IMO vs Grove

Although IMO has a comparable, and in some cases superior, feature set when compared to the competition its key selling point is its interface.

From LifeHacker when it won "Best IM Client":

Signing on, navigating chats by tapping the tabs at the bottom, searching for buddies, and virtually any other operation is easy to find and use. The app, itself, is very quick. Even sending a voice IM, if you don't feel like typing, is responsive and sends quickly. Everything imo does it does well, but it's excellent navigation really makes it top notch.

IMO also has a fully functional website that you can use for chat while on your desktop or laptop. This really puts IMO ahead of the competition as you can use the same system on all your devices so you don't have to deal with overlapping notifications etc. (Note: IM+ also has this feature)

It should also be noted that it has the highest rating in the App Store due to both the UI and its stability.

Tabbed chats make it easy to switch between conversations

Both your buddy lists and chat histories are searchable.

Concurrent sessions allow you to be logged in on your desktop while also being logged in on your phone.

Web client embeds posted images.

You can ping people separately, people online or everyone.

Including GitHub, Bitbucket, Heroku and Pivotal Tracker. Also, supports webhooks.