iPhone Instant Messaging Efficiency

With the iPhone coming to VZW some time soon, if not tomorrow, I will surely be upgrading; however, as I have never used an iPhone in my life I was wondering how well its push system works.
Currently I use a BlackBerry Storm 2 with Google Talk and Yahoo! Messenger running in the background (always) so once I receive a message - my phone would alert me and i can respond.
On the iPod Touch - I have Beejive set to beep when a new message comes however (and I'm sure this is due to the wifi restraints however the iPhone will always be connected to a network) 12 hours after logging in, the system shows me as online yet fails to alert me to any new messages (under settings I have the "keep me online" set to 72 hours).
I have tried this with IM+, IMO, official Yahoo app however they don't tend to hold my online status and instantly notify me after being idle for a period of, say, 7 hours (while sleeping for example). The other party sees me online but their messages stop coming through.
My question is that with the iPhone - if I were logged into my messaging accounts and went idle for about 6+ hours, will the messages still come through after or will i experience the same issue? Since the app has to be running in the background, if I opened another 4 apps (so the instant messaging app is now the 5th one) will I automatically be signed out due to multi-tasking limit of about 3-4 apps at a time? Lastly, I didn't see any vibrate facility in beejive - is that available in the iPhone?

Richardgm said:

Beejive on iPhone can remain connected via Push for up to 7 days (ie, you don't open-at all- the app for 7 days).

There is no app limit for backgrounded apps. The "limit" dependent on the available RAM (memory); but you don't worry about that because immediately when the app moves to the background (or force quited), it switches to Push mode.

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Okay thank you. So I assume I won't run into the trouble of not receiving messages after couple hours, as I do now on the iPod Touch?

As mentioned in the first post - I use the official google talk app on my BB. When I log into GMail and continue a conversation from within gmail chat - I stop receiving messages on my phone. As soon as I sign out of GMail, if someone sends me a chat message, I automatically start receiving it on my phone - without having to log in or anything.
Is there any app or does beejive itself do something like that? I don't want to be on GMail and end up receiving messages on my GMail and my iPhone.

Richardgm said:

I've found that Gmail continues the conversation on Gmail chat. Messages don't come to the phone until the browser is closed.

I've tried this with all the popular IM apps: Beejive, IM+ and eBuddy Pro.

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Awesome! I was really hoping it wouldn't send messages both places as I spend over 5 hours on GMail chat a day (since I use it for personal and work life) and it would be have been an annoyance to have it go both places.

WiiDSmoker said:

Facebook doesn't seem to hold a connection at all when "running in the background"

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Then according to you - instant messaging apps wouldn't either?

WiiDSmoker said:

I have no idea. I'm just saying I'm pretty pissed at the Facebook app not running in the background at all.

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Oh. Well I don't use the FB app myself as I switched over to twitter but maybe the app is not 4.0 compatible to allow multi-tasking. I fail to understand how this related to my thread though (no pun intended).

Leet Apple said:

The Push wont be as good as a blackberry but its good enough to get your basic needs done

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Thanks for the response - I basically wanted to know how it would rank up. I guess I could live with a working push system on the iPhone. The BlackBerry's rotating clock along with constant freezes makes me want to throw it out of the window sometimes.

whsbuss said:

I suggest getting Meebo for the iPhone.

- free app
- best network connectivity among IM clients
- when logged into Meebo web, iPhone notifications are disabled until logged off

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Thanks for the suggestion.
1. Does it have ads?
2. How do you know it has the best network connectivity? Is that your personal test?
3. Will it disable iPhone notifications when logged into GMail chat in gmail.com?

LIVEFRMNYC said:

Beejive is the only one I've tried that seems to stay signed in forever.

I also use the Yahoo Messenger app mainly for cam calls, but it signs out after a couple hours of inactivity.

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Wonderful - thanks for sharing that. I purchased beejive long ago but haven't used it for a while now - will be re-downloading that once again.