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I'm often messaging with my partner throughout the day. If we are both at our desktop PCs, we use Google Chat. If one of us is away, we use SMS on our Windows Phones.

It would be better to switch to a system that would let us switch back and forth between PC and phone, with all chat history synchronized on all of a user's devices (phone, netbook and desktop PC). This is classic Google Chat functionality that is available in Android handsets and Chrome browser.

What's the best way to get this same basic functionality to work on Microsoft's platforms?

Our PCs are Windows 7. One of our phones is WP 7.5 Lumia 710, and the other is WP 8 Lumia 925.

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I would think Skype or Facebook messaging would be your best bet in terms of supported platforms, including Windows Phone.

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  • Facebook is too full of distractions and snoops. I'll check out Skype. Thanks. – Jacob Nov 4 '13 at 15:22
  • @Jacob Facebook messaging is just XMPP so you can use an IM client like Pigin, Instandbird, or Trillian to consume it on the desktop so that you don't have it open on the browser. I use it that way and it works pretty well. – jimueller Nov 7 '13 at 19:14
  • I've played around with Skype for a bit. It doesn't satisfy my major requirement, which is that all test message history is visible on all devices. Perhaps there is a limitation of the WP 7.5 Skype app, which is different than the WP 8 app. – Jacob Nov 8 '13 at 1:43
  • It turns out that there is a better client for Skype text messaging on WP 7.5 than Skype's own app. It is IM+, the universal text messaging app made by Shape. This is surprising, because IM+ doesn't to a good job of sync'ing all messages in a GChat conversation, yet seems to to well with Skype. Edit I went back to the Skype app a few minutes later, and found that the entire conversation was visible there, including messages I sent/received in other clients (IM+ on the same phone, Skype app on my PC). So apparently the WP 7.5 will sync the whole conversation, eventually. – Jacob Nov 8 '13 at 2:25

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