[TheGraduate]

Have some of you abandoned the OS10 version in favor of the Android version already? How is your overall experience with the Android version on a Passport as far as hub integration, power drain, responsiveness compared to the native app?

Also, were you able to migrate your chat history and graphics... how?

Posted via CB10

[TheBirdDog]

Have some of you abandoned the OS10 version in favor of the Android version already? How is your overall experience with the Android version on a Passport as far as hub integration, power drain, responsiveness compared to the native app?

Also, were you able to migrate your chat history and graphics... how?

Posted via CB10

I thought I'd switch to the Android route now because I would rather drop Whatsapp than BB10 if I am forced to choose. And I could do that now if the Android option didn't work instead of getting accustomed to it first. I should make clear that I was a very light user of Whatsapp before and have just started to use it more to test it out (and also some friends invited me to join a group chat which is my main motivation for this 'test').

First off, I am very impressed with the very minimal amount of battery drain. I haven't used it much today, but it does need to run in the background and so far, after about 6.5 hours, it's only used 0.25% which seems very reasonable. I don't notice any additional drain after having installed it which I certainly can't say for every Android app I've installed and granted permissions to run in the background.

Hub Integration? No. You get a "notification" in the default "notifications" part of your hub with a small blip of who the last message is from. You don't get the toast notification at the top of the screen from anywhere in the OS like you do with BBM or text messages. You do still seem to get notifications in a timely manner though which is really the best I could expect from an Android based messaging app running on a different OS. There are still bugs there though...*

Responsiveness and general fluidity of the app is not bad. Honestly, no complaints there. There is a strange habit that the app has of chopping the conversation up with a big bar with the overly obvious "you have x unread messages" but that seems to be the norm for Whatsapp, not a compatibility issue.

For migrating chat history and pictures, no go for me. I don't know if I should have backed them up to a different location or something first with the BB10 version. Either way, I'm not sure that this is possible but it wasn't too big of a deal for me either way. Note, without the "patch" called "WAA Fixer" from the Beta Zone, you will not be able to send pictures. And, even with it, sometimes it is a bit buggy and you need to re-send them multiple (like many many) times.

*The biggest gripe I have is a bug with the notification settings. No matter what I seem to try, it always reverts back to the default which is a very annoying sound called "Pixie Dust" and regardless of how many times I've tried to change them in the app, or in my BB10 sound profile settings, it keeps reverting back to this. My only solution was to disable sounds altogether which, as you can imagine, for a messaging platform, is not ideal.

I just realized, you are asking about running it on the Passport. I'm actually running it on a Classic but I don't imagine the experience would differ much regardless of the BB10 device you use. The glitches will probably remain the same though the performance is decent otherwise. All in all, if I was dependent on Whatsapp and used it all the time, I'd probably be pretty annoyed and end up finding a better solution (ie. Purchase a non-BB10 device) but, as someone who doesn't really use Whatsapp all that much, this will suffice for me. It's much the same as Facebook for me. I still have the old app on my device. If someone tries to contact me, I get notified and can reply. It's not the best, but it works. And there are other methods of communication that I do prefer BB10 for and Facebook and Whatsapp do not supercede those.

[TheGraduate]

Thanks for the detailed response.

Did you also try making voice calls with it?

WhatsApp has become a big deal for anyone that has business or friends based outside of the US. In the last few years, it has become imperative to my US based international business with many clients in the EMEA region. A compromised solution without the ability to upload photos/videos, and inability to make voice calls would not be acceptable. As much as I have always been a die-hard BlackBerry fan I will need to start migrating to a Priv or possibly the Rome/Mercury if and when it becomes available, hopefully before the WhatsApp BBOS EOL.

Unfortunately, migrating to any Android platform device means a bigger compromise, this time in enterprise email quality since our IT BYOD policy requires the use of GFE.

Posted via CB10

[TheBirdDog]

As far as I can tell, the voice calling seems to work fine. Could only test with my wife's phone but I don't see why it wouldn't work the same with all contacts.

As I mentioned before though, I have disabled the sounds so this would make the calls feature much less useful unless I were already in a chat with the other person.

If it's something that you depended on for business use or if it were just an integral part of your daily communications, you are probably better off to plan for your move to Android and watch for those deals (the Priv is currently on sale at shopblackberry.com).