[anon(1464249)]

So this is how I see the future of BBM should look like. This is a personal opinion and I invite you all to comment and add or criticize my views but keep it civil!

A. The cross platform strategy
So BBM is finally going cross platform by having an app for both Android and iPhone users. For some this is the worst decision BlackBerry ever made, for others it's the best. I'm joining the latter.
By making BBM cross platform BlackBerry is essentially (if they do it right) cementing their position of IM king across millions of users. If this will impact BlackBerry hardware sales is another discussion all together. I am welcoming this development and am glad to see BlackBerry reforming their BBM strategy to a more service oriented stance, more on that later.

B. The featureset
BBM has a wealth of features but throughout the years has seen competitors catch up or even blazing right past them. In order to get back on top of the game they need to introduce novel features, and fast.
I will provide a small list of features I would love to see come to BBM along with existing features i would love to see expanded.

• Send Media / Location / Contact / File
  
  So this is pretty obvious and already in the current version of BBM, a send option that will allow people to send whatever file they want to the person they are talking to. I'd love to see the file size limit significantly upped or even totally gone. I'll give a suggestion on how to pull this off in section D.
• Voice Calling BBM to BBM + BBM to landline/mobile phone
  
  Voice calling on BBM is awesome and works a treat, crystal clear sound and superb quality. It's however limited to BBM contacts and while the cross platform strategy will most likely result in an increase of BBM users, I would still like to see them provide the same service to landlines or mobile phones. Suggestion on how and why in section D
• Group voice calling
  
  create a group and have a voice call with all of them
• Video calling + desktop client (mac + windows)
  
  This one is in BBM as well and pretty awesome. All i'm waiting for is a desktop client for Windows and Mac and maybe some additional options like 'record video chat', 'record audio only',... together with some privacy options so you know when someone is recording the chat
• Group chat ++
  
  This is a biggie. Group chat in BBM is great and functions like it should. However it's greatly lacking in features yet has so much potential. This should be made more interactive/engaging. For example, the new SPLIT feature that GroupMe introduced, which allows users to split the bill in a group is a prime example of interacting and engaging use of a group. More suggestions in section D
• Gallery view
  This is already supported in group chat, so why not allow a user to see a gallery of video/photo/audio/files that he has sent/received to another individual BBM user... no brainer really.
  
• Backgrounds
  
  How is it that we still can't change the background in a chat window....?
• Text colors
  
  So we can change the colors of the bubbles yet we can't change the text itself...Come on BlackBerry. Do remember to include an option to override the persons text settings on your end. Just in case it turns out to be a coloring book.
• Show avatar
  
  Show the avatar next to the text message itself instead of on top.
• Ways to add people
  
  Just by PIN? Come on, scanning the address book, finding people connected to Twitter/Facebook and consequently getting their PIN of them shouldn't be a problem...should it?
• Contact list integration
  
  Integrate BBM in the contact list so when you want to initiate a call you can easily start a BBM to BBM call
• Random chat partner
  
  Would be fun and an attractive feature for new BBM users to play with
• Basic profiles
  
  Having to 'review' and add request just by name and whatever he/she wrote in the text box (if anything besides the default placeholder at all) is a tedious job and results in lots of deletions within hours of adding a person. Why not allow people to create a basic profile so whenever you get an add request you will see for example: Picture, Sex, Location, Local time. This would be a huge improvement and not to mention an advantage over the competition
• Profile search
  
  Hey, if there are profiles, why not allow a profile search to find people...
• Immediate share
  
  whatever media file or data file that's being sent between two BBM users, a simple tap on the file in chat allowing to share to social sites/email/whatever would be a nice little timesaver.
• Private chat
  
  The concept is simple, when a private chat is requested or initialized there will be no chat history, no screenshots and no media or data files retention on either side. Once you're done talking in private chat mode, it's all gone.
• Share experiences
  
  Allow a user to put a picture / video in 'share' mode so others who he has personally selected can view it. (This is the equivalent of your own personal wall within BBM so all users or a select group you choose can view whatever you share)
• Auto save options for received data files
  
  Automatically save certain file types that get sent....no brainer.
• Location chat check
  
  A feature found in Wikitude, scan the location to find possible BBM friends...
• Collaboration options
  
  This is pretty vague but this could be a document in a group that can be edited by all parties and it automatically gets updated in the group with the editing history, this can also be a task list that people can share in a group, commit to a task on the list and notify when done (would be great with heavy business users and students)
• Mute individual/group notifications
  
  The option to shut someone or a group up for a period of time
• NO PING
  
  I hate them and I would love to see them disappear but i'll settle with the next best thing, an option to block all PINGS
• Like messages in groups
  
  This is a popular feature in the channels, could make sense to introduce it in groups
• Send self-destruct data files
  
  Files that self destruct after viewing once or after a given amount of time.
• WP version
  
  Can't believe this isn't in the making yet....Get it on as much platforms as you can.

C. The BBM edge over competitors
BBM was popular, it is popular and hopefully it will remain popular for many years to come. BBM has the advantage of legacy users that have flocked to other platforms. They remember what BBM was like and sorely miss it. BlackBerry needs to capitalize on this and make a big marketing push once they release the app so those legacy users waste no time in downloading and using the app, finding long lost BBM users.
There is a potential here to become the number one IM and VOIP app. It's secure and reliable not to mention awesomely designed and with a beautiful layout. Let's hope they grab this opportunity to become #1 and keep pushing out updates to stay ahead of the competition.

D. What needs to be done and how?
First of all. We need cloud storage. We don't need it per se so we can upload files to it and access them wherever we are, we just need it so we can send big files, we can collaborate on files, etc...
So it has to be there, invisible, but there.
When a cloud storage is behind the BBM service users can virtually send whatever file with whatever size. They just need to upload it to the cloud and the recipient can just download it or view it directly from the cloud (streaming).

Second. BlackBerry needs to transform BBM into a service platform, allowing the creation of a paid VOIP service. I personally feel they missed the boat on this one when releasing BB10 without BIS. They could've easily justified the VOIP charge now people aren't forced to pay for BIS service anymore. BlackBerry has ample experience in routing data through VOIP so they should leverage that expertise and bring the world the next new revolution in calling. BBM calls, no matter what platform you use.
They need to make this happen and they need to make it happen quickly, only then will BBM be a real competitor to Skype (it will be on the major platforms + the 70+ million BlackBerry users who don't have access to Skype on their mobile). Advantage BlackBerry.

Third. We need a desktop/webversion BBM client. Come on BlackBerry, make it happen. Making it available to everyone without a mobile phone and businesses who use other platforms can and will boost the user base; nothing but advantages.

Fourth. Expand group chat functionality. What good is a group chat if you can't use it form common things, like calculating what everyone in the group owes to pay a bill, planning a birthday party with tasks users can strike out in a group, planning a budget for a gift, etc... There are loads of possibilities and they're all waiting to happen. This will make groups widely used and this will make Blackberry stand out from the likes of WhatsApp and GroupMe.

Fifth. Profiles. Give us basic profiles, just a picture, sex and location will do. So we can give fair judgment to people who request an add.

Sixth. It's a pain, but it never hurts to check out the competition. Unfortunately for BlackBerry, the competition keeps moving forward and is way ahead in some departments. Go check them out and bring the BlackBerry twist to some features you will introduce.

Seventh and last for this post. MARKETING. Bring this to market in a huge and uniform way in all countries simultaneously. Use some of that cash laying around and make sure people see this from the moment they wake up to the moment they fall asleep and dream about it. Get it out there and release updates weekly instead of monthly. It will be much appreciated. (the excitement of checking for a new version every other day is reason enough to keep using it)

Thats my take albeit not complete, it should paint a pretty good picture of how i want BBM to progress and although some will agree with me on features and others won't, it's always going to be between 'we don't need that feature' and 'but app X has that feature'. Any comments, additions or criticism is welcome as long as you do it in a polite manner please.

[howarmat]

really great write up! thanks for your thoughts!

[ritrock]

A very well written BBM appreciation must say but I would like to add that Blackberry should keep up there promises up, I mean they delay stuff alot just like in case if BBM we can see that they said a bbm for playbook we never saw plus its going cross platform and summer is almost going over we haven't see released yet, thus in the end I wanna say they delay things alot it's already so late and they make it more :-/

[merv69]

They should hire you bro. Good write up


Via my Zormtrooper...

[heymaggie]

Sounds like you want BBM to go up against Facebook and all of the other social networks. That's a pretty tall order.

[anon(1464249)]

really great write up! thanks for your thoughts!

You're welcome, they're not final yet as I had to quickly write this during office hours, but I hope this post may spark some discussion/debate and I will compliment any thoughts then.

A very well written BBM appreciation must say but I would like to add that Blackberry should keep up there promises up, I mean they delay stuff alot just like in case if BBM we can see that they said a bbm for playbook we never saw plus its going cross platform and summer is almost going over we haven't see released yet, thus in the end I wanna say they delay things alot it's already so late and they make it more :-/

Thanks. BBM on Playbook won't happen unless they introduce a webclient of BBM. Or you can always use the bridge.

They should hire you bro. Good write up
Via my Zormtrooper...

Thanks and no thanks lol. There are hundreds if not thousands out there giving their opinion on what BlackBerry as a company must do. My write up is just that, an opinion. I can always sketch a pretty picture of living on the moon, but without knowing anything about the atmosphere I won't get far

Sounds like you want BBM to go up against Facebook and all of the other social networks. That's a pretty tall order.

Not at all. Facebook and BBM are two totally different products. They both have reason to exist. What I want, is BBM to evolve to the default IM client on every platform thanks to their impeccable service, reliability, featureset and ease of use. BBM on all platforms, it just works

Thanks for feedback guys, keep joining in and debating/expanding on my post. I'm sure some of you will have other new features in mind or have an idea to change an existing feature, maybe disagree with some of my thoughts... let's go

[anon(1464249)]

So, I put this entire post on the BlackBerry beta site and got this...



Oh and also...

[iN8ter]

Aren't PINs on BBM Hexidecimal? So they can actually have a split keyboard with 0-9 and A-F for PIN input. Wouldn't that be a bit more efficient than a full keyboard with numbers at the top?

0 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9
A -- B -- C -- D
[X] - E - F - [X]

X being Backspace on the Left of E, and Enter/Done on the right of F

The letters would be lower case, as is the normal convention for PINs. I upper cased them for spacing reasons (readability).

In portrate they can have a split keyboard with Numbers on the Left and Letters on the right, with Backspace on the bottom left and enter/done on the bottom right.

Seems like a waste of time doing another layout for pin entry, but details matter and some people may do pin to pin messaging in addition to using pins to add people to BBM. It could be very useful to people in markets where BBM is very prolific.

Bonus: Additionally layout can allow the device to also give suggestions for BB PINs (would not show up on normal keyboard)!

[iN8ter]

• Location chat check

A feature found in Wikitude, scan the location to find possible BBM friends...

Only if they allow you to turn this off, otherwise it's a huge privacy faux pas.

The Blocking Screenshots is useless as people can easily get around it by simply taking a picture of the screen. Too many people have multiple devices to even bother implementing this, and it's too easy to get around, with other devices or even third party software on the device.

EDIT: Most of the features you've implemented have already been implemented in competing services. ChatOn, for example, has 90% of those features already, if not 95-98% of them.

As to the other user, he doesn't want BBM to become a Facebook. He wants it to become a more robust "Social Messenger." I think the reason why ChatOn has gained so many users is because of that. It is almost like a mix between BBM and Path. BBM could stand to benefit from many of these features (the Trunk feature in ChatON is pretty awesome, for example), but it will take them quite a while to implement them. I personally think this is where they should have gone, instead of getting diverted with Channels.

They could have monetized by doing like Skype and Charging for Calls to Landlines/Cells and Group Video calling, but even group video calling is becoming commoditized so it will be hard for them to compete given how much they're already lagging in functionality.

OP also forgot stickers, Animated Stickers (Implemented by ChatON, not Facebook Messenger is bringing them), and perhaps even Animated Emoticons (Skype on iOS/Desktop has those). They should probably just drop emoticons and go with a full Emoji set, though.

[anon(1464249)]

Aren't PINs on BBM Hexidecimal? So they can actually have a split keyboard with 0-9 and A-F for PIN input. Wouldn't that be a bit more efficient than a full keyboard with numbers at the top?

0 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9
A -- B -- C -- D
[X] - E - F - [X]

X being Backspace on the Left of E, and Enter/Done on the right of F

The letters would be lower case, as is the normal convention for PINs. I upper cased them for spacing reasons (readability).

In portrate they can have a split keyboard with Numbers on the Left and Letters on the right, with Backspace on the bottom left and enter/done on the bottom right.

Seems like a waste of time doing another layout for pin entry, but details matter and some people may do pin to pin messaging in addition to using pins to add people to BBM. It could be very useful to people in markets where BBM is very prolific.

Bonus: Additionally layout can allow the device to also give suggestions for BB PINs (would not show up on normal keyboard)!

Good point, I relayed your post in full to the BBM Beta zone .

[stevobbm]

You don't want much?
They can't get rid of ping, it's a handy feature.


Posted via CB10

[FoxxBerry]

My sentiments exactly

[Kobe Barksdale]

Good read, very interesting. Can't believe this post was back in July and didn't catch on until now. I second everything about BBM becoming a Social Messenger. Still can't use any other IM client effectively as BBM is

[FoxxBerry]

Any mew thoughts sir since bbm is on top of iTunes nd Google play?

Posted via CB10