29 July 2010, Moscow. The first version of the Mobile Mail.Ru Agent for Android has been released. Users of the popular smartphone OS now have key messenger features at their fingertips: the program allows exchanging instant messages and SMS texts, and supports microblogging as well.

Android is exploding in popularity worldwide: according to Gartner, the platform’s share of the smartphone market has grown sixfold over the past year. In Q1 2010 Android for the first time surged ahead of Windows Mobile in popularity.

Mail.Ru Agent for Android includes all of the primary features of the program’s PC version, including instant messaging, SMS support and support for multiple accounts.

The program has an integrated microblogging service, which allows posting short messages (of up to 160 characters) that are instantly displayed in status updates not only in the Agent, but on the My World@Mail.Ru social network and Blogs@Mail.Ru.

The new Mobile Mail.Ru Agent is absolutely free, and can be downloaded from the Android Market on any phone that supports the Android OS.

“We spend a great deal of effort to make sure that Mail.Ru Agent is available whenever, wherever users want it, no matter their device or the OS on it. Mail.Ru closely monitors the market and as soon as a new OS occupies a truly significant share of the market, the company releases a messenger version for that product’s users right away. This strategy has paid off: the Agent today is the most popular in its class on both mobile devices and regular PCs,” related Anna Artamonova, vice president for communications services at Mail.Ru.

Mail.Ru Agent is one of the most popular IM programs on the Russian market, with a monthly audience (not including the Web Agent) approaching 16 million. Today Mail.Ru Agent can do more than just exchange instant messages over the protocol of the same name: it can send and receive free SMS texts, support voice and video calls, be used for microblogging (thanks to integration with the My World@Mail.Ru social network and Blogs@Mail.Ru), support the ICQ protocol, use an unlimited number of accounts on different networks simultaneously, serve as a mail client (mobile versions) and much more.

Versions of the program are already available for all of the most popular platforms: PC, Mac OS, Java, Windows Mobile, Symbian, iPhone and Android. Additionally, a special Web Agent version works directly within a web browser when accessing mail on Mail.Ru or on the portal’s social network, thus requiring no installation.