1. SolidOrange's Avatar
    i will start by saying that i have been a BB user since the 8330 curve was released. i am now on an S2, but i have still never used BBM! shocking, i know, but lately i have been trying to convince my 20+ BB friends to make the switch. however, none of them understand why BBM should be used instead of SMS. in fact, half of them don't even know what BBM is! we are all on VZW and have unlimited text so there is no cost to using SMS. i know BBM has no character limit and that you can attach files to messages but what other advantages are there? or should i just stick to texting?



    02-03-10 11:00 AM
  2. Masahiro's Avatar
    You could see when not only a contact receives a message, but also when it's opened and read. It's good to know if they're unavailable or trying to avoid a hard question. You could tell by looking at the little letters next to the messages. "D" means delivered, and "R" means read.

    It's also great for travelling, especially if your phone has wifi. Hook up to a hotel and enjoy free* international texting.

    *Subject to fees charged by the wireless internet provider

    I'm also guessing not all your friends have OS5. It's far easier to use BBM to send messages than to use unthreaded SMS.

    Then of course you have your custom status messages, groups and picture sharing, features I personality don't use often, but are popular nonetheless.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    02-03-10 11:10 AM
  3. jabbs1's Avatar
    One thing to add to that^^ you can see when the other person is typing something.
    02-03-10 11:15 AM
  4. Masahiro's Avatar
    Oh yes. That too. That, along with the message status indicator are the most crucial features to me.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    02-03-10 11:21 AM
  5. TaZ52083's Avatar
    One thing to add to that^^ you can see when the other person is typing something.
    I like that feature to plus it got upgraded which is getting more better but hate when rim servers no down

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    02-03-10 11:29 AM
  6. md0600's Avatar
    As with all the above if you have 5.0 you have the Groups option. "Any message you send to the group will go out to all members. This is helpful for lists for work, friends etc. and allows quick, instant communication. In the group area you can also send pictures, lists or calendars."
    02-03-10 12:15 PM
  7. Xpimp's Avatar
    Its just like texting but on steroids lol. But Masahiro summed it up pretty well.
    02-03-10 12:20 PM
  8. Radius's Avatar
    Let's not forget about voice chatting. You can record and send voice notes really quickly back and forth to people.
    02-03-10 12:39 PM
  9. thehammer69's Avatar
    i have also read somewhere that BBM is also a secure messaging system where only the sender and recipients can read the message. Supposedly the encryption is very hard to break.
    02-03-10 12:44 PM
  10. username0001's Avatar
    I thought the same thing but I am double checking with my "brain trust" of bb friends to be sure.
    02-03-10 12:47 PM
  11. amazinglygraceless's Avatar
    Biggest advantage IMO is the ability to chat with people all over the globe and
    incur no additional charge, unlike international SMS
    02-03-10 12:47 PM
  12. jaydee5799's Avatar
    If you have unlimited SMS you are lucky. I pay a bit extra every month to have 250 or 500 SMS a month without an exorbitant fee.

    However, for conversing with friends with Blackberries, there is nothing better for all the reasons listed above. Sending files is fast, there's no limit to message size or file size and you can send voice recordings as well.

    Wouldn't last a day without my BBM!
    02-03-10 12:51 PM
  13. Username00089's Avatar
    Pretty much the advantages as mentioned above but you get most of those same
    advantages using IM clients such as Yahoo, AIM, etc.
    02-03-10 12:51 PM
  14. username0001's Avatar
    and so says my bb guru:

    "bbm messages go over the bb network so therefore are encrypted/secure. sms is clear text over the network's carrier"
    02-03-10 12:58 PM
  15. jaydee5799's Avatar
    Really? You don't think BBM is more secure?

    HAHA! You beat me to it!!!!!
    I thought BBM was more secure. I agree with the poster above!
    Last edited by jaydee5799; 02-03-10 at 01:04 PM. Reason: Saw someone's post after I posted mine
    02-03-10 01:01 PM
  16. skatecrazy's Avatar
    Totally agree with everyone above. BBM is really IMing. It's like being on AIM or Google Talk or something like that, but just between bb users. I use it all the time - between work people and friends, it's quite convienent.

    but with it being secure - that's definitely something I've never heard of or thought of before. But here's the kicker - are the message on BBM secure from even your own IT department if you are on BES?
    02-03-10 01:11 PM
  17. Username00089's Avatar
    Totally agree with everyone above. BBM is really IMing. It's like being on AIM or Google Talk or something like that, but just between bb users. I use it all the time - between work people and friends, it's quite convienent.

    but with it being secure - that's definitely something I've never heard of or thought of before. But here's the kicker - are the message on BBM secure from even your own IT department if you are on BES?
    I believe on BES, IT can indeed log your messages.
    02-03-10 01:13 PM
  18. Desconocido's Avatar
    I can't believe no one has pointed this out yet (forgive me if you have), but there is no character limit like with SMS, on Verizon anyway.

    Plus, you have the emotions icons. I love those things!
    02-03-10 01:21 PM
  19. jabbs1's Avatar
    I can't believe no one has pointed this out yet (forgive me if you have), but there is no character limit like with SMS, on Verizon anyway.

    Plus, you have the emotions icons. I love those things!
    Lol did you not read the first post?
    02-03-10 01:34 PM
  20. Xopher's Avatar
    Some things that a group of my friends and I do with BBM. We have a BBM Group set up.

    We can add events to the calendar, so if there is someplace we all want to meet up, its in the calendar. For a Christmas party, we had a list set up so everyone knew what to bring to the party (so everyone wouldn't show up with the same thing). We post pics to share with the group, and have group chats where we can all see what others are writing and everyone is in the conversation.

    SMS would be just between two people. A BBM group would be including everyone at the same time.

    Posted from my BlackBerry using BerryBlab
    02-03-10 02:05 PM
  21. Radius's Avatar
    I can't believe no one has pointed this out yet (forgive me if you have), but there is no character limit like with SMS, on Verizon anyway.

    Plus, you have the emotions icons. I love those things!
    I am pretty sure there is a character limit per message. A guy here at work was BBM'ing his wife and hit a limit when he typed a huge amount in.

    For PIN messages it's different though, there is no character limit.
    02-03-10 02:08 PM
  22. cardu3851's Avatar
    Bbm is addictive. When bbm went down and I had to resort to txt'ng, I HATED it. Just get started, get ur friends hooked. You'll love it

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    02-03-10 06:59 PM
  23. Ibn la Ahad's Avatar
    You could see when not only a contact receives a message, but also when it's opened and read. It's good to know if they're unavailable or trying to avoid a hard question. You could tell by looking at the little letters next to the messages. "D" means delivered, and "R" means read.

    It's also great for travelling, especially if your phone has wifi. Hook up to a hotel and enjoy free* international texting.

    *Subject to fees charged by the wireless internet provider

    I'm also guessing not all your friends have OS5. It's far easier to use BBM to send messages than to use unthreaded SMS.

    Then of course you have your custom status messages, groups and picture sharing, features I personality don't use often, but are popular nonetheless.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    I think this isn't correct, since BIS doesn't work over WiFi. Correct me if I'm wrong
    02-03-10 07:09 PM
  24. Andy Thatcher's Avatar
    I live in Florida, my brother in Dubai, my sister is back home in the UK and I have friends in various other from Germany to New Zealand.

    BBM just makes communication easier and that magic work convenient.
    02-03-10 07:55 PM
  25. T�nis's Avatar
    I use yahoo, msn, and aim primarily bc I chat from my BB to contacts who are on their computers. However, I AM excited by the encryption of bbm mentioned above ... I wish bbm was also an IM client my contacts could download to their computers and use it to communicate with me when I'm on my BlackBerry.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    02-03-10 08:05 PM
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