Features

There are so many convenient and fun features that instant messaging provides. Here are just a sampling of what many IM providers are offering.

• Status: As mentioned earlier, when you are online you status will read “available” or something similar to that, but let’s say you need to go do something or the telephone rings. Most IM configurations let you change your status to something like “busy”, “away from the computer”, or if you use the IM at work, “out of the office” or “on vacation”. Many times you can also customize your status message to say exactly what you want people to see. If you choose to stay signed onto your IM continuously, you can change your status to “invisible”. With this feature you are able to communicate to someone, without all the other contacts knowing you are available.
• Sharing: Not only do you get to “chat” with your friends and family you can also share things like weblinks, photos, and computer files. Often there will be an icon for this located somewhere in the message box. Say you have a photograph you would like to share with someone. You would click the appropriate icon, follow the prompts and choose the correct photo. It will send that information to the other person and then they will be able to pull it up without having to mess with the hassle of composing an email, attaching the photo, and then sending it to the contact.
• Emotions: Many email providers have the ability to change the style and color of the font and insert “smileys” that portray emotion. IM has the same capability as well. Some also really neat features you might find are cartoon-like “audibles” that play a little message to the recipient and the ability to change the background of the message box. Many times the backgrounds are animated. These are not necessary features of course, but they make the IMing experience more entertaining.
• Talk and Video: One of the newest features that is rapidly catching on is PC to PC calling that allows you to actually “talk” to a contact. You must have the appropriate equipment to use this feature such as a microphone, sound card, and speakers. You can also use a webcam if you have one in order to have a live video feed during the “chat”. It is possible to use all these features together and have what you could call a “video phone” conversation while sharing files and photos!

With all the latest and greatest features, the possibilities are endless to what things you can accomplish using an instant messaging service.