I can make a huge list of examples of how the Symbian S60 interface fell behind to it’s competitors in terms of simplicity and usability whether it be email, homescreen, browser, or in this case – messaging. Nokia was left in the dust in this department, leaving the sms interface look like a dumbphone rather than a smartphone. They tried to fix things with a beta application called Conversations but it was always buggy and never built in. The application never even made it’s way to Symbian S60 5th edition. Conversations was only made available for S60 3rd edition phones like the Nokia E71 and N95. My N97 still runs the plain jane sms interface showing separate lists for inbox and sent messages instead of combining both into Gmail style conversations.
It looks like Nokia finally opened it’s eyes to this simple annoyance and will be shipping the Nokia N8 with threaded sms conversations built into the firmware.Nokia Beta Labs announced today they are closing their experimental Conversations application trial. No further development will be done. This mean S60 5th edition phones like the flagship Nokia N97 will not be getting threaded sms conversations. Is that smart business?
Threaded SMS for Nokia N8
At the same time they decided to show off a video of the Nokia N8 sporting a new conversations view. It’s nothing special, but at least it’s there. Check out the video below (@1:54-@3:12 for a preview of what it will look like.)
Well that looks good, but what happens when a new message arrives? If I view a new message from the homescreen or anywhere else on the phone am I taken to this conversation view like the iPhone and Nokia N900 or do I get the single, full message view like the N97? If it’s the latter I will be extremely let down. It’s nice to see what our conversation was about 3-4 messages back.
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has written 244 articles for The Mobile Fanatics.
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