iPhone Client for OCS

Several readers of my blog have asked about the availability of an OCS client for the iPhone. I recently tried iDialog from Modality Systems (http://www.modalitysystems.com/idialog/) and wanted to share my experience. iDialog is an iPhone (and iTouch) application providing OCS contact list presence information and 2-party instant messaging (see here for the full list of features including the ability to search the corporate GAL).

In general, it worked as advertised, and I love getting OCS presence on my iPhone!  I didn’t use the instant messaging functionality often – mostly because of my preference for not typing on a mobile device. It was also useful to see current free-busy information for several of my contacts (e.g. “Free for the next 2 hours”) and having access to GAL details.

There were some minor nuisances such as initially having to manually expand the “All Contacts” group to see my contacts, and a periodic small delay when typing in an IM session.

 Here are some other key notes:

1. There is no ability to do VoIP audio calls (aka Communicator calls). I didn’t really miss this though because I am on a mobile device and can call through the cellular network. I could see some users wanting to take advantage of a WiFi connection and do a VoIP call though.
2. It works for OCS 2007 and OCS 2007 R2 (corporate and hosted) via the OCS Communicator Web Access server, so an external facing OCS 2007 CWA must be available for it to work.
3. Given that presence can be a chatty protocol, one of the first questions I had was “How much data does it use?”. Modality Systems told me that approximately 1.2 kpbs is used over a 5 minute interval of “normal” usage. This is not broken down into presence and IM, but it gives a ballpark approximation.

iDialog can be purchased via the Apple iTunes Application Store. I purchased mine for $9.99 Cdn (from the Canadian App Store). I have been told that an update is coming shortly which address some outstanding issues (including the IM typing delay).

 All-in-all it was an iPhone application worth purchasing.

 You can read more about OCS mobility options in my “Mobile Options for OCS” blog post.