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February 10, 2014

imo.im Enters WebRTC Market with Updated Website


The number of available options for communication today is a little overwhelming. You can text one of your contacts, send emails, send texts from emails, share on social media and use real-time communication options like Skype for video and audio calling. There’s definitely a need for consolidation of all these different options and features into a single location. imo.im is a communication and social discovery platform that might be that solution – it opens up discussion with other imo users via “Broadcasts” and enables real-time communication via chat or video. The company recently updated its website with WebRTC features to enable seamless communication across all devices, including Android and iOS-based devices.

The company was founded by brothers Ralph and Georges Harik. Georges was one of Google’s first 10 employees; a very fitting background to have to get involved with WebRTC, as Google is one of the forerunners in WebRTC’s development. While I’m not familiar with what imo used to look like before this update, the website has a very Google-esque feel – specifically, Google+. Users can sync multiple chat accounts into their imo account, including Google Talk, Facebook, Yahoo, AIM (my favorite. I’ve been hoping for the revival of AIM ever since Facebook took over online social communication in high school), ICQ, Steam and Jabber.

My first impressions and observations: This website is like a blend of a social network and a messaging solution. The left side of the homepage is where the Broadcasts section is, which features updates from imo users I have never met before and can’t seem to find an option on how to filter that feed. (The company’s website says the more you engage with the network, the more targeted results become to make the people and information on Broadcasts more relevant.) The right side lists my contact list and the middle makes up my chats.

Some of my contacts overlap with different chat accounts, and it looks like imo will list people twice if they are logged on to two different accounts. You can also create group chats…but it only gives me options for two people, not my entire contact list. You can only video and audio calling with fellow imo users, not any of your contacts that you synced in from other accounts. When you refresh the page, you lose your chat windows and have to go find the contacts again in your contact list.

imo users have profiles, which can include locations, what they’re interested in, links to different accounts such as Twitter and some of the users’ contacts. You need points to message or call a person who does not have you on their contact list or to send a first message in a discussion. The cost of points depends on who you message and other factors, but points are replenished daily. You can eran points by joining the network, verifying your phone number, linking different accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+), entering a location, having a complete bio, linking an email domain, invite friends and adding other information.

In addition to the WebRTC features, the update to the website includes new image galleries, infinite scroll chats to look back at chat history, broadcast multimedia content and exchange images and video in chat and synchronized contact lists across mobile and Web platforms.

"Our goal is to make communication easier by building products that connect you to your family and friends anytime, anywhere. WebRTC pushes us even further toward that goal by being the first to bring zero-install video chat to desktops," said Ralph in a statement. "WebRTC makes it easy to connect between your browser and mobile device, so you never have to worry about missing a video call from a friend or loved one."

Is this the next generation of Skype? imo has more than 10 million mobile downloads and more than one million monthly active users, so it is already building a strong user base. We’ll see how those numbers are impacted now that the company offers WebRTC functionality and other new features. Some concerns: I don’t like how easily accessible I am to strangers, although you can mark some comments in a Broadcast as off-topic and block specific users. Even though this brings in all of my contacts from different accounts, they still need to be imo users if we want to use the initial benefits of Skype, which are video and audio calling and file sharing, so we’ll see if this new update brings in more users!

Would you use a platform like imo? Check it out at imo.im and let us know what you think!




Edited by Cassandra Tucker
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