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Messaging options have long been solid on the LG Rumor family, and the Rumor Touch adds more support for social networking. There are built in apps for Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. None of these are especially powerful or feature rich, but they all offer better than average options for keeping up with status updates. You can upload pics directly to Facebook, but no such luck for Twitter pics. There's even a catch-all social network for more targeted networks like Black Planet, Asian Avenue and Glee, among others; a group that usually doesn't get their own dedicated app.

Beyond social networking, the LG Rumor Touch does a nice job with e-mail. The e-mail app is fairly basic, but it can handle a range of account types, including Microsoft Exchange accounts for corporate types. It had no trouble setting up my Gmail account. I also liked how easily the e-mail app integrated with the rest of the system. If you need to send an e-mail from another app, the Rumor Touch has no trouble opening the separate e-mail app and starting up a message. Certainly a feature I'd expect from a smartphone, but still a nice bonus on messaging feature phones.

The LG Rumor Touch lacks any instant messaging support. Not even the big three, AOL, MSN or Yahoo. Look elsewhere.

Text messaging comes through in a threaded style, and it looks pretty good on the LG Rumor Touch. Threaded style makes SMS more conversational, which kind of makes up for a lack of instant messaging, depending on how you keep in touch. The threaded messaging still looked a bit clinical, and the phone couldn't display pictures inline with text messages, but it's an improvement over the most basic SMS options.

The keyboard on the LG Rumor Touch is generously spaced with a wealth of keys, but it still wasn't the easiest for long messages. Keys are a bit flat and very slick, so my fingers had trouble finding the right key without some careful hunting. While I appreciate the full number row, I question the inclusion of a smiley key over an "@" key. Clearly the phone is aimed more at text messaging rather than e-mail users. There is an onscreen keyboard if you don't want to slide open the full QWERTY, but I'd avoid it at all costs. It's a basic 12-key alphanumeric keypad, and with the sensitivity problems I found on the screen, it was difficult to use for multi-tap typing.

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