IMPS

IMPS stands for "Instant Messaging Presence Services". Building on the popularity of SMS, this technology introduces one exciting aspect to the mobile phone which is Messaging and Presence.

IMPS is the result of efforts by the Wireless Village initiative, a body founded by Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia. The aim was to create an open presence standard that would be easily adopted in mobile phones.

Messaging would work same way as SMS does. Keep the IMPS client running on your mobile phone and you would get a IM alert as you get a SMS alert.

Presence is wonderful social networking tool by which the mobile phone user can update his current status on his mobile phone, and by doing so, allow his buddy list to check whether he's available, busy, or free for a chat.

Mobile users can subscribe to Presence updates regarding the changing status of other users. Alternatively, users can do a one-time fetch of the Presence information. Users can also set permissions to restrict access to their own Presence information. They have full control of the information they are sharing with other users.