[just_luc]

With cross platform BBM now upon us, I've moved nearly all of my IM communication over, and I have no regrets, but it got me thinking.. if I were to drop all other IM services completely, what features would I miss from some of those other guys?

There's no question BBM offers the best IM experience, but there are a few things that some of the other IM providers do better, things that Blackberry could improve upon..

Group messaging:

BBM groups work well, but they could stand to improve in a few key ways.. here are some things I would like to see added, especially as BBM is rolled out cross platform!


1 - Unread message indicator :

What's app has this one down.. sometimes a group conversation can go on without you for quite sometime before you check your device and decide to chime in. With what's app groups, when you enter an ongoing conversation it loads where it was when you last had the conversation open, and shows you a gray bar indicating there are unread messages below that line.. you are then able to scroll down and get caught up

Attachment 195738

Currently, in BBM groups the conversation loads to the end, and you need to scroll up and try to figure out which messages are new..

Point one for what's app here!



2 - Read receipts for multiple recipients:

This one goes to facebook chat... BBM has always been famous for the little 'D' and 'R' indicating a message has been delivered and read, but in BBM groups this functionality is lost.. there's no indication if one, any or all of the group members have read your message.. facebook chat has got the solution to this one.. after you send a message, the names up the recipients show up next to "seen by" nice and small, in light gray below the message as each person reads it, in the order they read it.. A nice, simple display in which the sender can easily see if his/her message has been read and by who..



A point for facebook chat here!



3 - Name aware notifications:

This one goes to campfire.. many of you may not be familiar with campfire, it's a little less known, but it's a very adequate cross platform group chat service.. it's not an always on servcie like IM, more like a meeting room you log into when you want to chat with other members of a group.. it's primarily web based, but there are now several 3rd party mobile clients for those who wish to stay constantly connected or connected on the go.. Anyway this isn't an infomercial for campfire, it's certainly no BBM but they do have one key feature that makes my list.. name aware notifications! Like any other group chat, as people are going back and forth there's a little ping or chime with each message.. however not every conversation in a group will concern you, so maybe you leave it running in the background and aren't really paying attention or checking with each chime.. i'm sure we all do this, but with campfire when someone types your name as part of a message it lights up the window and makes a different tone.. prompting you to know right away someone is talking to, (or maybe about) you.. very useful!

Point campfire!




4 - selective notification intervals:

I don't know that any of the big IM services currently have this right, but think in terms of the email notifications for subscribed threads in your favorite forum.. when someone comments on a thread you are subscribed to you get a notification, and many people might comment after that, but it doesn't notify you again for each post.. notifications are muted until the next time you visit that thread..

As we discussed earlier, sometimes a conversation in a BBM group doesn't really concern you.. and can go on for quite some time.. all the while your pocket is going ping.. ping.. ping.. ping.. over and over again as messages go back and forth.. for some this is fine, others, like myself unfortunately have to silence groups.. Id love to stay on top of what's happening in the groups, but I'm often with clients, and while I don't mind a ping here and there.. when they're coming a mile a minute as a group talks back and forth they are just too intrusive to my real life conversation.. so I propose a drop down menu for group notifications.. on.. off.. or one per group (working title). With one per group selected, you would get a standard notification when someone chats in one of your groups.. the LED would flash.. you'd see the notification on the home screen and all that jazz.. but as other group members responded to that first message, if you hadn't gone in to clear the first one yet, you wouldn't receive any audible tones for the subsequent messages in that group.. the notification would remain in your hub, and update with each message.. so you knew there was something to read when you got back to your device, you would continue to see the toast notifications pop up so you could keep up with the conversation that way if you were choosing to do so.. but it wouldn't keep ping-ing away in your pocket.. if you haven't had time to read the first ping yet, you don't have time to respond to ping 2 through 30 either.. so why make a lot of noise?

Point forum notifications!



Automatic status:

My memory of legacy device features is starting to fade, but I think I remember having an option on legacy devices, to have the phone automatically set my BBM status to away when I was on the phone.. I beleive this is absent on BB10, but i'm not real heart broken about it.. I never took advantage of that one, if I'm awake.. chances are I'm going to answer your message within a few seconds.. maybe a few minutes if I'm on the phone.. but what I would like to see is a tie in with bedside mode.. when I slide down that little shade and put the phone to sleep.. it silences all notifications (expect for phone calls) and turns off the led.. as such i'm not responding to any incoming BBM's.. I know I can manually set my BBM status to away, or make a custom ZzzzZzzz status before I put it into bedsside mode.. but I don't.. I've tried, but the problem was I always forgot to change it back in the morning.. so, like almost everyone I leave it set to available, and about 5 out of 7 days a week, when I check my phone in the morning.. there's message from someone (maybe a night owl or someone from a diffrent time zone) that says "hey.. you awake?" sent hours earlier.. Obviously when they see I don't read the message they get it, but why not have an option for the device to automatically change my status to asleep or away when I draw down that shade and put the device in bedside mode?



Well that's my list.. agree? disagree? sound off below.. and post your BBM improvement idea's as well!


Update: Nov 19th 2013:

We've merged a few threads together here, so you might noticed there's a few spots where the conversation doesn't quite line up, but overall there's been some great discussion, so lets keep it going - I know there's more idea's out there.

Reminder, this thread is for suggestions for the improvement of BBM as a whole, theres plenty of threads to complain in or report bugs in, this isn't it. Let's talk about new features etc but keep it relating to general BBM, not specific missing features on any one platform!

Most importantly, have fun and get your idea's out there! - I'd like to at some point send a link to this thread into BlackBerry and let them know what their biggest fans want to see next!

[m4salman]

Screensharing capability from voice call over BBM, and not only video call!

[pkcable]

Excellent ideas! Nothing good to add but I love the ideas you are suggesting.

[labyrinth9]

I think it would be nice to see the local time of the chat recipient.

Posted via CB10

[just_luc]

I think it would be nice to see the local time of the chat recipient.

Posted via CB10

I like that!

Keep em coming people.. if we can get enough idea's in this thread i'll see to it that it gets forwarded to Blackberry for review.

[schmeat]

A feature is like to see included (involving bbm) would be: when I create a new message in the hub. I'd like to be able to select bbm users as well as sms users.

It would help me stream line group messages to people.

Your bbm recipients would receive your message as a broad cast while the rest receive it from sms or another app they're using.

I think it would be nice to see the local time of the chat recipient.

Posted via CB10

That's already there. Lol.

Posted via CB10

[labyrinth9]

A feature is like to see included (involving bbm) would be: when I create a new message in the hub. I'd like to be able to select bbm users as well as sms users.

It would help me stream line group messages to people.

Your bbm recipients would receive your message as a broad cast while the rest receive it from sms or another app they're using.



That's already there. Lol.

Posted via CB10

It is?

Screen shot please?


Posted via CB10

[just_luc]

It is?

Screen shot please?


Posted via CB10

If you open the the contacts details page it will show their country and time IF they have enabled that setting in their BBM options.. it's not shown in the chat window though if that's what you meant.







Posted via CB10

[Ronic]

Increase the file limits like seriously, most 320 kbps songs are at least 6 MB, I find myself switching to Whatsapp too often to send files to my friends

Posted via CB10

[si001]

Push to talk! I was a fan of 10-4, it was an option Bell customer could have on their contract, very useful on job sites, would love to see it implemented to BBM.

[labyrinth9]

If you open the the contacts details page it will show their country and time IF they have enabled that setting in their BBM options.. it's not shown in the chat window though if that's what you meant.







Posted via CB10

Nice! So it would be easy to put it near the User's name during actually chat too. Would other people have a utility for this as well?

Thanks for showing me!

Posted via CB10

[MadMarti]

Yeah, push to talk like now implemented in WhatsApp would be really nice. It is kinda implemented but needs more taps than on WA. Also in Groups you cannot attach Voice Notes right now.

Posted via CB10

[dracolnyte]

Did a search on the first page of BBM general chat, didnt come across a thread for posting up suggestions and improvements to future updates, so I thought I'd start one. We all know that BBRY monitors crackberry forums for issues, bugs, and suggestions for improvements, so why not consolidate them all into one thread for their ease of viewing and tracking?

To remain competitive in this segment, I think BBRY should add these features, or fix these issues:

1. Increase file transfer limit from 6mb to at least 25mb (whatsapp's limit is at 16mb)
2. Push-To-Talk (currently quite popular on WeChat, and newly implemented on Whatsapp)
3. Able to send more than just voice notes in multi-chat/groups like: files, location, videos... etc
4. fix marketing material, where it says "able to transfer files over cross platform BBM" in the press release - this is untrue, only BB10 devices have the ability to send files and other content over BBM. Android and iOS can only transfer voice notes and pictures
5. Perhaps a time stamp for when the message was read? (similar to whatsapp's 'last seen')
6. add the option to remove BBM previews when someone messages you in the BBM app

that's to start, feel free to add

[jsilvey2351]

I'm surprised the time stamp when read isn't on there. On BlackBerry <7.0 you could scroll to the spot and see the time in which it was read. I do agree if this isn't on there. Small, subtle feature that I rely on.

Posted via CB10

[Mel25]

I'm surprised the time stamp when read isn't on there. On BlackBerry <7.0 you could scroll to the spot and see the time in which it was read. I do agree if this isn't on there. Small, subtle feature that I rely on.

Posted via CB10

U relied on timestamp really?

Posted via CB10

[SoCalRedbird]

Add a way to automatically populate a list of friends who use the program (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp). Inviting them to download the program, then invite you with a "PIN" number is tedious and behind the times.

Posted via CB10

[dracolnyte]

add more emoticons such as ones from legacy devices

[jsilvey2351]

Add a way to automatically populate a list of friends who use the program (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp). Inviting them to download the program, then invite you with a "PIN" number is tedious and behind the times.

Posted via CB10

Considering that BlackBerry is known for security and being more private this would go against that philosophy. There is a suggested spot inside BBM based on email addresses within the contacts application, but to just have my name and pin out there would be quite annoying. However that is just my opinion, but I'd assume most would agree.

Posted via CB10

[dracolnyte]

increase BBM group size to 40+, currently whatsapp supports 30, but wechat supports up to 40

support for real gif images. current marketing material (for all platforms) says it supports GIF images but once uploaded, it is a static image and it saves as a static image

[dracolnyte]

Please fix this bug in the hub where I would get a BBM preview even though I am talking to the same guy already. better yet, turn off all previews in the hub's main view because you pretty much see everything there already.




Posted via CB10

[Tornado99]

I'd like to see better picture handling...gate uploading a portrait orientation image only to have the top 1/3rd cropped off. Seems a lot of new folks don't know to double-click tap to get uncropped view.
Also, allowing for handset rotation landscape vs portrait would be great.


Sent via the awesome Zed10 BABY!

[ricocan]

I would like to be able to two or more statuses, i have work contacts as well as personal and it would be great to be able to keep them separated, I don't want to share my personal statuses with the people i work with and vise versa. It would likely bring along the ability to group my contacts, which would also be nice to have.

Prioritize contacts would be cool to, which is kind of there in BB10.2.

Posted via CB10

[dracolnyte]

I would like to be able to two or more statuses, i have work contacts as well as personal and it would be great to be able to keep them separated, I don't want to share my personal statuses with the people i work with and vise versa. It would likely bring along the ability to group my contacts, which would also be nice to have.

Prioritize contacts would be cool to, which is kind of there in BB10.2.

Posted via CB10

Does BlackBerry Balance separate them for you?

Posted via CB10

[solitude1984]

1) Make BBM fit into iOS 7 better.
2) Allow people to change the profile pics of their contacts.
3) A bit larger emoticons on iOS. They're a little small.
4) More emoticons.


Sent from my iPhone 5s using Tapatalk

[Korepab]

How about getting Voice and Channels on first? Those are the most important ones.