Ever since Google bought Meebo and killed off Meebo Messenger, those of us who used to use Meebo Messenger have had to look for alternatives. When it comes to an alternative that works well on the Android, there are two main contenders: eBuddy and imo.im.

The eBuddy mobile messenger is to be known as e-Messenger and has been around since 2003. These days it’s readily available via the web or as an app for your favourite smartphone. It’s one of the easiest ways to chat with multiple networks of IM (Instant Messenger) friends from wherever you are. Today we’ll check out the Android version of eBuddy properly so you can really see whether it’s the app for you.

Get eBuddy Mobile Messenger For Android

Head to the Google Play store and grab the free eBuddy Messenger application. Once installed, pick an IM service you have an account for and log in. Once you’re logged in via one service, you can log into more accounts and link them together. Just click on the Accounts tab and keep adding accounts until you’re happy. IM networks you can add include Windows Live Messenger (MSN), Facebook, Yahoo, MySpace, Gtalk, ICQ, AIM and Hyves.

If you find this too fiddly to do on your phone, you can always link your accounts together using the eBuddy web application instead. When you go back to your phone, you’ll only need to log into one IM service and the rest will automatically be linked.

Customising eBuddy On Android

Once you’re logged in to a few IM services, you might think eBuddy is looking a bit cluttered. If you duck into your eBuddy settings, you’ll see that there are plenty of options to clean it up a little.

You can sort your contacts by custom-made groups or by IM network. If you choose groups, it will find all of the group names you’ve assigned to people across each of your IM networks.

You are able to choose whether to hide offline contacts of not. If you’ve got lots of contacts or IM networks added, it’s probably a good idea.

Various sound and notification settings are available to choose from, so it’s easy to set up something you won’t find too annoying. You may opt to log into eBuddy on startup automatically, set how long you’d like to stay online before being marked as away, add an auto-response and more. You’ll probably also like to set your real name and add a photo to your account in order to personalise it a little.

Using eBuddy

Once your settings are as you’d like, you’ll find eBuddy is a really slick application and quite well organised. When logged in, you’ll see three main tabs: Buddies, Chats and Accounts. Click on anyone in your Buddies list to start a chat, or wait for someone to start one with you.

Any chats in progress will show up in the Chats tab. When you’re finished chatting, you can either leave the chat in the Chats window or clear it from the view. While chatting, you can use a decent number of emoticons if you like.

The eBuddy mobile messenger app will run in the background until you choose to log out. At any time while it’s open, you can access eBuddy from the notifications bar or via the applications menu.

More Reading

Since eBuddy and its best competitor imo.im are both available for multiple platforms, in browser extensions and web form, there’s a lot more you can read about both of them. Here’s some articles you might appreciate:

• 5 Alternatives To Meebo For Web-Based Multi-Protocol Instant Messaging
• 3 Revisited & 3 New Web-Based IM Clients For Chatting On The Go
• imo.im – Quite Possibly The Multi-Network Instant Messenger Of Your Dreams
• imo.im – Multi-Protocol Instant Messaging Nirvana [Android 1.6+]
• imo.im Offers A New Import Service For Meebo Users [Updates]
• Make Google Chrome Your IM Hub With IMO.im

What do you like or dislike about eBuddy on the Droid? What would you change?