You can "IM" your friends with your Telephone, or you can use a Third Party Application through your data plan. This is more like IMing on your computer. One of the first questions someone has when using the Treo for Instant Messaging is, "How am I charged?" About the simplest way I know how to explain it, is this way: If you send an Instant Message with your Phone Number, you will be charged for that message. If you receive one, from a phone number, you will be charged for that message. If you use a third party application, such as the ones listed below, you will be charged for the data it takes to send and receive messages. So if you use a Third Party Application that uses your data, and you have an unlimited data plan, there is no need to count messages. Most Carriers offer a reasonable plan to cover you for both Phone and Data Messaging, so check with your carrier to make certain you are covered for both! To read further about three very good programs to use Instant Messaging with Data, check out this review written by a Everything Treo Forum Member.

Here are links to several IM chat programs for Palm OS based Treo smartphones, what they support, and where to try them out. Both Agile Messenger and Toccer are freeware solutions.

• Agile Messenger - AOL, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo
• Toccer -AOL only
• Verichat - Yahoo, ICQ, MSN and AIM
• IM+ - AOL, ICQ, Jabber, Yahoo, MSN, Googletalk
• Chatupus - jabber with support for MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, others