BetaLabs

Good job on the Conversation application. Few items can be improved though to make it useful. I used threaded SMS on iPhone and Treo so actually used both versions. I like Treo SMS threaded chat better. It is neat and can fit more messages onto the screen. Is it possible to have the Conversation also as default SMS app? It is too many clicks to get to it at this point. If it can be something like Treo version or iPhone version it would be awesome.

I have an N95 with the latest firmware - and there is a bug in this app with Sent multimedia messages.
It misreads the name of the sendee, trunctaing it, and creates xtra converation entries for these truncated names.
I've reported it on the Beta Labs feedback, a few weeks ago, and receivced no reply.
This does not inspire confidence in Nokia's interest in listening and responding re: its beta labs applications, and this is disappointing.

Great App, looking forward to a bugfixed version for the E61i.

Its a good application, but can anybody tell me how to remove it? i tried removing it via Application manager and it gave me an error "Unable to delete file"! what should i do now?

Looks nice, but installation on my E61 doesn't work, installed it in right order, to device memory and nothing changed in contacts view and cannot open conversation aps, any ideas what's wrong?

> Eseries problems

We will release a version for Eseries, hopefully next week.

> What should we expect from the next version.
> Do development team work on a next version?

This particular app, as such, probably won't be developed for long. It was a research proto. Instead, other Nokia teams are working hard to improve the actual built-in S60 applications, and they are listening your feedback.

In the meanwhile (before the built-in apps get upgraded), we might release other protos for you to be evaluated through beta labs.

When a contact has two or more numbers you don't get messages from different numbers to same thread. You get two threads and they don't actually even show the name, but only related to one number. The other thread(s) is/are only represented by a number, not by a name under which, the number actually is in your contact book.

Wel, looks like it does open text messages sent as MMS after all but not SMS (E61i, btw).

i really liked the app
i only have one problem, when i receive messages the international codes appear on the number(like +5511...) so whenever some one sends me an sms the app doesnt match the number to the contact on my list...
other then that i cannot find anything wrong with it and really enjoyed using it

Had it installed on my E61. It crashes when I attempt to open a message. It gave me an error - something to do with the phone memory was full. Then I realized that I had 1000+ text messages in memory. I suggest that the application cache the messages since generating the list over and over again would mean it would be a memory hogger if there is a large number of text messages already in memory.

The one really critical thing missing from every threaded sms program I've tried is this: Merge multiple contacts' messages into a single view.

I routinely communicate with my wife via SMS, but here's the difference: I send her an SMS to her phone, but she replies via the service provider's website, so I receive the reply from a different number than I send to.

I would see this a valuable for business people, or tight groups of friends who want to see the conversation thread of more than just "me and one other person".

The ability to select multiple contacts, and assign a group name, or simply use the existing contact groups to view grouped conversations would be invaluable to me.

Oh yeah, and add the conversation view to Messaging, not Contacts, duh!

Oh and is there some way to keep the threads cached? Having to wait while the app re-builds the lists of conversations every time I open the app is annoying. That delay means it's often faster to find a message just by scrolling through the Inbox.

And let me hop on the bandwagon and reiterate the big problems with the app on my E61: Font is too big, wrap messages onto more than one line (scrolling text is silly and too slow), and stop crashing when trying to 'open' a message.

All in all, this seems to be a good first attempt. I'm very glad to see Nokia coming out with this app. It needs some work obviously, but if these points can be taken into account and fixed, you've got a winner here.

Very nice app. but crashes when I try to open a message on my e61i.

The idea of this app is very good. Good on Nokia for listening to the consumers about their needs. My hats off to you guys.

However, as many people are saying, the fonts are just WAY too big to be used as an efficient threaded messaging app. As Viipottaja said, break the S60 conventions, the app should dictate how the fonts etc. are utilised. In my N73 I can choose to have my inbox view as one line, which is nice and small and can fit in quite a bit more messages into one screen without having to scroll. Please give us that option in a future update to the app.

Also, please let there be an option for it to be used as the default sms app. And, again, break the S60 convention and use it under the messaging tab, for after all, it is a messaging app...

The large fonts is seriously a deal breaker for me at the moment. With the large fonts it is not achieving the purpose of a threaded messaging app.

As previously reported from other E61i users, attempting to open a message crashes the app. Also, attempting to delete a message or conversation does not appear to work.

On the plus side, it does appear to work as well with Good Contacts as the integrated text messaging does.

Overall a nice application and I hope to see improvements for the E61i folks. I just switched from a Treo 650 and love everything about the E61i much, much better than the Treo _except_ for the integrated text messaging, which is very poor in comparison. The Conversation app will go a long way toward closing that gap as soon as it's working a bit better.

I installed it to 3250 (non-FP1 version),
I got the Conversation app in the menu, but when I click it I got nothing. Also there are no new tab in Contacts. Is 3250 unsupported?

Here are my suggestions -

1. Delivery Reports - Currently the delivery reports are displayed as unread messages in the convesation window. You cannot open these messages nor can you mark them as read. There should either be an option to turn of the delivery report display in the conversation window or an option to erase all deliv reports.

2. Mark as read - Currently, you have to open the message to mark it as read. But while in a conversation, many times you recieve 1 or 2 words messages which can be easily read in the message scroll. Here, a mark as read option would be useful.

3. Deleting Messages - I tried to use the delete message option on a Deliv Report. It took ages for the deleting message to go away. There was no Cancel button either. Finally, when i could not wait any longer, i kept the phone away. And when i checked later, the Deliv Report was not even deleted.

4. Too Large Icons - I felt the icons are a bit too big and clutter the screen. We could easily do with smaller icons.

5. Font Size Customization - For my taste, the font size was bit too large, and distracted me from the messages. But it may be different for the others. So an option to the effect of choosing the font size would be welcome.

6. Differentiate between Sent and Received messages - In the initial conversation screen where all the messages with a particular contact are listed, the only differing sign is the small arrow below the message icon. We all know that what we have messages over here, so we could do away with the huge message icon. Instead, what we need is the Arrow icons signifying whether it is a sent message or a received messages.

7. IM like options - Currently, we are shown conversations with all the contacts. There some of the contacts i do not want to have conversations with. Please allow us to close the conversations with the selected contacts.

There are the suggestions i could think of as of now, as and when i think up of more, i shall keep posting them.

While I understand Nokia needs to preserve similar style and feel to some extent, saying "UI and fonts: We tried to create similar user experience as with other messaging. So that's why we do not have any smiles etc." seems a bit sheepish. Go and challenge the System and the "Big Guys on 10th Floor"! Be brave! You are in the door already, innovate; no, INNOVATE! :)

To put it a bit more seriously: should not the application's specific purpose and needs dictate some of these issues (e.g. font size and how much of the message details are shown), rather than the S60 convention?

In any case, thanks for the responses!

I have found the little bug.
If I use quick send form inside thread to send SMS on russian language, recipient recives text in wrong encoding.

Integration to message center: Not supported in the current platform versions, so only way to provide the functionality integrated to phone UI is to utilize the Contacts. --- CDT

Why cannot you achieve it? Yahoo! Go 1 had it and so does Windows Live Suite for Nokia. You are Nokia, shouldn't you be able to do it?

My suggestion -

1. Can the "X Message Received" dialog on the Standby screen directly open up the Conversation windows if you choose to?

@Samy, I have no idea. Half the time you can't even find the E70 on the Nokia USA websites -- my father-in-law was in the market for a Nokia and tried looking it up to no avail.

I'd love to hear if the new v3.x firmware for the E70 works with this app, tho.

Conversations works just fine on a N73ME with 4.0272.2.2.1, so jennifr, perhaps try updating the firmware. I think it's worth it, as the app really nice and useful.

Leeson

This is definitely a good start! Hopefully it can be integrated into the OS in the future. It's useful when I'm having a back and forth conversation with the person. If its just casual texting though I wish it was integrated. I only have my last 10 sent messages saved, so my sent texts in the convo disappear once they get bumped out of the last 10.

Very nice app. I had to install it twice to get it to work on my N80 but other than that it works just fine. Thank you!

Crashes every time when trying to open a message (Nokia E51).

Very useful for short text message exchanges, but please don't stop there! (How do you compare with Textr?)

I would like to see such capabilities interoperate with mobile voice interfaces, including:

- Speech message input and speech recognition for retrieval

- Speech commands for retrieval

- Text-to speech retrieval options

- Enable message delivery from business process applications (automated, not just people contacts)

- In general, make it part of the Unified Communication/Unified Messaging world.

I am sure you are thinking along these lines anyway, but I would like you to lay out directions for this technology, not a just a big surprise!

If you are in agreement, let me know and I will be glad to write this up in my column.

Respectfully,
Art Rosenberg
The Unified-View

It crashes on my n80ie with the newest firmware. It does open, but when I press left and right, it goes 'out of memory'. I tried to reboot, but it didn't work.

A shame though, I kinda liked the idea.

Running fine on the e65.
Will be interesting to see how useful Conversation works out in everyday use.

(I've not yet found any use for TeamSpeak -- am I missing something?)

I installed it in my E61..
Here's my things:
- It freezed when i try to open the messages..
- the layout of the chat needs to be worked out so that it will look nicer. ex:smschat, PALM treo built in thread sms
- i cannot read my previous chat FULLY, cause the space is not enough [yet]
- Smileys Support
- Should be A built in application on the next symbian phones!!!

Despite the cons, I like it, Keep it UP Tommy!!

Noah: I also have E70-2 US version, and the application will not launch. I do have latest firmware, but in my case it is v.2 ... while owners of European version of E70 already have v.3 firmware as I have read in other forums. Why are we left behind??

Otherwise I like the idea. I owned Treo 650 before and loved their SMS app.

This application is TOTALLY AWESOME!

Thank for listening to all of us who wanted this thing. Keep up the great work.

On a similar note, I really wish that the Active Notes application will be available for download. Pretty please

Great beta app guys. Right idea, just a few tweaks:

1. Fonts (guess u heard this already)
2. Deleting messages. I think this occurs on my N73 when I delete a message in the usual 'inbox' then open the Conversations app. The deleted message appears but cannot be deleted again from the Conversations app.
3. Sound this really be a Contacts app,, or can it replace the inbox? Not sure about this one, but it is something to consider.

But seriously, Way To Go. You guys are listening, and that is great. What an A1 community we make.

Great app! Though I'm afraid I'll have to join the "crashes-when-attempting-to-open-message" bandwagon:). And yeah I'm using the E61 with the latest firmware.

Thanks for your replies! :-)

The only way I could delete messages was moving them form the internal memory to the memory card (without copying them) and vice-versa.

Another bug: it seems to be in conflict with the "blog entry" function of the Nokia Web Server, since I get a "blog entry closed aplication" or stuff when I switch on the phone...

Pretty nice app indeed.

But, this application should have full message (conversation) view like Symbianwave's (SMSChat)app does.

To Hermes: my E50 has the latest firmware I think: 07.13.0.0 from 26-04-2007 RM-170.

From which huge bug are you speaking? The only bug I notice is that if you speak with someone about ca 30-45min the phone makes a reset. I think this is also a huge bug. :)

Greets,
Christian

It does generally look like a good program. My suggestions for improvement are similar to those that others have given: it definitely needs stronger cues as to which message was sent by which user, and being able to see the whole message would be beneficial (probably best as an toggleable option to expand messages).

My E61i also crashes when i try and "open" a message...

@gabriele
Remove the application and then restart the E61i , all ahould be fine by now. I'm sure that in a few days we'll have a compatible version.

I'm in Singapore, and sms from telcos might prefix the country code in front of the sender number (depending on whether you're on the same telco as the other person). Thus recipients I choose from the phonebook and sms that I reply to are grouped under 'recipient name' and '+(country code)(phone number)' instead of just 1.

The application is horrible. You can't even ready full messages all at once. Have a look at
http://www.symbianwave.com/product.php?id=smschat_s60

Symbian Wave's SMS Chat program has is right...

Unfortunately does not work on my N80 with firmware version 4.0623.41. Just does nothing, even though I rebooted after installing it, just in case. Real pity.

This works really well, and does what it says on the tin.

It's not quite perfect though, and there's a few changes I'd recommend.

1) Install to a new tab in the Messaging app, rather than the Contacts App. Ideally I'd see it being an alternative/replacement SMS inbox.
2) Use more screen real estate and a smaller font to show each message in its entirety, rather than just the first line.

Other than that, excellent.

Cool app and very nice for everyday use. Everything seems to work fine on my E61 BUT, the application shuts down every time I try to open a message.

Will definitely download it later - just from looking at the screenshot of the Conversation View, my initial impression is that it uses a comparatively large amount of screen real-estate for the icon, the date, and the empty space that follows from the "standard" S60 list types.

Perhaps using a list with custom cell layout to show more text and less date in one line (e.g. two wrapped lines of text, and just time/day or date of the last message below the icon) would be more appropriate, even if it slightly stretches the strict interpretation of the S60 Style Guide.

The goal should be that the need for actually opening a messages in an ongoing conversation should be minimized, to be as close as possible to "chat" experience.

Perhaps the visual cues for sent/received messages (left/right justifcation?) could be made a bit stronger than they probably are right now.

1. Reading Text:
I experienced same as horia stanescu above. On my E61i, whenever I try to open a messag, the app exists. However, its nice that the text message scrolls of its own accord, so I can actually read without opening each message.

2. Sending Text:
Sending works fine. I simply typed in the text field and sent.

3. Adding Contact Icon:
Adding contact icons worked without flaw

Just installed it, i recommend it to all users. Really nice stuff.

I just wish it would run faster on my N95, it feels a bit sluggish.

Personally, i'd prefer to use it on my messages tab, too.

It is so great to finally have a native Nokia client for threaded sms!!! I do have a a concern though and this pertains to some of the apps on the BetaLabs site. Is it necessary to keep reinstaling the Nokia Contacts Services Support Package?

Sorry Tommi, promised to test.. Seems to work fine on E51. Hopefully this is used as a basis for future S60 UI work.

Couple of technical nitpicks:
- why separate versions for 3.0 and 3.1
- why too SIS packages

Cristian: the app requires a relatively new S60 software branch to run on. That's why we didn't include some S60 3rd edition devices, and recommended updating the software.

Have you updated your SW lately?www.nokia.com/softwareupdate

You can check the SW version and date by typing *#000# on idle screen.

Horia: there were some known issues with Eseries devices. It wasn't tested with E61i, so thanks for telling.

I love the concept,and the application integrates nicely into the phone.

IT crashes every time I open a Text msg on my E61.

Hi Tommi. I was just about to put exactly the same problems that Stefan Constantinescu writes in his review. So just +1 to all of Stefan annoys. The big font problem is really a problem in the whole OS as you use the standard api to show messages. I know there's lot of devices with ~2" screen sizes, but the font size in contact list or this message thread view is huge... So just to other team there at nokia/s60 please, where ever in the os add an option to change systems font sizes. Perhaps one smaller one and also, why not, a bigger one for people with visibility problems.

I'm also a E50 owner. I was pleased to know about the availability of this software but unfortunately I'm still running the stock 6.41.3.0 firmware and don't want to update since the new one is plagued with a HUGE bug.

I only hope Nokia will release a bug fix for their last E50 firmware, otherwise it will be no Conversation for me (I installed it but it doesn't work, unable to run it) :-(

Cristian: What's your firmware version please ?

Will be available also for N95?

Installed it to my 6120 C. Seems to work ok.

I like it already! Very handy to use and the space to write replies reduces the clicks needed to write an answer.

I'm not able to install 'Nokia Contacts Services Support Package' on my e50. It says that the installation is unsupported...

Owww such a pity it's not sending cyrillic (russian) messages :( But anyway, thanks :) Waiting for a patch ;)
6290

Hi, i am trying to install it on my N91 its fully updated and on my N73 but it is giving me error of "Menu: Feature not Supported" how can i handle it.

Like the idea, i used threaded messaging on a Windows mobile as well as on an iPhone. Issues I have are:
1) sorting: I think it shud be customizable. Like i cud move my wife's messages to the top and then the next priority etc.
2) placement: although it wud be nice if it were in the messaging (like an extra option of conversations, that wud simply group the inbox, outbox and sent items as it does here) but this option, where it appears in the contacts should not be removed. i think it makes more sense here. however, there should be some form of integration to the messaging app as well.

It works perfectly on my E50-2 and i am using it from today so ill post if something else comes up.

> When do you think the issues with the N95 are gonna be fixed?

Probably very soon.

Note: as said earlier, this app will never be commercialized as such, it's mainly a research proto. The purpose was to collect your feedback for the mainstream development.

this is a great app!

the icons in the conversation view are hard to distinguish. the little arrow pointing up or down isn't really clear - it should be bigger and bolder.

also, when i hilite one of my responses, i should probably see my photo/icon and not the remote's.

again, nicely done. :-)

same here on n95! /any threads on this issue? thx!

just installed this on my n95 8gb, but when I try to open it

it doesn't work on my 5700 XM. there isn't any tab in my contacts app. the programm doesn't start.

I use it on a E61i and it works verry good!
I miss different symbols for incomming and outgoing sms for a better understanding!
And a character counter during writing sms would be nice!

same problem here, guys!

just installed this on my n95 8gb, but when I try to open it...nothing happens :( What's wrong. I really want to use this!

Thanks!
-ray

I cant seem to get it working on my n95 8gb. I can get it installed, but not working.

this app is quite good, despite the fact that in nokias like the e61i, with a very slow processor, runs bad. It also would work better if when entering a conversation we could be able to see the whole message instead of waiting for the motion sms to run a display the text. Also, it woldb be nice ti have other advanced options like, font type selection, or a special theme. Well, thanks anyway, this is why treos are still the best sms and e mail phones.

Great app. Have been using it for some time now.
Fonts and everything else is fine, HOWEVER: need cyrilic support please! otherwise the quick reply is pretty useless.
Also it takes a rather long time to open, but thats ok i guess.
Overall great application. Would love to see it embedded into phone software in the next update or so. Its way more useful than mobile TV or nokia maps (on phones without GPS).
Thank you.

Conversation worked fine for me (if a little slowly) on my N95 8GB before I upgraded it to the new 20 firmware level.

Now it installs ok but when I click on the icon, nothing happens.

That's a real shame as it's a great uncomplicated app - unlike 3rd party apps.

Can you let me know as soon as you have it working pls?

Si

Yes, please release the source, so that we can take a look at why it does not work on so many devices.

Just upgraded my Nokia N95-3 to firmware version: v 20.2.011.

Re-installed Conversation.

& Conversation does not work anymore :(

Hi, developers! I am very like "Conversation", but where support of Russian language? My recipients receiving my message like "???????????????????????????"
Please, make the "Conversation" with Russian lang. support.

does not work with my N95 and new FW 30.0.015

I love conversations, however on my e90 I installed the wrong version hence I have some difficulties. To correct the difficulties I sought to simply uninstall the copy I have and install the correct one. Simple process but conversations wont uninstall. Can someone help me

Still no update for N96. Disappointed. may go back to using the N95.

Is this project dead?

crashes with e71 latest fw too when trying to open a message from app. I think im using e51 version...

sorry didn`t read correct forgot to install the 1. part. now it works perfectly.

Really want to see this app working again for the N96.. Dont mean to spam!

Doesn't work with N85 either - Nokia Internet Services Support Package won't install due to an invalid/unrecognised certificate. :(

I have used the conversation for 6 months on an E61i here my comments

1. S60 messaging and S60 contacts is not as integrated as other nokia platforms, case in point. If you received a message not in the contacts, the message register as a number, if you enter the number into contacts, the messaging app does not update the contact name in the old messages. Now that tells me

a. both apps do not trust each other
b. there is not much integration between them
c. it is bufferred one way with no other recourse to update or refresh it

2. Having said that, conversation joined into this fray, it is acting like a mediator biased on the"contacts" side of things. case in point

a. it is in the contacts tab
b. try having 1000 contacts and 6 months worth of messages (the treo does this easily, it carried 3 yrs worth of messages on 800 contacts), it slows down access to the contacts (even if conversation runs on the background).

3. Its mediator architecture is a bit stupid to my opinion, why? i somehow have an idea

a. contacts, conversation and messaging somehow have the same information loaded into memory
b. conversation seems to be making workaround the trustless demeanor of contacts and messaging
c. honestly you are creating a 3 dimensional database in memory because one of them seems to be inflexible in resorting itself. It is evident as messaging only looking up to contacts one in a message's life to determine a link bet a contact and a message. They are treating each other as mutually exclusive and with only once in a life time exception (when the message arrives)

I have a proposal...

a. totally scrap the messaging app except for the message transmission, reception and handling functions, make it serve as a service not a database. (or make a secondary system where we can switch to)

b. store messages as extension objects to contacts items, contacts seems to handle resorts and refresh better than messaging. (while your at it, extend that to email headers to too, so full integration is coller than other threading platforms)

c. Messaging only lookup into contacts for past messages and you preset filters so that no long lookups are necessary and it does not load that long. (you can comeup with a lookup strategy).

d. In short REPLACE CONTACTS AND MESSAGING, they are old, obsolete, cranky, idiotic and useless. You are doing future Nokia users a favor.

Me? my loyalty is short, a mobile fone company that can do better than the existing nokia features (and the demeanor of its behavior that I value) comes into the market, I am a churned user. Nokia seems to be in the downslope of the innovation curve.

Nokia I admit is part of changing the my personal culture, but my advanced needs seems to be ahead of what nokia provides. Threading i would say sold me to 50% to other phone manufacturers. If other manufacturers can get their heads off their asses by improving the nuances that only nokia innovation currently provide (less contacts and messaging). I am switching and most of us are on the verge believe me!

Ditto

Hi there, this is a very good app. I used it back when I was using N82 and E66. Lately, I've just acquired the Nokia 5800 and I would really love to see this app available for my model. Thanks a bunch!