Action Engine Corp. launched an integrated instant messenger service for on-device portals to improve the mobile IM experience.

With this release, content companies and media brands using on-device portals can create portals that offer easier ways to chat and instant message without using a browser on a mobile phone. Action Engine claims it is the first on-device portal vendor to bring its customers mobile IM and social networking functionality via the AOL MyMobile portal.

"Social networking is one of the most popular services on the Web and the mobile phone is emerging as the next frontier for social networking," said Jim Souders, senior vice president of worldwide operations at Action Engine, Bellevue, WA.

"Action Engine is committed to launching features that make social networking on mobile phones easy and intuitive despite the limitations of devices, like small screens, tiny keypads and slow network connections," he said.

"By integrating built-in instant messaging capabilities into the ODPs [on-device portals] we build, Action Engine is offering media companies new ways to help their consumers interact and build communities," he said.

According to the AOL's Instant Messaging Trends Survey, many IM users are instant messaging from their mobile phones. The survey reported that 25 percent of respondents send IMs from their devices and 32 percent of these IM users are teens.

Additionally, the survey revealed IM users instant message using their social networking profiles. More than 147 million people worldwide are using social networking services on their mobile devices today and instant messaging is a large part of that.

"Today, instant messaging on the mobile Web forces the consumer to visit the network and refresh the entire IM conversation page with each instant message they send, resulting in a user experience that is often slow and fragmented," Mr. Souders said. "Action Engine's technology only sends each individual message over the network resulting in a faster chat experience with fewer network delays.

"Also, by embedding the instant messaging experience within a larger suite of applications, Action Engine is making it easier than ever for brands to create interactive mobile experiences and for consumers to enjoy social networking from their mobile phones," he said.

The instant messaging technology in the Action Engine on-device portal experience sends each individual message over the network only without performing an entire page refresh, resulting in a faster chat experience with fewer network delays, the company claims.

"Action Engine builds on-device portals which are suites of applications that consumers can download to their mobile phone which make the user experience easy and fast," Mr. Souders said.

"With this announcement, Action Engine becomes the first ODP company to offer consumers the ability to chat and send instant messages within the on-device portal experience," he said.