[jmorgan456]

Squatters cannot be choosers. As long as BlackBerry is dependent on Google's software we will see more of these mandated restrictions.

Well this might be a reason to break out my Classic. I assume BB10 will be unaffected. Hopefully the program will be fixed before EOL for the Classic.

[anon(10562251)]

Even if BlackBerry built their own SMS and Dialer app for Android they would still have the current issue.
Google dictates access to core services in Android.

Says who? If you read the developer note from Google, issued in October 2018 (yep, that's how old this issue is) only apps that have default permission to be SMS or Dialer apps will have access. How is BlackBerry supposed to have any access with no SMS app and no Dialer?

BlackBerry sat on its hands. I wish their licensees the best of luck wooing the last BB10 customers to Android with a crippled "Hub" that has essentially been reduced to an email client and redundant notification filter.

[bb10adopter111]

Even if BlackBerry built their own SMS and Dialer app for Android they would still have the current issue.
Google dictates access to core services in Android.

I think that what Dendrion01 is suggesting is that, if BlackBerry had built it's own SMS and dialer apps, it might have been able to integrate them into the Hub properly. I don't know if that's allowed by Android, but it's an interesting thought.

I'm also not sure what Google's motivation is for the new restrictions. It could be a legitimate security and/or usability issue, if some apps were using SMS or the dialer inappropriately, or it could just be an aggressive "land grab" by Google to further it's own business objectives, which is my suspicion.

Posted with my trusty Z10

[Chuck Finley69]

I think that what Dendrion01 is suggesting is that, if BlackBerry had built it's own SMS and dialer apps, it might have been able to integrate them into the Hub properly. I don't know if that's allowed by Android, but it's an interesting thought.

I'm also not sure what Google's motivation is for the new restrictions. It could be a legitimate security and/or usability issue, if some apps were using SMS or the dialer inappropriately, or it could just be an aggressive "land grab" by Google to further it's own business objectives, which is my suspicion.

Posted with my trusty Z10

That could get us sent text messages on devices where the user chooses to make Hub the default SMS client. It wouldn't help at all for users who prefer a different SMS client or who just can't be bothered to switch from their default. It also wouldn't help at all with Call Logs.

It would also create extra certification risk for our hardware partners. When selling devices to carriers, the carriers might impose their lengthy SMS/MMS/RCS certification requirements on Hub.

I borrowed @LiamQ reply to similar question in different thread as it appears to be part of why BB has taken it's current approach....

[bb10adopter111]

I borrowed @LiamQ reply to similar question in different thread as it appears to be part of why BB has taken it's current approach....

Thanks. The carrier cert issue is certainly reason enough to slam the brakes hard on the idea.

I'm afraid we're simply reaching the limit of apps in Android. Only an OEM building their own phone with their own OS can really control the UX.

The Hub is doomed in Android beyond aggregating email, as far as I'm concerned. And that also means we're stuck with Android's noisy and spammy push notification system. Very depressing.

Posted with my trusty Z10

[anon(10562251)]

Thanks. The carrier cert issue is certainly reason enough to slam the brakes hard on the idea.

Posted with my trusty Z10

Except saying it's "too hard" is just another excuse for not developing their own SMS app. It also has nothing to do with the Dialer logs. Samsung does it. If you want access, you need to duplicate these functions and write them into your own Android build. Not piggy back off others.

It's amazing BlackBerry would turn around and blame Google because they didn't get special treatment, as if that was their only option. It's extremely disappointing.

[Munchkinguy]

I have no idea how to voice my disappointment to Google directly. In the meantime, I sent them some feedback through the feedback form on this help page: https://support.google.com/googlepla.../9047303?hl=en

[mvsalvino]

The era of smartphone pointlessness has arrived.

If there was any doubt that the good folks at Google want us clicking endlessly from app to app rather than actually concentrating and getting work done, here is our answer.

I used to be a business "crackberry" addict. My berry was in my hand 14+ hours a day and everyone could count on me responding to every email message thoroughly within 10-15 minutes. But Google Android is my methedone. It has cured my addition completely. When I carry my KEYone, I no longer even bother to check my email, but just wait until I return to my computer.

I'm. Just. Done.

That doesn't mean that I will not own a phone. I'll likely own a midrange Android and/or 3 year old iPhone, but from this point forward, they are just for occasional app use as far as I'm concerned.

It's ironic, but my Blackberry Android KEYone smartphone in 2019 is less valuable to me in a typical day than my Blackberry 6210 was in 2004. Sure there's a million things that my KEYone will do that the 6210 couldn't dream of, but none of them actually make me more money, which is the point of a business phone, as far as I'm concerned.

Yep. I'm seriously just considering moving to a dumbphone purely for the simplicity and reliability of responding to calls and texts, everything else be damned and just wait until I'm on the computer.

I am very interested in the various KaiOS devices, unfortunately most aren't available in the US.

[mvsalvino]

Thanks for nothing BlackBerry. They should have built their own SMS and Dialer App four years ago instead of piggy backing off Google. Now the HUB has been relegated to the same category as all the other garbage apps that snoop on your sms and call logs.

And as icing on the cake, they waited the full 90 days to comply. Apparently to help sell as many Key2 LE's as possible before this hit the fan. It seems some of the executives at BlackBerry haven't left their ivory tower yet, and still believe they are a phone company - by asking for an excemption to keep using these permissions. Pathetic. When is BlackBerry going to get real and do what is necessary to make their HUB work properly on Android. Even if it's just for basic communications like email, text, and phone calls!

Agree. The stock dialer and sms apps are junk in my opinion. The dialer constantly freezes and glitches. I have "settled" for yaata for sms and as an app it is ok, but I just want a simple sms app that integrates into the system - that's the whole point of buying a BlackBerry, to get a complete professional product.

[Polaris2222]

Liam - can we assume that BlackBerry won't be developing their own sms/phone apps that fit within the Google restrictions?

[app_Developer]

I may be missing something but why can’t they just build SMS into the Hub app itself? The hub app could be your SMS app. I don’t understand why they don’t do that.

[RK_BB]

I may be missing something but why can’t they just build SMS into the Hub app itself? The hub app could be your SMS app. I don’t understand why they don’t do that.

Read here:

/blackberry-hub-plus-suite-f459/leaders-followers-blackberry-hub-ouch-1163972/

[moosbb]

Liam - can we assume that BlackBerry won't be developing their own sms/phone apps that fit within the Google restrictions?

Yep you can!
And that's an old news... As we all want that since start, but BB always give the excuse of the additional works needed to comply all the carriers requirements and validation.
And a little fish as BB obviously can't achieve what the other big players can do with their own apps and OS customization.

I do fear we stuck there with a crippled HUB

[app_Developer]

Read here:

/blackberry-hub-plus-suite-f459/leaders-followers-blackberry-hub-ouch-1163972/

Yeah, I’d agree they should build their own SMS app. I’m questioning why it has to actually be a separate app. Hub itself could be that app.

Of course it takes work and it all depends on how serious this whole BBAndroid program really is

[RK_BB]

I’m questioning why it has to actually be a separate app. Hub itself could be that app.

It can be and that would certainly be ideal but the same carrier certification requirements will apply, the details of such are shared in that thread.

[bb10adopter111]

Agree. The stock dialer and sms apps are junk in my opinion. The dialer constantly freezes and glitches. I have "settled" for yaata for sms and as an app it is ok, but I just want a simple sms app that integrates into the system - that's the whole point of buying a BlackBerry, to get a complete professional product.

That's definitely what I want, too, but I don't think BlackBerry can pull it off. Even if they build a great dialer and SMS app and fully integrated it into the Hub, like we would like, there's no certainly that carriers would support it, resulting in phones that don't make calls or handle SMS (iPod Touch).

Samsung and the other big players can build their own and coerce the carriers into certifying them, but a small player like BlackBerry has no leverage.

Posted with my trusty Z10

[anon(10562251)]

Of course it takes work and it all depends on how serious this whole BBAndroid program really is

And that's the problem.

The "bummer" here is not Google, it's that BlackBerry seems content on watching what little remains of its mobile/licensing business sail into the sunset, while Android continues to evolve and progress.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Its 2019 and they're probably just winding the whole thing down once and for all, just as they are doing with BBOS and BB10.

[bb10adopter111]

And that's the problem.

The "bummer" here is not Google, it's that BlackBerry seems content on watching what little remains of its mobile/licensing business sail into the sunset, while Android continues to evolve and progress.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Its 2019 and they're probably just winding the whole thing down once and for all, just as they are doing with BBOS and BB10.

That's certainly a possibility, and it might make the most sense for BlackBerry as a business. But it's also true that BlackBerry Limited cannot simply do what it wants with Android and carriers, no matter how much money they spend. It's not an ecosystem over which they have any control at all.

Posted with my trusty Z10

[anon(10562251)]

But it's also true that BlackBerry Limited cannot simply do what it wants with Android and carriers, no matter how much money they spend. It's not an ecosystem over which they have any control at all.

Posted with my trusty Z10

I realize that. But that also means you need to adapt. Dragging your feet along while the rest of the pack moves ahead is obviously no recipe for success.

Perhaps the whole concept of the HUB and what the BlackBerry suite of apps needs to be is what needs to be re-thought, if the technicalities of making this work, even on a drastically reduced scale, are as "insurmountable" as some here would have us believe.

[bb10adopter111]

I realize that. But that also means you need to adapt. Dragging your feet along while the rest of the pack moves ahead is obviously no recipe for success.

Perhaps the whole concept of the HUB and what the BlackBerry suite of apps needs to be is what needs to be re-thought, if the technicalities are as "insurmountable" as some here would have us believe.

I am happy to adapt. I have used hundreds of tech platforms over the past twenty years, and learn new ones all the time. I have been experimenting with Android for over a year and have not found anything that works as well as BB10. When that is no longer possible, or when something better comes along, I will change my usage with no regrets, like I did when I moved from BBOS to BB10 after a miserable experiment with iOS in 2011.

Posted with my trusty Z10

[conite]

I realize that. But that also means you need to adapt. Dragging your feet along while the rest of the pack moves ahead is obviously no recipe for success.

What other HUBs are moving ahead?

[conite]

And that's the problem.

The "bummer" here is not Google, it's that BlackBerry seems content on watching what little remains of its mobile/licensing business sail into the sunset, while Android continues to evolve and progress.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Its 2019 and they're probably just winding the whole thing down once and for all, just as they are doing with BBOS and BB10.

Since BlackBerry Android is Android, it moves along with it.

You're really only talking about an email client.

[anon(10562251)]

Since BlackBerry Android is Android, it moves along with it.

You're really only talking about an email client.

Looks like a rename is in order. BlackBerry Email instead of BlackBerry Hub. I should have seen that one coming. LOL. Is that rename part of the Beta suite? Perhaps it should be.

[conite]

Looks like a rename is in order. BlackBerry Email instead of BlackBerry Hub. I should have seen that one coming. LOL. Is that rename part of the Beta suite? Perhaps it should be.

The rest is a notification aggregator. It always has been, and I don't think it was ever intended to be anything more. No need to reinvent the wheel 20 times.

[bb10adopter111]

The rest is a notification aggregator. It always has been, and I don't think it was ever intended to be anything more. No need to reinvent the wheel 20 times.

Is it possible to aggregate ALL notifications in the Hub? I would dearly love to aggregate all Android notifications silently in a location where I could always retrieve the history and NEVER have to use the notification tray, which is a) distracting and b) doesn't preserve history.

Posted with my trusty Z10