Palringo going solo and dropping 3rd party IM services

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Palringo

Due to feedback on how users are actually taking advantage of their app, chat app Palringo is retiring support for 3rd party IM services like MSN, AIM, Google Talk and more. The company sent out a notification to users just a little while ago directing them to the website to read the full announcement:

"Further in our move to focus on the features our users love - our community of groups - we have decided to pull support for 3rd party instant messaging services. We've noticed that the vast majority of you no longer use this feature and instead prefer to invite your existing friends to signup to Palringo, which is now easier than ever."

That's obviously bad news for those who used the app only to connect to other networks but it sounds like the Palringo team were spreading themselves thin trying to support everybody. In addition, with competition like IM+ out on the market, it seems like Palringo would rather focus on their own IM service.

For those who haven't tried it, Palringo is currently in open-beta on the Windows Phone Marketplace since February and is now at version 0.7. Palringo has been around for years and has quite the fan base built up, including many from the Windows Mobile heyday. The service is unique in allowing users to create chat rooms and send voice clips

Try out Palringo here in the Marketplace (currently, it still has support for other IM services). For kicks, read our 2009 review for Windows Mobile.

Source: Palringo; Thanks, holysheyat, for the tip

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

6 Comments
  • YO MS, get AIM app on this biatch!
  • Just use IM+
  • Thanks for the heads up! Just uninstalled Palringo from my HD7. It's unfortunate because I've been using Palringo since I got my iPhone 2G in 2007 and was extremely excited when I found out that it came to Windows Phone. This is just a disapointment.
  • I will also be uninstalling it. Who even uses the Palringo service? I only used it because it let me use GTalk.
  • I used palringo on winmob for ym and fb chat. loved it. now been using IM+ on wp. palringo is killing itself by this decision.
  • I used to use palringo it used to be an amazing app till it started getting over policed. You have to watch your wording and any time you upset a palringo agent or vip they barr/ban your account quoting "tos violation" but when you read the tos there are a lot of rules but none that pertain to ur barr or ban they throw the term loosly. Its why so mamy rooms have died one.person messes up they lock the room and ban anyone who speaks up they squashed freedom of speech and the app is slowly dying. Dont try to get support from zendesk either they ignore you or takes days and basically in kind words tell you to deal with it