Nokia just launched Chat in their Beta Labs, it’s buggy, but the concept is totally cool. You can watch the video above with my buddy Phil and get ridiculously confused, or you can read my attempt at breaking this down below:
Know what Twitter is? The microblogging service that limits you to 140 characters and asks you “What are you doing?” Nokia Chat allows you set something called a “personal message” that is basically the same thing.
Know what instant messenger is? Of course you do, Nokia Chat has this built in as well.
Why is this different? People use Twitter to chat with each other and to update the world as to what they’re doing, conversations happen in public, and following someone can become a pain in the ass when they’re having a conversation you don’t care about. With Nokia Chat you can use your “personal message” to tell people “What are you doing?” and then use the built in IM capability to have a conversation with people interested in the activity or thought you’re currently experiencing.
What else can Nokia Chat do? Jaiku, if you’re lucky enough to have an S60 phone, has a feature where by you can see where your friends are. Nokia Chat has this feature built in, you can broadcast your location to everyone or you can choose to send your location to people over the instant messaging client.
Is there potential for this to be truly awesome? Yes.
Can I comment more? No, I know too much about the road map.
Point of this blog post? Hopefully make the purpose of this application a bit more clear and to spread the word of course. Feedback is welcome, but please, don’t use the comments in this blog post, tell the people who are working on this program directly by leaving a comment in this blog post on Beta Labs.