What jabber clients are there for iPhone?

My girlfriend just got an iPhone, and we are wondering what are the available (and recommended) applications to chat using jabber.

Solution 1:

There are a couple of apps, each one with their own unique features. If you're using the new iOS 4 on a multitasking-compatible iPhone (3Gs and 4), there's IM+ Lite, which provides multitasking support so that you can stay connected even when you're not running the app.

Solution 2:

Trillian for iPhone is a multi-protocol IM client that supports Jabber among many others. It's $5, but it's solid, good looking, and supports push notifications of IM messages. The push notifications are nice because you'll still receive messages if you're in another app or the phone is in standby mode.

Solution 3:

I've used Meebo (iPhone only) and Beejive (seperate binaries for iPhone and iPad, link goes to iPhone). Both links go to iTunes. I own, use, and love Beejive, though I was quite miffed that I had to repurchase it for the iPad, and that they don't sync account data.

Beejive backgrounds, but it does not contain the connection on your device. You can close Beejive and kill it, and your connections will continue to run. This is because Beejive's servers maintain the connection for a specified period of time. (Specified in Settings.app -> Beejive section.) You will be notified by push or e-mail (configurable!) when you have a new message, if Beejive is not running. If Beejive is running, you'll get a "local notification". A notification generated by the app itself with the message content.

Some other clients run the connection FROM the device itself, and disconnect when the app is closed.

This is a security consideration you have to make when choosing an IM client for iOS.

Solution 4:

A couple of friends of mine use monal, they say it is decent for a free app...

Solution 5:

Since I can't put a comment yet, I will use "answer" posibility to comment given answers :)

First of all, Gnoupi forgot to mention an important detail - we are searching for a jabber client for iPhone which we could use to connect with friends who are using other clients on pc.

I tried Trillian, it does look nice, indeed, but seems it gives possibility to contact only people with Trillian accounts?

Tried Monal too, but it keeps hanging on "logging in", so can't even see if this is this what we search for :)

IM+ Lite - I just read a description and indeed, this one seems to match our needs the best, I will give it a try!