It’s not often something makes me re-think the way I use a service but this week I’ve been experimenting with push IM using the latest BeeJive client on my phone and it’s done just that.

See, BeeJive on your phone talks to BeeJive’s server. It’s that server that logs in to MSN and AIM and whatnot for you. Like so:

[phone] <-> [server] <-> [MSN]

Which might seem like an unnecessary middle-man, but this lets their server stay logged into the other servers for you all the time, pushing out a little message to your phone if a new IM comes in. Suddenly IM works like text messages*, only better: people can see your status before they send a message, and it’s free, even internationally.

Said like that it seems almost trivial, but that still blows my mind. I guess I’m not telling it right? Let me try again: knock knock…

I guess for some people push** changed email like this a while ago, but outside of work I only really use email to get spam and semi-spam from web services and companies I have some kind of profile with. The information I actively want all comes via IM, Twitter and Google Reader (the sooner the other two get push-capable clients the better).

It’s not all roses, mind you. The app’s a little crashy right now, and signing in from my laptop makes MSN and AIM throw up (Jabber is fine with it, of course). Also, I’m not so good at ignoring messages when I’m busy. Why people insist on sending nonsense IMs when you’re set to “busy” I do not know, but I guess the burden there is on me to just ignore it if I really am busy…

*by which I mean SMS, since IMs are text messages, obviously

** by which I mean Blackberries, obviously. What is this “push” email? What’s pushing where? Don’t you push me, mister! I’m confused.