[gnirkatto]

Absolutely dislike the design changes:

group icon disappeared to side menu, in favour of a doubtful 'discover page' which is mainly sticker & feature promotion.

new group design: 4 (!) more taps needed to get to e.g. group images, lists etc.

Unless there are som hidden benefits on this new design, that I may have not discovered yet, I consider these changes counter productive.....want the old design back!

[spARTacus]

One hidden feature is comments on photos showing in the group chat. Something else I bet you won't like.

Posted via CB App for Android on Tab4 (interim Playbook replacement)

[gnirkatto]

'General' group chat no longer shows under 'chats', but shows as 'main page' when entering group. Strange, makes no sense imho.

[spARTacus]

A bunch of changes. For most I think it just takes some getting used to I think. There were some weird things with the UI before the update also that I didn't think made the most sense. I don't think anything with the new UI is drastically terrible. Just different and change. There must have been some people (to see comments on pictures in the group chat for example) that prefer it this way. For that example, I can understand why BlackBerry made that particular change since it keeps the group more collectively engaged (instead of side chats only in certain comment streams on certain pictures). I can only guess they have data to pour over for how people use the app and what works vs what does not, compared to what BlackBerry is trying to achieve with keeping user numbers and social engagement, etc...

Posted via CB App for Android on Tab4 (interim Playbook replacement)

[gnirkatto]

Well, all I can say is that groups was/has been the most intensely used feature for me and my BBM friends. Actually, it was one of the few reasons why I succeeded in maintaining a handful of users for BBM, who otherwise would have left the party long time ago already.

Therefore, hiding the group functions behind a couple of additional menus and taps, and making chat & image options less clear (imho), is not helpful, and I can see myself already struggling to convince my few remaining BBM friends that this is a good and meaningful change, and beneficial for them to getting used to it. And failing, because of lack of arguments.

[gnirkatto]

Next issue: Windows users get error messages, when pictures are being added to groups that they are members of.
So the WP client was not made compatible with the new bbm version.

Yes, bbm on WP has always been a POS, and WP is no longer liked by MS.

But: BlackBerry has to make their bbm clients work with each other, or else, EOLing the WP version would be the cleaner solution.

[wilkto]

And the app now loops from General discussion. Terrible update. It needed updating, not redesigning.

Posted via CB10

[kyleheney]

Group events aren't showing up in my BlackBerry Calendar app anymore. Very odd

[gnirkatto]

This BBM update is getting more and more negative reviews in play store, mainly because of the pictures, lists etc having disappeared behind the group logo/name, and many more klicks aree needed to get there.

Also, users complain about not even having found group images etc any longer, and when they were told they had to tap the group name first, they got really angry. 'Who on earth would think of that!' Was one of the more friendly comments.

Before other people here start to pay disrespect for such statments, consider the following:

Us BB aficionados are more 'complication tolerant' than others in all things BB.
BBM tries to play in a very competitive market.
Others are WAY more popular, on a global basis.
BBM always had a problem with attracting new users, due to its pin based system.
In many news articles etc, which deal with Whatsapp alternatives, in particular after the Facebook data handover announcement, BBM is not even listed as possible alternative.

So BBM continues to struggle, and then releases an update, that nobody asked for, and that makes it way more complicated to handle it.

Not understandable. I hope they will reconsider this.

[gnirkatto]

Groups came back to the main screen with today's update, which is a good thing. By why do you still hide images, lists etc behind the group logo / name, BlackBerry?
Still not good enough, want the older / better UI structure back.

Users are leaving, because of that issue.

[milfou]

Groups came back to the main screen with today's update, which is a good thing. By why do you still hide images, lists etc behind the group logo / name, BlackBerry?
Still not good enough, want the older / better UI structure back.

Users are leaving, because of that issue.

I much prefer the way they do it now. Separate notifications and comments for pictures was such a mess. Now it's all within the chat. If you want to find them you still can.

[gnirkatto]

I much prefer the way they do it now. Separate notifications and comments for pictures was such a mess. Now it's all within the chat. If you want to find them you still can.

I can.
Can all the other users who never will have patience with BlackBerry complications?
Half of my bbm friends (mostly on iOs), think this update was laughable, once I explained to them where the group goodies went. One left already, said he had enough with these bbm quirks, which he only tolerated to do me a personal favour and to stay in tough. He said now that enough was enough.

[milfou]

I can.
Can all the other users who never will have patience with BlackBerry complications?
Half of my bbm friends (mostly on iOs), think this update was laughable, once I explained to them where the group goodies went. One left already, said he had enough with these bbm quirks, which he only tolerated to do me a personal favour and to stay in tough. He said now that enough was enough.

Last time I used BBM on iOS it was absolute crap, maybe a year ago. I probably would leave too if it has not improved by a lot. You could not even silence group notifications.
It was complicated to begin with. If anything they are simplifying it now, which should have been done at first.

I have a BBM group with my friends, 16 of them. Only one person is on iOS and he left because he could not stand it. Rest are Android and a few on BB10 still.

[gnirkatto]

Last time I used BBM on iOS it was absolute crap, maybe a year ago. I probably would leave too if it has not improved by a lot. You could not even silence group notifications.
It was complicated to begin with. If anything they are simplifying it now, which should have been done at first.

I have a BBM group with my friends, 16 of them. Only one person is on iOS and he left because he could not stand it. Rest are Android and a few on BB10 still.

Well, I don't consider it simplification to hide popular group elements, which could be seen at a glance in the older version, behind logos and names, needing additional screen taps to access them ( providing you know where to tap ).

[milfou]

Well, I don't consider it simplification to hide popular group elements, which could be seen at a glance in the older version, behind logos and names, needing additional screen taps to access them ( providing you know where to tap ).

Pictures are already part of the chat. Other features are likely not used often.

[gnirkatto]

Pictures are already part of the chat. Other features are likely not used often.

So I have to keep the chat alive forever then to 'quickly' access pictures? And, have to scroll through tons of other pictures and irrelevant comments, in order to get to the one picture that I want to review?
Sorry this makes no sense at all.

[milfou]

So I have to keep the chat alive forever then to 'quickly' access pictures? And, have to scroll through tons of other pictures and irrelevant comments, in order to get to the one picture that I want to review?
Sorry this makes no sense at all.

The recent are there, which is what likely you want to see. Older ones are still there by hitting the group title. Point is this is a lot more similar to how other IM apps work. You think BlackBerry just did this without doing market studies? There where so many complaints about groups before. This is how whatsapp does it and they have at least 5 times the users.

What ever BlackBerry was doing it was not working to grow BBM. Might as well try new things.

I've used BBM since 2007 and so have my friends. Not one of them has complained about the new update. The way pictures notifications worked before made sense on BB10 but not on Android.

By the way just opening one picture in chat, you can scroll left right to see the rest. It really is not that complicated.

[gnirkatto]

I started this thread to express my dissatisfaction with the latest design changes.

You educated me as follows:

"I like it" (appreciated)
"The others do it in the same way" (don't care)
"My friends have not complained" (mine have, one left bbm because of it)

Alas, none of these arguments made me nor my friends like it.
Can we agree to disagree?

I think I'll call it a day.

[spARTacus]

The way the current functionality is designed into the UI doesn't bother me. Still a little quirky in my opinion but no deal breakers for me. There are tons of things I don't like with the UI for MS Excel, Project, and various other games and Apps, etc... For example, the CB App no longer lets you copy the url or comment on main posts in the same way that it used to. I've learned to ignore minor things for the most part and not let them bother me. For me, I've found that I am happier just dealing with them the way they are. For big items that are deal breakers for me, I leave or delete the app and be done with it. I don't see any of the current UI elements as deal breakers for me or for any of the folks that I am in BBM groups with.

Good luck.

Posted via CB App for Android on Tab4 (interim Playbook replacement)

[TheRealFixxxer]

Not sure if this is due to the most recent update, but is anyone else no longer able to leave the BBM Channel?

Every time I leave it when I open the app back up I'm once again a member of the channel.

~TheRealFixxxer

[kyleheney]

Okay so now my BBM calendar events ARE showing up in my BlackBerry Calendar app. No idea what has changed. Still can't create a BBM calendar event from the calendar all itself, which sucks, but it's getting better.

[gnirkatto]

This is related to the newest BBM version for iOS. It behaves differently (a tad better) on Android.

Well, now that a new major design change happened to BBM, I tend to believe that BB is going to finally kill BBM, due to sheer incompetence or ignorance of its software designers.

The design change that happened to BBM groups last year was already a disaster imho, as pictures etc. got hidden behind additional klicks and taps, that made many not so experienced BBM users not even find them any longer.

This latest update from a couple of days ago made it much worse. In the first place, you do no longer SEE that any groups exist. All you can do is to start a 'group chat', which, in the older versions, was just a multi person chat, and had nothing to do with groups.
This chat then also looks like a multi person chat, and not like a group, as it does not show a group logo (or placeholder), but bubbles with faces of chat participants.

OK, what next? Where are the groups? Me and my friends where absolutely clueless, and started to believe that BB decided to just get rid of groups completely. Nowhere was there an option to 'create a group'.

So what is the trick?

First, someone has to start such a multi person chat. While creating it, there is a switch, that needs to be activated. And only if this switch gets turned on, the chat magically turns into a 'group chat' as part of a newly created group.

Needless to say, that all group elements will then still be hidden behind a couple of pointless taps.

I seems as if BB are doing everything they can, to hide BBM groups and its features as good as they can, and even more with every new version they release.

THis design is utterly ridiculous, and will eventually kill BBM. My friends on iOS are stunned, and already call BBM the by far worst designed messenger on the market.