Interesting Comparison of Mobile Vo-IP and IM Applications

While I was browsing the Talkonaut web site, I came across this brief table. Basically, the table tries to compare the free mobile Vo-IP/IM application, Talkonaut, with other apps of its ilk by demonstrating what each program can and can’t do. Fortunately the table is objective enough to be outlined below.

Comparison of mobile Vo-IP+IM applications

Feature/application	Octro	Nimbuzz	Talkonaut	Fring	Truphone	IM+ Skype	Gizmo5
1. Freeware	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	No	yes
2. VoIP over GPRS	yes	Yes	yes	yes	no	No	no
3. VoIP over WIFI	yes	Yes	yes	yes	yes	no	no
4. Peer-to-Peer VoIP	yes, Jingle Audio	No, planned	yes, Jingle Audio	yes, proprietary	no	no	no
5. VoIP calls over GSM	no	yes, call-in	yes, callback	no	no	yes, callback	yes, callback
6. SIP calls	no	Yes	yes	yes	yes	no	yes, callback
7. Gtalk VoIP calls	yes	Yes	yes	yes	yes	no	yes, callback
8. MSN VoIP calls	no	Yes	yes	yes	no	no	yes, callback
9. Yahoo VoIP calls	no	No, planned	yes	no	no	no	yes, callback
10. AIM/ICQ VoIP calls	No	no, planned	yes	yes	no	no	yes, callback
11. Skype VoIP calls	no	Yes	no	yes	no	yes	no
12. SMS over IP	no	yes	yes	no	yes	yes, via Skype	yes
13. IM chat to Gtalk	yes	Yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes
14. IM chat to MSN	yes	Yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes
15. IM chat to Yahoo	yes	Yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes
16. IM chat to ICQ/AIM	yes	Yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes
17. IM chat to Skype	no	Yes	no	yes	no	yes	no
18. IM chat to Facebook	no	No	no	no	no	no	yes
19. IM chat to MySpace	no	No	no	no	no	no	yes
20. IM chat to Twitter	yes, over Jabber	yes, over Jabber	yes, over Jabber	yes	no	yes, over Jabber	yes, over Jabber
21. Multi-user chat	no	yes, proprietary	yes, Jabber standard	no	no	yes, proprietary	yes, Jabber standard
22. Custom/non-standard GUI	no	yes	yes	no	no	yes	yes
23. File transfer	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes
Score	12	18	19	16	5	12	18

The following conclusions have also been drawn from the table.

• Only Octro, Talkonaut, Nimbuzz, Truphone and Fring can be considered as real mobile VoIP applications, which means they utilize data connections to send VoIP traffic over.
• Talkonaut is the most feature-rich mobile VoIP software currently available on the market.
• For those users who don’t need Skype support, Talkonaut can be considered as the best mVoIP solution.

Nothing can be said to damage the integrity of these conclusions, and Talkonaut is also a very good application if you exclude its incompatibility with Symbian screen readers. What’s more, who doesn’t need Skype these days? Furthermore, both iSkoot for Skype and IM+ Mobile Messenger – which aren’t true VoIP mobile applications – are absent in the list.

What else do you think could have been included in the table? Perhaps retaining the history previous chats? Do you know of any other applications which could have been listed?

Related Info: Talkonaut Updated To V4.12

Talkonaut Updated To V4.15