Nimbuzz uses less data and can make you invisible, but watch your SIP and connection settings

VoIP, chat, and twitter program Nimbuzz talks to SIP, GoogleTalk, Jabber, MSN (Windows Live), Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, orkut, and Hyves.

The latest update promises to use 70% less data, which sounds good if you use Nimbuzz over 3G. Keep in mind that 70% means "up to 70%." Your mileage may vary and will probably be less. You can now also log into your chat networks in invisible mode, and block chat attempts from anyone who's not on your contact list.

The previous update reset my notification sounds and vibration alerts to default, but this version left them the way they were.

So far, so good. But...

...unfortunately the latest edition still behaves badly. I installed version 3.01 on top of the previous version, but my preferred VoIP provider was reset from SIP to NimbuzzOut without any warning. Maybe Nimbuzz doesn't like competition? So don't forget to go through the settings again when you install a new copy of Nimbuzz on top of the old version.

Another annoyance: whenever I connect over 3G, Nimbuzz stores that connection as "preferred carrier" without asking me, and there's no way to switch this unwanted behaviour off. Worse yet, at next launch Nimbuzz automatically tries to use this connection, and hitting "cancel" shuts down the application instead of asking you how you want to connect. Nimbuzz should definitely fix this in the next update.

• Nimbuzz
• fring (the main competitor of Nimbuzz)