Nokia Chat: how open do you want to be?

INTERNATIONAL – Last Friday we posted a story on the release of a beta version of Nokia Chat, an instant messaging micro app with GPS location-based features. Since then, I’ve been playing around with it with the team, setting it up, but have barely scratched the surface. In that first piece I simply asked “What do you think to GPS-enabled instant messaging. Good or bad?”, and one response from a reader, Sven Koerber, raised the interesting point of ‘trust’ and when you’re using a service like this – a little mentioned, yet extremely important word, that is definitely worth us all considering with regards to a location-based communication apps.

INTERNATIONAL – Instant messaging has reared its head in many guises on mobile, from standard IM, to text message versions (SMS Chat for S60 3rd edition and Conversation), and multi-service solutions such as IM+. But today Nokia Beta Labs, released the first beta version Nokia Chat, the first IM app to use GPS to pinpoint the location of you and your friends.