Is the current version of Messages beta stable enough to use day to day?

Solution 1:

I am running Messages via Mountain Lion, but I believe that the application is functionaly identical to the Beta for Lion.

I have the following regular issues with it in day to day usage:

• Badge counts are inconsistent, and it often says "1" regardless of reality
• Icon Bounce - it bounces in the dock a lot as if something has happened, when nothing (that I can see) has
• Slow syncing - when I have used iMessages on my phone, and then move to the desktop, it drip feeds the messages it needs to see to catch up really slowly, and you get a notification every 10 seconds or so for what can be a very long time if there is a lot to catch up on

Also, at least once (though this could have been a ML bug) it started using the wrong icon, showing a picture of a friend in place of my own avatar against my own messages. Investigation showed the "me" card had been ammended in Contacts...

Solution 2:

From a security standpoint, one major flaw that holds me back from using it day to day is that there is no option to turn off chat logging. The only way around it is to remove permissions from the iChats folder. I don't really care to log my chats, and really don't want to, and was very surprised to see that you could not turn this off.

The only other major flaw I have had is the unread counts - as in, not syncing with iMessage as much as I would like and clearing the count. I also have seen some times where it literally replays a conversation in front of me throughout the day. I would prefer it to just reload the state from the iMessage server, and present that to me at a synced state.

Solution 3:

A number of my local contacts use iMessages heavily and I've alway kept iChat running on my computer, so running the beta was a no brainer for me. I haven't observed any problems on my primary machine or on the MacBook Air I maintain for Mom–at least none that caused me to look to Messages.

I haven't had difficulties staying logged in, as reported in another answer here, or found the program to be what I would term unstable, but will keep a closer eye on it moving forward. I feel safe in saying that running Messages hasn't had a negative effect on my system overall. I hadn't even thought about it until I came upon this thread, it's just there.

I am curious about @stuffe's report of an altered Address Book Card and would love to hear if there are more reports of this behavior. As Stuffe points out, there are a lot of spoons in the core data soup, so Messages may not be the culprit.