(Note, technically I’d give it a 4.75, better than BeeJive 1.0′s 4.5, but still leaving room for the Push Notification enabled version of BeeJive IM we expect… whenever we see the service launched by Apple)

[This is a TiPb AT WORK App vs. App Review! The TiPb iPhone Forums voted on their favorite Apps, we took the top two, and now they're going head-to-head. But wait -- there's more! One of the forum voters has already won a copy of the winning App... Congrats duhockey! Want another chance to win? Comment on this post and make sure you leave a valid email address in the comment form -- it won't be made public, but it will be used to contact you if you win! Check out the full contest details, then grab your iPhone and get ready to get things done -- the TiPb AT WORK IM Showdown starts now!]

Instant Messaging has become one of the most popular forms of online communication because it offers instant access, no SMS costs, and unmatched convenience. How Apple doesn’t implement an iChat Mobile on the iPhone is simply beyond us, we at TiPb think an iChat Mobile would be a top contender for an App vs App.

With that said, 3rd party apps are beginning to fill the holes that Apple left open. Two of the more popular, argued about IM Clients available in the App Store are Palringo and BeejiveIM. Though at the core of each is an IM Client, they could not be more different. How do they perform? Which IM Client is better? Who will win the first edition of AppvsApp: AT WORK ?

Read on for the rest of the review!

First Impressions

BeejiveIM

Okay, the $15.99 price tag is hefty and borderline egregious but it doesn’t come without cause. BeejiveIM is perhaps the easiest, most intuitive, and slickest IM Client on the iPhone. Everything makes sense, it supports a ton of different Instant Messaging programs and is very, very stable.

I had no problems logging into my AIM and Google Talk accounts at the same time and was off to chatting in a moment’s notice. The buddy list supports buddy icons, groups and status. The basic layout of the application includes tabs for Buddy List, Favorites, Chats, Accounts, and More

It also provides a very neat feature where it can keep you logged in after you exit BeejiveIM (24 hour max period) and will send you a notification of IM through your E-Mail account. This works best if your E-mail account supports push since it serves as a pseudo-push notification feature. So if you reason that you’re using their servers to remain connected, the $15.99 price doesn’t look as bad.

To put it into perspective, BeejiveIM is essentially everything you want AIM to be but better.

Palringo

Palringo is free. That’s a huge selling point in itself. But make no mistake though, Palringo isn’t some second-class IM Client; it is capable, almost as stable, and possibly even more full-featured.

The unique aspect of Palringo is that it strives to be more than just an ordinary IM client. Palringo serves as a full communication tool—you can send text IMs, voice IMs, or even picture messages—all in Palringo. It is limitless fun to send your buddies snapshots of your daily life and accompany them with voice notes.

However, with Palringo you have to sign up for a Palringo-specific account. Though this sounds easy enough, there have been reports of spam reaching your linked E-Mail account because of Palringo. Also, when I first tried to log in, the app just kept loading and loading and loading. Not until I re-installed Palringo could I finally get access.

Palringo also supports pretty much all the Instant Messaging programs available but its buddy list doesn’t support groups and buddy icons. It also lacks a favorite tab and a chat specific tab.

I found that even though Palringo is free, it is absolutely a full-featured IM Client that doesn’t cut any corners.

Usability

BeejiveIM

I really believe if Apple were to design an iChat Mobile, it would look strikingly similar to BeejiveIM. The buddy list is clear, the fonts are wonderful, and the whole experience is unbelievably smooth. Even the colors and sounds used are consistent with iChat and the iPhone in general—if you showed a Mac user BeejiveIM they would automatically think iChat—it’s simply that well made.

When in a chat, the typing interface is unique and well thought out. Instead of offering a small linear box to type in, BeejiveIM instead chooses to offer a text bubble overlay—the overall conversation moves to the background and what you type comes to the forefront—this offers more seamless chatting. The conversation is still visible because of the transparent text bubble.

Though this method of inputting messages is smart, it isn’t consistent with the iPhone and almost looks out of place in BeejiveIM. BeejiveIM uses a lot of blues and muted greys in their interface so using a black text bubble sticks out like an eyesore.

Though I absolutely love using the text bubble over any other text input interface and certainly appreciate the innovation, I just can’t wholly agree with its design—a more streamline color would have been appreciated.

BeejiveIM also offers support for landscape mode so our fat-fingered friends won’t feel left out. As an added bonus, you can even e-mail the current chat to your e-mail account for future reference. It also has a contact search button so your buddies won’t get lost. One more tip, theres a dedicated SMS button that makes it easy as pie to send SMS through BeejiveIM (which should be cost free to you).

Palringo

Palringo is well implemented and looks good but you can’t deny the fact that Palringo just looks like a third party application. Though it does use a mixture of greys and blues, the base color of Palringo is a deeper black than the iPhone that doesn’t stay consistent with the rest of the iPhone’s apps.

Let it be known, when using Palringo, sending text IM’s becomes bland and boring because of the alternatives offered. When you have voice and picture options, who needs text? It gets to become a minor annoyance when you want to send a text IM because every time you open a chat, it gives you three options: Text, Voice, and Picture. Select the option, than begin typing.

Sending voice messages and picture messages are a breeze, over Wi-Fi and 3G it is absolutely snappy and even on EDGE it can be considered quick. There is also a search bar option for contact search and you can swipe screens to move over to the next window. Palringo also offers support for hyperlinks, making it easier to surf the web and IM at the same time.

Negatives/Annoyances/Gripes

BeejiveIM

Though BeejiveIM is absolutely well-designed, there are still a few missing features and odd choices that make you question your money spent. Firstly, its chat-to-chat movement is less intuitive than AIM and Palringo. Instead of swiping the screen to move to the next window, you tap the top of the screen and select the buddy icon of the chat you want to jump to. Though this method is sometimes more effective than swiping multiple times to jump to a specific conversation, it is largely less intuitive. BeejiveIM also lacks hyperlink support which makes it much more troublesome to access web pages.

I had a few more complaints about BeejiveIM until I realized the features I thought were missing were actually included. BeejiveIM has different depths and layers to grow accustomed to, you won’t learn them all overnight. It is probably one of the most well-made applications in the App Store and has features that make you go “Man, that’s just smart”.

Palringo

There’s also no way to keep your message history, so good luck looking up information on your old IMs. Also, if you misspell the last word in Palringo it doesn’t automatically correct the error instead choosing to send the message as is. I also preferred the font of BeejiveIM over Palringo. The interface just didn’t work as well as BeejiveiM’s, it did the job but it never really raised the bar.

Final Thoughts

It can be argued that Palringo offers an arguably more well-rounded service than BeejiveIM. But when comparing IM to IM, BeejiveIM manages to run away with a victory.

BeejiveIM is simply one of the best applications available in the App Store: it is polished, it is well constructed and it is stable. It overcomes the lack of background apps and push notification on the iPhone by coming up with its own solution. It handles multiple accounts very well and is designed almost perfectly. The BeejiveIM team certainly needs to be commended for such great work. In the end, both IM Clients are great but BeejiveIM is simply in a class by itself.

BeejiveIM Rating:

Palringo Rating:

TiPb At Work Winner: BeejiveIM

If you’ve never played around with BeeJive’s JiveTalk, boy, you don’t know what you’re missing! Even though third party apps such as AIM and Palringo are available, I still prefer the look and feel of the JiveTalk WEB APP. I’m sure Crackberry Addicts can attest to JiveTalk’s IM supremacy. And you know what? BeejiveIM (formerly JiveTalk) is coming to the iPhone and from the looks of it, seems to better than ever.

It’s planned for Beta Release in September 2008 but the Boy Genius got his hands on it early and gave away a few details. It supports most IM programs, we’re talking about: AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, Windows Live Messenger, MySpace IM, and Yahoo! Messenger. Plus, it looks like the clean look of JiveTalk extended over to BeejiveIM and it’s rock solid.

An added bonus, BeejiveIM is ready for Apple’s push notification, which will be a godsend for IM programs. Though there isn’t a current release date or price, BeejiveIM can’t come soon enough…AIM blows big time. Click on the Read Link for more pictures.

Photo Credit: Boy Genius Report

Read