[SalMan50]

3 of my best friends, all decided to go to Whatsapp today and that'll be used as out group chat option for the time being. One of the things that I (as a longtime BlackBerry user) didnt quite get was the handling of pictures.

BB10 doesn't use the BIS service that the legacy devices use, so data compression really isn't a priority nor should be a big issue given the multitude of data plans available, and the wide usage of these by the mass of smartphone users. So why does this 'Request High Quality' still exist?

In gets annoying when I have to do that for a multitude of photos that I receive on bbm. Also, if you mistakenly deny the request, you have to send it again, or even worse, dread the time out issue.

I'm not a fan of this, and I like how pics are handled on Whatsapp waaay better. We've managed to have the data transfer limit upgraded to 16MB, now it's time to get rid of this annoying feature of high quality requests and timeouts

Posted via CB10

[Laura Knotek]

What devices do your friends who switched to WhatsApp use?
Sent from my Nokia Lumia 920 using Tapatalk

[grevan88]

me and my group of friends recently went back to whatsapp too.. i was able to convince them to switch to BBM after the sale to facebook, but they just werent happy.

apparently the ios and android versions of bbm are just sub par and that really upsets me

[Doggerz]

People I've gotten to use BBM have all gone back to SMS/MMS. I really don't know anyone using a text client. The only other one I like other than BBM is "Telegram" for the security.

I'm only have my wife and brother on BBM reliably. And they are BlackBerry users.

Seems like people can't understand how much better and how many more options you get with BBM. They don't care that SMS is just out there in the open. And that you can't send files or make voice calls.

At least your contacts are using whatsapp - to me that is the worst choice because it's owned by FB. But at least they are not on SMS like my contacts.

Telegram to me would be more desirable than Whatsapp but it's hard to get people to change.

Z30 / STA100-5 / 10.2.1.3247 / T-Mobile USA

[SalMan50]

What devices do your friends who switched to WhatsApp use?
Sent from my Nokia Lumia 920 using Tapatalk

Their phones are; iPhone5, Galaxy Note 2, and LG Nexus 4, while I sport a Z10

Posted via CB10

[SalMan50]

People I've gotten to use BBM have all gone back to SMS/MMS. I really don't know anyone using a text client. The only other one I like other than BBM is "Telegram" for the security.

I'm only have my wife and brother on BBM reliably. And they are BlackBerry users.

Seems like people can't understand how much better and how many more options you get with BBM. They don't care that SMS is just out there in the open. And that you can't send files or make voice calls.

At least your contacts are using whatsapp - to me that is the worst choice because it's owned by FB. But at least they are not on SMS like my contacts.

Telegram to me would be more desirable than Whatsapp but it's hard to get people to change.

Z30 / STA100-5 / 10.2.1.3247 / T-Mobile USA

Yeah it seems to be a tradeoff between convenience and security. Whatsapp seems to have a lot of strength on the side of convenience with the incorporation of phone numbers as a means of adding people. Meanwhile, BBM dominates the security side (for the most part) with pin based friend additions and a impressive communications track record.

But reliability needs to be strengthened on ALL platforms for BBM to be the defacto communication client, it already boasts great features (glympse, video chat), but some of these need to expand to non-blackberry phones sooner rather than later, and more importantly, solidify the wonky foundation that it currently is built upon on iOS and Android phones

Posted via CB10

[SalMan50]

me and my group of friends recently went back to whatsapp too.. i was able to convince them to switch to BBM after the sale to facebook, but they just werent happy.

apparently the ios and android versions of bbm are just sub par and that really upsets me

It's very much true concerning the iOS and Android part, considering that the vast majority of friends use non-blackberry phones, it's reeeeaallly difficult to keep them using BBM they way it currently is (notification & receiving issues) especially with other choices around :[

Hopefully soon, these issues are fixed

Posted via CB10

[bspence87]

Their phones are; iPhone5, Galaxy Note 2, and LG Nexus 4, while I sport a Z10

Posted via CB10

A nice assortment! My friends are iPhone, iPhone, iPhone, Galaxy, iPhone, iPhone, Galaxy, iPhone, iPhone, iPhone.

...kinda sickening really..

[suhel28]

None of my friends like BBM they all are on whatsapp. So I dont use bbm even though I have a blackberry phone lol

Posted via CB10

[Signhere]

The way Bbm handles pictures suck. Just prompt people before the file is sent or received , send and receive HQ or SQ?. Duh

Posted via CB10

[grevan88]

It's very much true concerning the iOS and Android part, considering that the vast majority of friends use non-blackberry phones, it's reeeeaallly difficult to keep them using BBM they way it currently is (notification & receiving issues) especially with other choices around :[

Hopefully soon, these issues are fixed

Posted via CB10

what worries me is that even if they were to fix those issues (because that is exactly what they complain about) i think it might already be too late for me to get them on the app a second time. as far as they are concerned they will have tried it once and not liked it and have moved on already.

[Rello]

This is exactly why I haven't asked many besides my closest friends to try it yet. Just too much missing. Being able to send only one pic at a time is ridiculous. Sending it in low quality is an added annoyance. No notifications for groups on cross platform versions. It's just not ready yet, eve. If it has more features than whatsapp. I also still have a few reliability issues....occasionally though. It's gotten much better.

I do feel bad for some of u though. My closest friends use it and they seem to like it. We stick to mainly a multi-chat conversation though.

Posted via CB10

[Doggerz]

what worries me is that even if they were to fix those issues (because that is exactly what they complain about) i think it might already be too late for me to get them on the app a second time. as far as they are concerned they will have tried it once and not liked it and have moved on already.

Yes, I've worn out my good will for trying BBM on other platforms. Guess BlackBerry released it before it was ready to compete with the other programs. Yet it also released it way too late to compete with the other programs. It's a shame.

Z30 / STA100-5 / 10.2.1.3247 / T-Mobile USA

[canderson85]

Picture compression is a good thing and considerate of the people receiving them as well

Posted via CB10

[Norg]

The way Bbm handles pictures suck. Just prompt people before the file is sent or received , send and receive HQ or SQ?. Duh

Posted via CB10

Funny, whenever I send pics via BBM to my son and daughter's Android doodads they always appear to get them with little complaining !! Which is a good thing!!! Why doesn't my device request resolution, I did noticed that my BBM by default always sends a reduced sized image. Which is fine by me since it uses less data. Anyway, overall very little complaints from my 14 and 20 year old :-)

Posted via CB10 with my Super Snappy Q5

[sk8er_tor]

I'm fine with the quality of pictures sent by BBM. If you're sending that many pictures that need to be in HQ, then zip them and email them or put them in Dropbox and share a link.

Does BBM need to get better, yes, of course. But I don't see anything wrong with the way pictures are currently implemented (aside from the timeout issue).

[Coffee Shampoo]

I don't use BBM because my friends don't use it, and I honestly don't feel like talking them into using it. It's BlackBerry's job to do that.

Posted via CB10

[p_r_a_g_m_a]

Same here, but I've even disabled BBM in parental control options so it even doesn't run at all.

[Gray]

Well look at it this way. If you cheat on your girlfriend use BBM to communicate with the new girl, then text everyone else. I went to Europe last year and used BBM to talk to people at home. Didn't have to worry about interernational rates for texting to MMS messages. Most cases I looked for free wifi and used it for BBM.

It's a matter of preference and experience. Since most people don't seem to have Blackberry devices BBM isn't in their train of thought. Those of us who've used it over the years love it. In fact, we probably were using BBM long before texting became all the rage.

[sebstarr]

I lost iPhone users who were initially happy to switch to bbm but found it inconsistent. Androids seen fine though as long as they get used to it.

I hope the ios version gets an update soon or all my apple friends will drop it.

From my z30

[7christopherr]

currently have 18 bbm contacts (1 BlackBerry owner) have recently lost 8 contcts due to issues with the iPhone version. remaining contacts have not had issues and most also own iphones

[SalMan50]

I lost iPhone users who were initially happy to switch to bbm but found it inconsistent. Androids seen fine though as long as they get used to it.

I hope the ios version gets an update soon or all my apple friends will drop it.

From my z30

Inconsistency are a deal breaker for us to use for the long haul

Posted via CB10

[tonyfox]

I managed to convince several friends to move to BBM but it's been about 4 months now and every single one of them has subsequently announced that they're deleting it and to get them through sms".

I am an advocate for using BBM over other IM programs but I agree with the other member here; it should be BlackBerry's job to convince people to move.

Although it's important to me, security just doesn't seem that important to my friends, and they'll happily choose the likes of WhatsApp over BBM.

Honestly, I use BBM for texting of course, but mostly for file-transfers, picture sharing etc. and WhatsApp is much better at getting the job done than BBM :-/

With BBM, you have to wait for the recipient to accept your file before they get it, and at that there's a timeout issue (which is the case for me mostly because I chat with family/friends in other timezones and they might be asleep when I initially send it).
The "request high quality" for pictures, too, is extremely irritating. Of course I want the highest quality version...
Sending multiple pictures and having them "stored" in a summary area under my contacts profile like WhatsApp does would be great to see which photos / files I've already sent them...

C'mon BBM, I've been all for you guys but you're fast losing my faith!
They don't even answer my tweets when I ask them to help with an iPhone BBM issue. Boo.

Posted via CB10 from my Q10

[Chintak Mistry]

Agree guys......WhatsApp is having very reliable and easy to use......BBM is still much protective.....u can send data files and u have no need to share your phone number...so its useful for business....so basically
In business ----BBM > whatsapp.
In simple fun chat ----whatsapp > BBM

Z10 STL100-1 , OS-10.2.1.2941 , Pin: 2B4E77D7

[chuckkdaduck]

I have some friends too that like how Whatsapp handles pictures also. They want to share a bunch of pictures at once where as in bbm you can only attach one picture at a time on the group chats.

I have a feeling they may slowly move back to Whatsapp soon.