The large 9.7 inch screen of the iPad primarily has made a name for itself for being extremely convenient for web browsing, reading ebooks, watching videos and playing games.
But an oft ignored function of all that LCD real estate is the extreme ease of use for chatting.
You get a large, spacious keyboard, a multitude of options in the App Store, and the general smoothness synonymous with iOS. Here are three of the best instant messaging apps you can get on the Apple iPad.
BeeJiveIM
This chat app has made a name for itself for being as versatile as it is well designed. You can connect to practically any instant messaging network you can think of, and face almost no hiccup ever, all while you get long session histories, seamless push notifications, and incredibly efficient media transfer capabilities. Moreover, despite being feature packed as it is, it is markedly faster than any competing app in this category. The only downer in all this? The price tag of $9.99 could be exorbitant in the eyes of many users.
imo
This has been a bit of a niche app until recently, as it had been in a rather protracted beta phase. However, it deserves to be more popular than it currently is, as it offers a rich level of functionality, a nice interface, and access to all the usual IM suspects, and even Skype.
After all, it wasn’t just chosen as a WIRED App Guide Editor’s Pick, given a 2011 Mashable Award for Most Useful Mobile App, named Best Instant Messaging Application for iPhone by Lifehacker, and considered to be an Essential App for iOS by PC World, for nothing, was it? Best of all, it’s free!
IM+ Pro
IM+ Pro is a full featured chat and Twitter client that can eliminate your need for a dedicated app for both chatting and tweeting. Its interface may not be the most aesthetically pleasing, nor is it as zippy as imo and BeeJiveIM, but it offers access to every single network that even those two miss out on (Skype and Facebook are a breeze here). Then again, it has some well documented connectivity issues, and the $9.99 price could turn away potential users if you look at the entire package.
