Cross-platform messaging service Imo.im has been keeping quiet lately,
but the company piped up earlier this morning to reveal that its iOS
app has just gotten a substantial update. When pecking out messages just
doesn’t cut it any more, iOS-based Imo users can now call each other
over their Wi-Fi or mobile data connections.
While the update is likely welcome news for the service’s nearly
700,000 daily active
users, it may seem as though Imo is a bit behind
the curve. The mobile messaging space is a crowded one after all, and
plenty of strong competitors — Viber, Nimbuzz, etc. — have long since offered voice calls between users.
Though the company is arguably late to the party, CEO Ralph Harik
doesn’t seem to mind much. For now, Imo’s ace-in-the-hole continues to
be its ability to aggregate messages from multiple popular messaging
services (from Skype, Facebook Chat, and Google Talk all the way down to
Steam) in a single app. It’s an approach that other services have tried
over the years — remember eBuddy? — but Harik still sees it as a way
for Imo to stand out in the crowd.
This new release brings the iOS client in line with the Android
version, which was updated with voice call functionality back in
February. It was perhaps the most practical choice to make at the time —
CEO Harik says the company focused on Android first because it was
easier to iterate, and the team wanted to ensure that they worked out as
many issues as possible for bringing the feature to iOS.
Though Harik wouldn’t reveal how large a swath of the company’s
Android userbase has made voice calls, he seems hopeful that this new
iOS push will help drive usage of the feature “dramatically.” While the
Imo app is available for BlackBerry users too (sorry Windows Phowners),
there’s no word yet on whether or not voice calling will make the leap
to that platform any time soon.