[phonejunky]

Man was sitting at work and getting frustrated with pulling out my iPhone to read the news, and pass time by playing monopoly until this morning board meeting. Then bouncing back to my Blackberry to see what's been update my calender and talk on bbm to co-workers about the board meeting this morning. I pray Apple has an iChat type service on the 4G so that more people at my job will be on board to switch over to the iPhone.

[anon(153966)]

I don't particularly want any app that forces me to use a particular device, I switch too often. Another reason I stopped using Ping! and WhatsApp on the iPhone. Albeit WhatsApp now has the app for the Blackberry, too, but...

One of the things I had to over come with the Blackberry was to not\stop using Blackberry Messenger. It's better to get BeeJive or something like that, and thus chat to people via IM. At least with that app you can use virtaully any Smartphone

[phonejunky]

I don't particularly want any app that forces me to use a particular device, I switch too often. Another reason I stopped using Ping! and WhatsApp on the iPhone. Albeit WhatsApp now has the app for the Blackberry, too, but...

One of the things I had to over come with the Blackberry was to not\stop using Blackberry Messenger. It's better to get BeeJive or something like that, and thus chat to people via IM. At least with that app you can use virtaully any Smartphone

very very true, i can do that with family and friends operate on IM clients, but at work its a no go everyone uses bbm so im kind of stuck, and it's annoying too. I like my Blackberry but i think i would enjoy it more if it didn't serve as a leash to my job.

[scorpiodsu]

When I was using my blackberry I did my best to not rely on BBM as a way to talk with my friends. I did this because I know myself and I'll change phones quickly if I find something better so I didn't want to confine myself to something that is available only on 1 platform. Obviously, this would be different for business users but for myself, I always used IM clients to talk. At that time many of my friends had blackberries but I still mostly talked to them on AIM or G-talk. And now none of us have blackberries but we still can talk with the same ease.

Having said that, iChat would be a nice feature to have but I would approach the same way as BBM because I don't want to get too "attached" to having to talk with people via iChat. Some people won't leave blackberry just because of BBM. I would say to those people that they have gotten too attached to it and this is exactly where RIM would want you. Apple would want us the same way which gives us another reason to not get rid of our Apple stuff. But I would never rely so much on something that is only supported by one platform. That's just me.

[Duvi]

That's exactly the boat I'm in scopiodsu. It's really scary if you think about it.

I also was thinking... so Apple brought that farm and suppose they bought iChat to all smartphones... That would be hilarious IMO.

[infamyx]

Single platform messaging is silly, and BBM is now just a glorified IM client.

With so many universal options not constrained to any type of device (aim, msn, yahoo, facebook somewhat) I can't see this being a big deal.

[scorpiodsu]

Single platform messaging is silly, and BBM is now just a glorified IM client.

With so many universal options not constrained to any type of device (aim, msn, yahoo, facebook somewhat) I can't see this being a big deal.

Agreed. I def don't need a simple platform messaging system especially when I'll switch platforms in a heartbeat if I find something I think is better. I'd much rather talk on regualr IM clients. If any of my friends has access to BBM, they also have access to the other clients as well. Of course for business use BBM is great, but besides that I don't care too much.

[mikeo007]

Truth be told, I've sent maybe 3 messages over BBM the entire time I've had my phone. I have no use for the proprietary messaging systems, regardless of platform. The majority of my friends communicate with me over MSN, which is of course cross platform. But the major problem I had (still have) with my iPhone is that I can't do anything while I'm chatting on MSN. If Apple adds any sort of native IM app support, it has to allow backgrounding so that someone can go off and do something else while their IM client sits in the background, tossing them notifications if they want them.

[mitchell209]

Truth be told, I've sent maybe 3 messages over BBM the entire time I've had my phone. I have no use for the proprietary messaging systems, regardless of platform. The majority of my friends communicate with me over MSN, which is of course cross platform. But the major problem I had (still have) with my iPhone is that I can't do anything while I'm chatting on MSN. If Apple adds any sort of native IM app support, it has to allow backgrounding so that someone can go off and do something else while their IM client sits in the background, tossing them notifications if they want them.

Well at least the IM apps send you push notifications when you get a message. :\ Closest thing you'll have to multitasking unless Apple releases some new form of multitasking for the iPhone in their 4.0 update.

[scorpiodsu]

Truth be told, I've sent maybe 3 messages over BBM the entire time I've had my phone. I have no use for the proprietary messaging systems, regardless of platform. The majority of my friends communicate with me over MSN, which is of course cross platform. But the major problem I had (still have) with my iPhone is that I can't do anything while I'm chatting on MSN. If Apple adds any sort of native IM app support, it has to allow backgrounding so that someone can go off and do something else while their IM client sits in the background, tossing them notifications if they want them.

I agree. Before Beejive got push you had to keep the app open to wait for a response or close and log back in. It would be nice if Apple came out with an iChat client that also had support for other clients like on the mac computer.

[F0nage]

The sad thing is there isn't any good multi IM client for BB. I don't know if there is on iPhone.

Stuff like Nimbuzz which has so many great features on Symbian is terrible on BB. IM+ is overpriced and the free version has problems, Beejive has problems, etc. It would be nice if somebody actually wrote a multi-IM client that actually really works, and made it available on all the big platforms.

[F0nage]

Single platform messaging is silly, and BBM is now just a glorified IM client.

Wrong on both counts. The point of BBM is not to msg your friends when you're drunk. It was designed as a peer to peer messaging system for business. It's dead reliable and you can send files, emails, and msgs securely and with receipt confirmation. There isn't any generally available messenger on any platform that's so well-designed and implemented. That's why BB people are so crazy about it.

[scorpiodsu]

The sad thing is there isn't any good multi IM client for BB. I don't know if there is on iPhone.

Stuff like Nimbuzz which has so many great features on Symbian is terrible on BB. IM+ is overpriced and the free version has problems, Beejive has problems, etc. It would be nice if somebody actually wrote a multi-IM client that actually really works, and made it available on all the big platforms.

Yeah I would agree there. Beejive on the iPhone is pretty good. I haven't tried any of the others. It would be great if someone actually makes one for each platforms that does everything. For instance, you use a certian one on a blackberry but it doesn't do group chat but it does on the iPhone. That kinda sucks.

[infamyx]

Agreed. I def don't need a simple platform messaging system especially when I'll switch platforms in a heartbeat if I find something I think is better. I'd much rather talk on regualr IM clients. If any of my friends has access to BBM, they also have access to the other clients as well. Of course for business use BBM is great, but besides that I don't care too much.

Wasn't that the whole purpose of BBM to begin with, for businesses? Short secure messaging that wasn't email, that didn't cost more and could be monitored by BES admins/IT?

It's funny to see what it's turn into now, but outside enterprise it's not a killer feature

[scorpiodsu]

Wrong on both counts. The point of BBM is not to msg your friends when you're drunk. It was designed as a peer to peer messaging system for business. It's dead reliable and you can send files, emails, and msgs securely and with receipt confirmation. There isn't any generally available messenger on any platform that's so well-designed and implemented. That's why BB people are so crazy about it.

I agree that what it WAS designed for but that fact is more and more of general consumers have blackberries where a great number of them msg their friend when they are drunk lol. It's well implemented for business use but for personal use it's almost not necessary because you have several other options that aren't limited to one platform. So if I talk to all my friends on G-talk for a year and I decide to switch phones to another platform, I won't have to worry about getting everyone's user IDs if before I only talked to them on BBM. Once again, BBM is great for business but for personal use, I really don't see the point.

[scorpiodsu]

Wasn't that the whole purpose of BBM to begin with, for businesses? Short secure messaging that wasn't email, that didn't cost more and could be monitored by BES admins/IT?

It's funny to see what it's turn into now, but outside enterprise it's not a killer feature

Yup. And now that blackberries are being used more and more for personal use, BBM serves a different purpose for those than it's original intentions. And you're right, outside of business use, it's irrelevant.

On a side note, 1 1/2 ago my friends started getting blackberries. I already had one but I was using other IM clients to chat. When they found out about BBM, they went crazy and started chatting only through BBM. I told them to open up a g-talk account. They didn't listen. Now a few months ago, most of them switched to a iphone or Android. They had to create g-talk accounts and get everyone's ID, etc... I tried to tell them not to rely on it because it's great for business, but for personal use, you can do better.

[infamyx]

Wrong on both counts. The point of BBM is not to msg your friends when you're drunk. It was designed as a peer to peer messaging system for business. It's dead reliable and you can send files, emails, and msgs securely and with receipt confirmation. There isn't any generally available messenger on any platform that's so well-designed and implemented. That's why BB people are so crazy about it.

It was designed for enterprise which I already knew. I wouldn't call it reliable anymore lol. You can do all that with current messaging services now (sans security).

BIS users utilize it more as a chatting option, and as it stands still is nothing more than a platform specific IM client, and is used by a lot of users to speak to people on here. Outside of enterprise, BBM usefulness isn't that great.

[Duvi]

Wasn't that the whole purpose of BBM to begin with, for businesses? Short secure messaging that wasn't email, that didn't cost more and could be monitored by BES admins/IT?

It's funny to see what it's turn into now, but outside enterprise it's not a killer feature

That's what it was, but RIM has changed that and has made it more AIM and other IM clients. A few things that show you the direction RIM is headed with BBM.

* Show What I'm Listening To
* Endless amount of smileys
* New UI that's more for the consumer and wasn't needed for the business

[F0nage]

Those consumer features don't take away from the core value or compromise it at all. And it has nothing to do with the implementation, which is still far better than any other publicly available IM client.

[scorpiodsu]

Those consumer features don't take away from the core value or compromise it at all. And it has nothing to do with the implementation, which is still far better than any other publicly available IM client.

Yes but the fact of the matter remains that a messaging client specific to one platform is irrelevant in the consumer market. How many threads are out there of people trying to get access to BBM on another device? Plenty. BBM is great for what it is, but as a general consumer that doesn't want to be confined to one platform it wouldn't be my preference no matter how good it is.

[infamyx]

Those consumer features don't take away from the core value or compromise it at all. And it has nothing to do with the implementation, which is still far better than any other publicly available IM client.

And BBM falls short on the number of people who can use it, which is a severe handicap already. Are the features great on BBM? Yeah, but I can accomplish the same things via another messenger. Updating my music, or broadcasting a message or posting an image for my PIN isn't really killer features.

Even if iChat mimic BBM I would say the same thing, it's nothing more than an IM client. RIM is pushing it towards that which is fine, but BBM isn't all that outside of enterprise.

[crackvegas78]

Man was sitting at work and getting frustrated with pulling out my iPhone to read the news, and pass time by playing monopoly until this morning board meeting. Then bouncing back to my Blackberry to see what's been update my calender and talk on bbm to co-workers about the board meeting this morning. I pray Apple has an iChat type service on the 4G so that more people at my job will be on board to switch over to the iPhone.

I don't really get what you are complaining about. I mean BBM is only good for Blackberry thus is not really a solution for everyone. I use YM and AIM on my iPhone due to the fact that I know way more people on those services then BBM and iChat combined. Personally I don't really like iChat that much with the exception that it is a very good for doing video chat.

[crackvegas78]

Truth be told, I've sent maybe 3 messages over BBM the entire time I've had my phone. I have no use for the proprietary messaging systems, regardless of platform. The majority of my friends communicate with me over MSN, which is of course cross platform. But the major problem I had (still have) with my iPhone is that I can't do anything while I'm chatting on MSN. If Apple adds any sort of native IM app support, it has to allow backgrounding so that someone can go off and do something else while their IM client sits in the background, tossing them notifications if they want them.

That's interesting, I use yahoo all the time and with push it's just as good as having it run in the background. I will agree that Apple needs to address mutitasking with OS 4.0 as RIM has made that almost a must have feature but I really have not missed it that much on my iPhone. I also agree with you that any IM client that requires the user to one specific device is really not worth having.

[mitchell209]

Yeah, to be honest, I want some form of Multitasking on the iPhone, but I don't miss it at all.. Push notifications were fine for me and they're even better now since I installed GriP from Cydia.

[F0nage]

Yes but the fact of the matter remains that a messaging client specific to one platform is irrelevant in the consumer market. How many threads are out there of people trying to get access to BBM on another device? Plenty. BBM is great for what it is, but as a general consumer that doesn't want to be confined to one platform it wouldn't be my preference no matter how good it is.

With RIM the point still is business use. But I think most of us are agreeing that a multi-platform multi-IM client that really works is needed for today's consumer use of a phone. However if you try to twist that around to be a criticism of BBM, it's really a disingenuous argument. The question should be why hasn't anybody written an IM that's as reliable, feature-rich, secure, and easy to use as BBM is, for other platforms.

And you really need to understand technical issues and infrastructure demands to know why that is, but most people don't think about that when they reply in these threads. All they think about is what they want. What they want isn't always reasonable. But that rarely matters