1. johnnyuk's Avatar
    I've been thinking about Channels and BBM and have come to the conclusion that BlackBerry have missed an opportunity with Channels to solve a problem that BBM has always had and so far BlackBerry have done little about.

    That problem is finding new people to chat to on BBM. Not necessarily people you know, not just scouring your address books for email addresses that are BlackBerry IDs, just finding new people who you have a rough idea are going to be like minded and worth having a chat with.

    Where does this journey of discovery take place at the moment? One place is on websites with forums like CrackBerry where people post their PINs, Groups and Channels. Another is on your Chats list, everyone has someone who forwards those pesky PIN trains, but why should that have to be the case? People are now posting their PINS on Instagram so CB Kevin says (I don't use it myself). Why? Because the BBM app doesn't help you meet new people!

    So why on Earth when you have an app on a Smartphone for communicating with should you have to go looking around websites, social media/microblogging sites and crazy PIN trains for the PINs of willing like minded people? Why the hell doesn't the BBM app help us to find like minded people?

    What could the solution have been? Channels was the opportunity to put a solution in place. Unfortunately it's anti-social, if doesn't let you connect with people who are members of a Channel or who have commented in the way that Twitter does with feeds. Add that simple ability to reach out to someone who is a member of a Channel or has commented on a post and request to add them as a BBM Contact or at least to a private chat session where you could work out if someone is worth adding and it would be the start of the BBM Social revolution.

    BBM Social!!! Now that's what Channels should be all about!

    There's more to my vision than just that simple social change. What would bring BBM in to the modern social media age is a combination of the more social Twitter like Channels mixed in with the good old Social Feeds app of BBOS7.

    Currently the Updates screen in BBM shows Channel updates either mixed in with Contact updates or in isolation. Imagine instead of the word Channels up there it was the word Social and it was the feeds from your Twitter account, your Facebook account, your Instagram account, your Vine account, your LinkedIn account AND your BBM Channels (or each of them separately too if your prefer just like in Social Feeds).

    Imagine being able to reach out all of those people from within BBM and invite them to your BBM Contacts or to get the BBM app. Or imagine being able to link your FaceBook friends in to your BBM Contacts so you start a Chat with them in BBM and it sends them a FaceBook message which if they have FaceBook Chat open will come through as a chat message there.

    Imagine BBM as a Social Hub capable of posting status updates and the like to multiple places at once as well as still having those private chats with Contacts and those Group chats of old. Maybe even redesign the BBM user interface so it's more like the BB10 Hub, a true "Social Hub". Or why not integrate them both so that the Hub IS BBM and BBM IS the Hub. Cross platform it would have to stay as an app but imagine having that Hub experience on iOS and Android.

    The possibilities are exciting, there'd be tricky privacy, anti-spam and technical matters to overcome but problems are their to be solved. Anything is achievable.

    That would go quite some way to bringing a real new Social dynamic to BBM I feel, drawing in both people you know from multiple Social worlds and more importantly NEW people from BBM Channels and even Twitter.

    I think heading in this kind of direction with BBM would make it become indispensable cross platform for staying in touch with your world and meeting new like minded people online for chat or work collaboration, or for whatever you want.

    What do you think?

    Posted via CB10
    Last edited by johnnyuk; 11-29-13 at 10:37 PM.
    11-29-13 09:44 PM
  2. qbnkelt's Avatar
    You've got good points. I wasn't impressed with Channels so when I upgraded my OS I just let it go. Haven't returned.
    11-30-13 06:29 AM
  3. sedalia066's Avatar
    Right on. As a user of Channels since Day 1 all their surveys got similar requests from me. For my purposes Channels is wonderful. But competing in the bigger world is not going fat as it stands now. We shall see hut my expectations for real success are nonexistent. These days.

    Via CB10. Bits, C000C6078 for links to science and technology posts and world news.
    11-30-13 07:30 AM
  4. 3_M4N's Avatar
    It's a tough call. You generally have to sacrifice convenience for security and privacy, and I think that's the reason it continues to be "difficult" to get new pins or meet people through BBM.



    Posted while peeking and flowing on my incredible BBQ10!
    11-30-13 09:43 AM

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