Native instant messaging is a much sought after feature for iPhone owners. There are already a number of third party applications that bring instant messaging to the iPhone, some of them even do a really good job of it. With the SDK on it’s way there will be even more, and of them, a lot more clients that perform well. There is one problem with both of these type of clients though; they can not run in the background.

The reason for this, is applications that do not have Apple’s blessing generally can not run in the background, as they do not have the correct permissions to do so. This means if you close the instant messaging application, or leave to do something else, then you will be signed off and your conversations ended. If Apple made the application though, they could allow it to run in the background, just as other services on the iPhone do, such as the phone application.

This patent sketch shows some clues on how the application would work. The application is set up much like the current SMS application on the iPhone, with a few notable differences. The patent application was filed in August of last year, and granted last month. It was not said if Apple plans to release this application with iPhone firmware 2.0, or iif it will be made available through iTunes, and downloaded at the owners discretion

[Via TUAW]