imo.im Multi-Protocol IM Client Now With Skype

imo.im seems to be one of the startups launched by ex-Googlers that gets less attention than an average ex-Googlers' project and even less than deserved. So after getting an announcement from the guys behind imo.im I've decided to update you on their latest news - support of Skype protocol.

We covered imo.im before on Profy but for those uninitiated I'll remind you that this is a web-based instant messaging multi-protocol client competing with Meebo in the field. It also has a desktop client (Windows-only) but comes short of Meebo in that it does not allow you to register one account with the service to link all your other protocols to imo.im login credentials.

I myself am a big fan of multi-protocol IM clients: I've been using Miranda for years now mostly because it supports all the protocols I could think of. Sure, you may have your own preferences like Pidgin or Trillian. And normally when I travel with my laptop nothing else is needed since all my messengers stay with me in one desktop client. But if you happen to be away from your own laptop or desktop computer it never hurts having an account with a web-based multi-protocol IM client, like Meebo or imo.im.

imo.im has been online for over a year now: the service was launched back in April, 2007. Currently the service supports all of the most popular protocols, including AIM, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, and Yahoo Messenger. At the same time unlike Meebo IMO has decided to place its stake on support of instant messengers on social networks and launched a Facebook application back in January in addition to also offering MySpace chat functionality right within imo.im itself.

What's more, imo.im has been offering video chat functionality for a while now so when you want to start a video chat with someone of your contact list, this person will be sent a link on imo where he will be able to join you for a video talk.

The newly-added support of Skype is also multi-functional: not only can you send text messages to your Skype contacts, it is also possible to call them or start a video chat as well. Unfortunately, there is a limitation now: you will not be able to call landline or cell phones or your SkypeOut contacts either due to imperfect call quality but the developers promise it will be fixed some time soon. After testing the functionality today for a while, I can certainly confirm that Skype calls definitely lack in quality - some of the calls I tried were fine while others failed completely. But let's keep in mind that the service is an honest alpha and alpha is for testing and we should not expect a very stable service here.

But anyway I think imo.im creators have chosen a rather promising approach and if they manage to eliminate the inevitable bugs and continue to add the new features like support of further protocols, multi-user chats or probably ability to use imo.im for Twitter or FriendFeed (better yet, both), it certainly has good chances for a wide user adoption when it changes the tag from alpha to beta.