[nickthebold]

Is BBM useless for most people as they don't have many friends etc with blackberries? I don't know anyone else with a blackberry (although I am 20 so most people my age have iphone/android) and I've never used BBM on my 9900 ever..ahah I really hope a lot of people pick up blackberry 10 or BBM becomes cross platform somehow

[rtergdvasdfg]

I'm in the same boat as you. I've read all about how wonderful BBM is, but I've never had the opportunity to use it as I'm the only person in my family and circle of friends that has a BlackBerry.

I have managed to get just about everyone to switch to Whatsapp, but that's not as fully featured as BBM.

It's hard to get people to change once they're really used to something, not to mention the lock-in that comes with app ecosystems.

[blackburberry]

Is BBM useless for most people as they don't have many friends etc with blackberries?

Within the BBM app:
Under the feature invite to BBM /add a contact to text within BBM / you can add your non BBM contacts by phone number. That way you can centralize all your text contacts within one application, BBM . That makes BBM pretty useful.

[West Coast Flavor]

I love BBM. Especially when you and your girlfriend have it. All you really need is one person, Imo. When business picks up, I will add a 9930 to my current plan. Better believe I'm going to be on bbm with x___

[rtergdvasdfg]

Within the BBM app:
Under the feature invite to BBM /add a contact to text within BBM / you can add your non BBM contacts by phone number. That way you can centralize all your text contacts within one application, BBM . That makes BBM pretty useful.

If I do this, what happens then with the Text Messages app? Do messages get sent to both (resulting in redundant notifications) or are they only routed to BBM?

[dictoresno]

i went from having 95 BBM friends, to maybe a dozen before i left. everyone left for iphones and some for android.

[JasW]

Oddly enough, my BBM use, which had been declining due to the number of colleagues, friends, and family abandoning the BB platform, picked up substantially last year when my wife's iPhone 3GS fell in the bathtub and I convinced her to get a white 9810.

Then my BBM use fell off a cliff when she decided she'd had enough of the 9810 and bought an iPhone 4S a few months ago.

I deleted BBM from my 9810 not long after. Nobody there. And I'm not into making BBM "friends" with anonymous strangers on message boards.

[ajst222]

Kind of...I mean since BlackBerry isn't the most popular anymore (in North America), there will be less and less people who you know that have a BlackBerry. At one point (like 3 years ago or so), BlackBerry was the shizz and everyone had one. Now everyone seems to have an iPhone.

[blackburberry]

If I do this, what happens then with the Text Messages app? Do messages get sent to both (resulting in redundant notifications) or are they only routed to BBM?

No redundancy, I moved the text app to another folder and just operate out of BBM

[nickthebold]

Is it possible to add your entire contact list to bbm instead of one by one..abit tedious.. Or is the idea just to have the main contacts in bbm?

[blackburberry]

I just discovered this feature not too long ago myself. I added my usual text contacts one by one. It is a bit tedious but I don't know of any other method.

Good luck

[geoffsdad]

Back in the day, most of my friends had Blackberry phones so BBM was a blast, especially when 5.0 hit and then we were able to create groups. They all use Android now. Most of them agree that cross platform apps like Touch and whatsapp just aren't the same. If you want to build your BBM contact list, you will have to work at it. I have made some friends in the BBM music app, you can try there. There is also a couple of BBM chat apps that you can meet alot of different people with the same interests. Smoothie is one. You have to be careful as there are alot of pervs on there. Just by visiting smoothie on a regular basis and chatting with people of like interests, we were able to form a BBM group of about 12 ppl that we have held together for awhile. Good luck!

[DonnyVantage]

Love BBM, we only lost one buddy to Android but he's regretting it. We had a bachelor party in Vegas, BBM added so much to it, unreal! Pool side BBM pictures, where are you, who's getting beer, who's round is it... Felt like we should have made a RIM commercial based on that trip.

[SHOBOKSHY]

I use bbm everyday nd i am 18. All people in my age in Dubai have blackberries. i used to have hundred 120 contacts, nd now i have a hundred. Anyways bbm is one of the reasons i am sticking with blackberry

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk

[Majestic Lion]

Is BBM useless for most people as they don't have many friends etc with blackberries? I don't know anyone else with a blackberry...

I ≠ most people

[newcollector]

I do not have but a few friends on BBM...most everyone is on another platform. I have just added them to my BBM list.

[conkybubs]

I may be in the minority but my BBM contact list is steadily growing, from about 20 a year ago to over 40 now. I live in a relatively small town in Ontario (~4000 pop.) and pretty much everyone in the 35+ crowd has a BB as it is THE way to communicate around here, arrange get togethers, keep track of the kids running wild in the streets, etc.....it's a very tightly knit, social place to live. The odd person in the 'group' has switched to iPhone or Android but many come back within months since they feel left out of all the BBM action!

[jivegirl14]

I just discovered this feature not too long ago myself. I added my usual text contacts one by one. It is a bit tedious but I don't know of any other method.

Good luck

I believe with the inviting text contacts method your messages are still counted as texts not BBMs and thus subject to any extra costs. So while BBM was free if you had a BB data package and you could do messages of any length, I believe when you invite contacts it's treated as texting (with the message limitations).

One of the benefits of BBM was the unlimited messaging length, attachements etc. At least that was how it worked when I used to have BBM and invited my iphone friends. In the end I just texted them and now I don't use BBM (the #of contacts I had on it dropped to two or three as they all left and went to iphone and Android). So I was already using What's App.

[2c]

so true i have only 20 bbm contacts and mostly people now use whats app.

i am with bb just because its awesome. no one can beat the keyboard of rim.

[PedroBorgas]

I only use BBM to "text" my cousin, who is from another carrier.

Even though i only use for 1 person, it helps me save a lot of money, so yeah its useful

Sent from a beautiful but old BB 8520 or a new and shinny PB 2.0

[shemaree09]

BBM is pretty useless for me. I've gone from 15 BBM friends to zero.

But it doesn't matter because I have unlimited texts, twitter, facebook, etc...

I would like to see BBM become its own social network or something more interesting in the future

[Frazberry]

here in jamaica, its a totally different story. people here will get androids and sell them for a BB! its just the way of social communicating. almost every company here has a facebook page, so for us facebook is like one big billboard! if you want to know whats going on in a person life, bbm is the place to be.

people also find it easier to share their pin instead of a phone number. promoter love it for its capability to spread the word of thier parties with a simple broadcast message

[Eden110]

I have absolutely no friends between my hometown and a big city I go to for college that have a blackberry device. Therefore, I have never been able to use BBM (which I keep hearing is great).

Oh well.

[Frazberry]

the best feature of BBM is recent updates. if that wasnt their it would be a regular messenger like yahoo and msn

[blackburberry]

I believe with the inviting text contacts method your messages are still counted as texts not BBMs and thus subject to any extra costs. So while BBM was free if you had a BB data package and you could do messages of any length, I believe when you invite contacts it's treated as texting (with the message limitations).

That is correct. BUT at least you can manage all your texting contacts in one place. Sorry for my delay in responding...