Babble

All the computers at your job are more than sure connected to the same network. This brings a certain number of advantages, especially file sharing, since it’s local and data doesn’t travel a lot. Communication saves you some time, with applications like Babble letting you get in touch with anyone that’s connected to the same network.

Once setup is finished, you can go ahead and launch the application to stop screaming in the office for other to hear you, or even get up to walk to another part of the office. Everything is stored in a compact window, with a worryingly large amount of empty space. However, the blank area is where all individuals you add are shown, in other words, the list of buddies.

The first thing you want to do is add someone to talk to. Since the application is specially designed to work over local network connections, it’s a bit of a drawback that it can’t automatically scan the IP range and detect which computers are using the application.

As such, adding a user to the list of friends is done completely manually. A few fields need to be filled in, such as nickname and IP address, which are mandatory, as well as some additional fields for Email address, rating, as well as image for a buddy’s profile.

All users you add are shown in the main window. Sadly, you can’t create any kind of groups, and there aren’t any default ones. What’s more, the search option is also missing, making it rather difficult to find someone specific in the nick of time.

When you add a specific contact, you’re free to initiate a conversation. However, your interlocutor only ends up with a text box in which to view conversation and reply, with absolutely no way of adding you to his or her list. The only way to add someone is manually writing down the address.

The Internet made it possible to get in touch with almost anyone around the globe, and with incredibly little effort. Sure enough, private spaces also benefit from this, but the way in which Babble tackles the situation leaves a lot more to be desired, with a lot of initial setup to be done until all individuals are added to the list.