Palringo IM hits beta in the Windows Phone Marketplace. We try it out.

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

For those of you who go back to the Windows Mobile days, you'll remember an instant messaging service called Palringo (www.palringo.com). The program was its own IM service, which allowed things like voice-clips to be instantly sent along with photos and files. In addition, it was also a multi-client meaning it could support and connect (by proxy) to other IM services such as AIM, Google Talk, Facebook Chat, ICQ and more. Finally, it had support for custom Groups which were basically permanent chat rooms that one could create and invite people to, in addition to supporting iOS, Android, Symbian and Mac/PC desktops.

We reported a few months ago that Palringo was finally going to support Windows Phone, heck we even showed some early screenshots. Now, v0.5 Beta is live in the Marketplace free to use for all. Of course that beta tag means it is still in development, so all won't be perfect, but we've been using it for the last day and half with little to no issues.

The app itself is fairly well designed and what it lacks in beauty it makes up for it in functionality. We hadn't logged into our Palringo account in nearly two years yet when we did, we were instantly reconnected to our old services and up and running within a few minutes (creating accounts on the device seems to be problematic for some, so perhaps use the web first, then login). Messages were sent and received instantly, the Live Tile is double sided showing the numerical notification on one side and the message on the back.

Voice clips, arguably one of the best features, were easily recorded and sent instantly. Likewise, the second device received them nearly instantly too--impressive for a 3G connection.

Overall, even for a beta we like where Palringo is heading with this app. We imagine the final version will cost a few dollars, but so long as they keep it below $4.99 (what IM+ Pro charges) we don't see a problem. For those looking for a multi-client IM app and even sending voice clips, we have to recommend you give this a go.

Pick up Palringo beta here in the Marketplace.

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.

15 Comments
  • Awesome! I used to love this app on my iPhone, can't to try it out on my Windows Phone!
  • This needs some GUI enhancements...
  • I installed it but couldnt figure out how to configure my gtalk account, especially the username: it wouldn't accept mine, saying it was invalid.
    Can you receive notifications while the phone is locked ?
  • I installed it and checked it out, while the interface was pretty basic it was surprisingly good for a beta which most of the functionality carried over from its Iphone brotherin it will be nice to see the app mature more. It is about time this thing made it to market place though, but given how distinct it is from iphone and droid handsets I can't blame them.
  • No Skype support?
  • I just gave this a go.... it's hard on the battery 
  • What an ugly live tile.
  • Just tried it out, it's pretty good, in some area it's surprisingly more steady than IM+ . My only concern is, will the WLM(MSN) be removed in the final build???
  • Random unrelated question: what weather app is that in the screenshot?
  • Amazing Weather.
  • When I logged in it only showed my aim contacts online no fb contacts, yahoo or anything else how do I get it to show all contacts and remove the offline list
  • To add a gmail account make sure your not including the @gmail.com on the end of your username.
    You will receive message notifications when the phone is locked as long as you are using a data connection and not just wireless (when you lock the screen Phone 7 switches off the wireless after a couple of minutes to save power).
    Please feel free to join the Palringo 'wp7 support' group to leave feedback and ask support related questions.
    Hope your all enjoying the app :)
  • How can I download it?
  • it says not supported!
  • please any help