SMS-Chat Review

May 23, 2008

It is estimated, conservatively, that there over 6.5 billion SMS (or Text Messages) sent each day worldwide.  That equates to roughly 1 SMS message for every person on Earth - each day!  It is a staggering number to think about but one that has grown by over 4 billion in just the last three years.  Often these messages are short, one or two word questions or answers.  Further still, for many, the "language" of SMS is short abbreviations or acronyms such as LOL (Laugh Out Loud) or BFF (Best Friend Forever).  Regardless of the content or length however, keeping up with messages can be challenging.  Catherine, my daughter and fellow writer here at Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! has expressed on many occasions her frustration with friends who don't immediately reply to an SMS and expect her to "remember the conversation" some hours later.  Given this is coming from one who sends nearly 5,000 SMS messages per month, I do not find this surprising.

An application designed to help you keep up with your SMS conversations comes to us from the iWindowsMobile division of VITO Technology.  SMS-Chat is a SMS application that threads your SMS messages into a conversation by keeping them organized by conversation and date.  This eliminates the guess work of who said what in a conversation, especially if some time has passed between messages.  It is a simple, lightweight application that can make SMS a bit more friendly and easy to manage.

SMS-Chat is installed on your Windows Mobile 5.0 or higher Professional (Pocket PC) Device via ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Center (for Windows Vista users).  It requires approximately 1.2MB of storage space on your device and can be installed either in your device's main memory or on a Storage Card.  In using SMS-Chat, I've found it to be more responsive when installed on the device itself rather than a storage card.  Once you start SMS-Chat, you are provided a simple interface which has your "Chats" organized by person.  Note that the application looks in your SMS folders so it builds these chats on what you have already sent/received on your device.  At the bottom of the display is a task bar with icons that allow you to view the various options of SMS-Chat or start a new chat session.

Figure 1:  SMS-Chat Main Display

To begin using the application, either select a chat you already have started with someone or tap the envelop/pencil icon on the taskbar to create a new one.  If you choose an existing chat, all of the SMS traffic back and forth with that person will be displayed, in order.  This makes it easy to follow a conversation and provides IM-like functionality.  Any message you have sent out will have a blue arrow pointing left while a received message will have a green arrow pointing left next to it as well as the time it was received.  Further, sessions are divided into days so you can follow which conversations happened on particular days. 

Figure 2:  SMS-Chat Chatting Window

At the top of the chat window is the name of the person you are SMS chatting with along with two icon options.  The arrow icon will take you back to the chat listing on the main display of SMS-Chat.  The menu option on the right will take you to the options for this particular chat session.  Some of the options include adding persons to a SMS chat session, viewing the contacts information and deleting the chat all together.  You can also use Templates to have pre-defined text sent to the recipient. To send a SMS to the recepient, type your text into the textbox at the bottom of the chat session and tap the envelop icon to send it.

Figure 3:  SMS-Chat Session Menu

Figure 4:  SMS-Chat Templates

The ability to add multiple people to a chat session is particularly handy in my view.  One of the great nightly debates in the Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! house is "what are we doing for dinner?"  Instead of trying to get everyone on the same floor or dare I say in the same room to make this important decision, I often start the conversation using SMS.  It's not a matter of laziness or ineffective parenting (by-and-by, Clintonfitchdotwife participates as well), it is a matter of getting responses faster via SMS than the standing around and getting "I don't know" answers.

From an overall operations perspective, SMS-Chat has two great features that make it stand out from other applications.  First can configure the application to give you an on-screen notification when someone has sent you a SMS. This feature works even if you do not have SMS-Chat running in the background.  Second, you have a long list of languages that are supported in the application.  These languages include English, Spanish, German, Russian and others.

Figure 5:  SMS-Chat Options Menu

Figure 6:  On-Screen Notification

If you are one who uses SMS a lot, SMS-Chat could prove to be a real frustration saver.  Not only are you able to keep your SMS messages neatly organized, but you are able to see the conversation in order, something that can be an ever increasing challenge the more messages you get each day - or hour!  SMS-Chat is backed up by online support at http://vitotechnology.com/en/support/ as well as a well developed help file in the application.  Test messages sent to support were answered in 24 hours or less and proved to be accurate.

SMS-Chat is available directly from iWindowsMobile or the Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! store for $14.95.  From either location you can also download a trial version to make sure that SMS-Chat is right for you.