In case you think you know what an instant messenger is, you definitely haven’t tried IMVU. Because this is the kind of application that takes online chatting to a whole new level and you’ll see that from the first minute of using it.

Installing IMVU is not at all difficult, but you should really prepare for what comes next.

Just like it’s the case of instant messaging applications in general, you will need an account in order to use IMVU, but you can also log in with Facebook or Google accounts.

Once you’ve stepped in, a whole new dimension opens to you. Literally. Because now you have to create a 3D avatar that will need a lot of things before letting you chat over the Internet. You have to pick some clothes, do a make-up, buy a few accessories, each of these activities bringing you credits that you can later use for all sorts of activities.

Once you enter a chatroom, you will definitely experience a different type of chatting. It’s a 3D room, just like the one in Second Life, where you have nothing else to do than to interact with the people around.

Since we’ve tried it with a female avatar, we’ve adopted the hard-to-get attitude, so we watched the other guys trying all kinds of tricks to impress us. It was fun while it lasted because you can also do a lot of things with your avatar, such as kicking and punching the others, and since we were there for testing purposes, we did these things a lot… Not a great way to get social, probably…

IMVU also comes with a contact list, just like any regular instant messenger, so you can add friends and other favorite users for a quicker and a bit more private chat.

All in all, IMVU is a great application if you have a lot of free time and you will definitely enjoy using it, but it’s pretty far from what you’d expect if you want just a quick chat on the Internet. Just give it a try and see what it’s up to.