Where is BeejiveIM? Is There Trouble With Push Notifications?
by Ian
June 19, 2009
As luck usually has it this post will go live and sometime shortly thereafter it'll be invalidated. I still have to ask the question though because I think it's on a lot of people's minds. I certainly don't want to be that guy who cries wolf.
Where are the instant messaging apps with Push Notifications?
Push Notifications were the marquee feature of iPhone OS 3.0. They were delayed over six months so Apple could "get it right." A chat app should've been the first out the gate because they're the apps which will benefit the most from this service. Instead it was Tap Tap Revenge?
I'm primarily asking this question because I know the chat apps are ready. BeejiveIM and IM+, two premier and expensive chat apps both advertise in their App Store descriptions that they've submitted to Apple their 3.0 Push Notification updates. In addition, AIM put a solid beta in developer's hands days ago and Mobile Crunch reported that BeejiveIM 3.0 should have been up in iTunes as early as 12 hours ago. Both Beejive and AIM have demonstrated working Push Notifications.
So where are they?
The coolness factor of receiving a Push Notification is off the charts. It's awesome to have an app that's closed actually send you something. It sent my geek circuits into overload. I myself have seen them work several times in many of the free apps from our Applist. Maybe that coolness factor blinded me to the fact that a couple came up missing.
One notification never came up with Textfree Lite and one with Star Defense. But that's just me - I've sent or received a total of maybe 12 messages. I was initially willing to dismiss the missing Push Notifications as something I did wrong but now I'm starting to get suspicious. Maybe they really did just disappear into AT&T or Apple's servers.
That would easily explain why Apple has yet to release the push capable instant messaging apps - someone doesn't thing Push Notifications are ready for the scale BeejiveIM, IM+ and other chat apps will introduce once they start populating millions of phones.
If just 1 in 25 messages disappears into the ether this will be marked as an epic failure on the part of either AT&T, Apple's or both. If 1 in 10 disappear we'll be seeing lawsuits.
In any case, it's the only explanation I can think of for why we're at the end of day 2 of iPhone OS 3.0 and there are still no instant messaging apps using Push Notifications. Someone at Apple or AT&T is worried about the scale. In less than eight hours Apple and AT&T will be dealing with the third coming of the iPhone and the inevitable strain a half million more devices are going to be put on their wireless network.
Maybe after that we'll see instant messaging apps? Or maybe Beejive will hit by the time you read this.
I don't want to make an issue out of nothing (like less than a dozen missing Push Notificaitons), so let me know in the comments if you've had a Push Notification disappear on you.