[imz]

I think BBM will eventually make it easier by evolving the current BBM "suggetions" tab.

Currently it shows me suggestions based emails associated to my contacts, except, they aren't really suggestions and just calls to actions for me to "invite" the user to download BBM via email.

A mix between suggesting users via email AND telephone numbers could be very welcome without the need to automatically "add" that user to your list.

Considering BBM utilises a blackberry id where an email is required, the potential is all there, whether they'll get their fingers out of their ahems is another question.

Posted via CB10

[chrizrun30]

It's easier to ADD contacts & best way to let WhatsApp (and Facebook) ACCESS all your contacts

[bobshine]

Easier? there is easy and there is too easy! I dont want 1000 contacts on my Whatsapp! (i have over 1500 contacts)

[Charlie Sansom]

I'm pretty sure everyone on this post has Facebook so the whole 'Facebook has your contacts' talk is a bit mute. They already know who your contacts are cos, I'm guessing, the majority of users add a number to their account anyway.

Posted via CB10

[Aljean Thein]

LOL i'll never give some random as$ person my phone number for WhatsApp. Thats a shutdown! How can you add international contacts OP ? First, you need to have contact with them before just adding. Broadcasting pin in BBM is annoying, but can also create a new circles with friends.

[cjcampbell]

I'm pretty sure everyone on this post has Facebook so the whole 'Facebook has your contacts' talk is a bit mute. They already know who your contacts are cos, I'm guessing, the majority of users add a number to their account anyway.

Posted via CB10

Well, I've never added my phone number to Facebook and never plan to. Even if I had, up until now, they wouldn't know who else I have as a contact aside from Facebook itself. Now they'll be able to cross reference all of your whatsapp contacts with your Facebook contacts and get an even more tight knit profile of each user or even adopt the whatsapp style and add each users contact list as a Facebook contact.

Posted via CB10

[collinc93]

people prefer whatsapp IN THIS CONTACT ADDING SCENARIO simply because well most of us are lazy cant be bothered with the hassle....

[sk8er_tor]

The reasons pointed out by the OP are exactly the reasons why I don't use WhatsApp. With WhatsApp, anyone who has your number can see your profile picture, the last time you were online, your status message, and can contact you without your consent. You have no way to stop it. With BBM, you're in full control of who can see you and who can contact you. Please tell me this is worth something to you.

Plus, if you meet someone, isn't it easier to open up BBM and add a PIN rather than opening up Contacts, adding their name, their last name, their phone number? If you find it difficult to remember or find your PIN, take the person's phone and type in the email address associated with your BlackBerry ID. There's more than one way to add a BBM contact.

[axeman1000]

Fact is, whatsapp is not as good as Bbm for when you want to have a contact but not have your phone number used. For Byod I can bring my personal device and add a Bbm contact but they will never have my personal cell number. That's already a better chat program in my mind.


Hate solves nothing, Respect gains everything!

[Vorkosigan]

I've always hated that whatsapp uses phone numbers, and grabs and stores all the numbers on your phone. So even though I've never used the service they've no doubt got my number.

All that aside - I was happy we could put bbm on our kids android tabs they got for Christmas. They can only contact us when they are on wi-fi of course - but it's a pretty big deal to them to be able to say goodnight to daddy on his late nights.

Can whatsapp be used on a non-phone?

Posted via CB10

[NotGoodIMO]

As the title says: WhatsApp is easier to add contacts than BBM!

Fact is everyone has a mobile phone number and it's far more practical to use WhatsApp purely on a numbers basis rather than PIN.

How awkward is it to give out your PIN after opening the app, finding your profile, clicking the QR symbol and loading it up?

And then we have, "here, take my number!"

You see the difference?

The only way BBM will attract more users, in my opinion, is to make adding contacts easier with their mobile numbers rather than email sign-ups and PIN's.

I know a lot of the faithful on here will butcher me for my comments but I must say that I support BBM and would prefer it to WhatsApp if it had easier contact-adding.

Unfortunately, I don't see BBM going mainstream at all. Upon launch it was a fad. A tonne of my friends added me and now, a few months later, the app has been deleted and everyone has gone back to WhatsApp.

BBM needs to learn - quickly - that it's format will not work if it doesn't evolve. And, before anyone lays into me for this comment - be honest, it hasn't evolved at all.

Just because you can have cross-platform communication was a late necessity for survival rather than an innovative evolution.

That's my two cents. Bring on the backlash!

Posted via CB10

While phone number make it easy to add to the contact list, it can also bring its own headaches. So, I think Blackberry going with pin is not a badf thing, especially if you don't like your worlds to collide with each other i.e. phones contacts versus BBM contacts. Having said that, I find BBM invitation process cumbersome, lame., and not very intuitive. Both inviting and accepting invitation is confusing and seems like a project in itself. Come on Blackberry, you can do better.

[NotGoodIMO]

For Morten - you could just as well get a new email address prompting a new BBPIN. That's the same difference as a phone number change.

And, to counter that argument, how often do people change their numbers?

Secondly, even if a number is freed up I'm pretty sure the previous 'occupier' of that number will transfer all of their numbers to their new device and inform their contacts of a number change.

Also, the security of a PIN over a number doesn't really hold much weight. You still have to give out a form of communication to someone for that relationship to blossom. I don't think it matters which if you get the same end.

Posted via CB10

I guess Blackberry and WhatsApp are catering to two different sets of people. I certainly like BBM over WhatsApp and would prefer that BBM stays with pin identifier than phone numbers. It's much easier to spam using a phone number (we all know about annoying marketing calls) than a BBM pin unless of course someone openly shares a pin in public to get more contacts, but that's more of social/ personal issue than an app (BBM) issue.

[NotGoodIMO]

Actually, with BBM, you can now add people by their email addresses as well: 1) if you have it in your address book, and 2) they're using it as their BBID. You go to (at least on Android) Menu overflow>find friends on BBM. But what's great over Whatsapp is that they still have to approve your add request. I'll take that any day over what Whatsapp did/does by letting people message you without your explicit permission.

"Whatsapp did/does by letting people message you without your explicit permission. "
Is that true, OP? If that's the case then please post your number and I would like to send you 10 long messages a day and believe me, I am not a hot chick, LOL

[PFman]

IBBMs biggest issue compared to WA is the lack of a version for WP. I'm currently sorting out a trip for 10 friends to watch the world Cup in the summer and we are constantly changing hotels and flights etc, of the 10 4 have iPhones 4have Android, 1 a BB and 1 has WP.... We use WhatsApp because it has WP covered...

4 years ago 8 of us went and at that point there was 6 or 7 blackberries and maybe 1 or 2 iPhones....

Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

[BlueTom316]

For Morten - you could just as well get a new email address prompting a new BBPIN. That's the same difference as a phone number change.

And, to counter that argument, how often do people change their numbers?

Secondly, even if a number is freed up I'm pretty sure the previous 'occupier' of that number will transfer all of their numbers to their new device and inform their contacts of a number change.

Also, the security of a PIN over a number doesn't really hold much weight. You still have to give out a form of communication to someone for that relationship to blossom. I don't think it matters which if you get the same end.

Posted via CB10

When you get a new Email Address your PIN stays the same, you just log into your profile and change it, your contacts will never know you even changed your email. Not sure why you think you will get a new BBM pin. But it is incorrect as I have changed my email twice already and have gone from pearl > storm > storm2 > torch touch > Z10 > Q10 > Z30 > and back to Q10, and know one on my contacts list ever knew I switched phones or phone numbers OR EVEN EMAILS.

Yes, I forgot you do get a new pin when changing phones, but it auto updates everyone and they will never even know it. Sorry I had misspoken.

[raino]

"Whatsapp did/does by letting people message you without your explicit permission. "
Is that true, OP? If that's the case then please post your number and I would like to send you 10 long messages a day and believe me, I am not a hot chick, LOL

As long as they have your number, you will be automatically added to their Whatsapp contacts list. I believe they have made (or will make, can't remember exactly) it a little better by at least allowing you to select a profile pic you want shown to people not in your contact list. But they can still message you.

[xales]

well .. 19b $ for whatsapp..i guess enough to find out which is better !!

[jdcfinisher]

From what I've heard from woman they feel more secure with pins. Once a phone number is out there anyone with any phone can call you, perfect for stockers and obsessive exes. With BBM only people you approve can send you messages and they can't just BBM you from a different device.

Posted via CB10

[chrizrun30]

IBBMs biggest issue compared to WA is the lack of a version for WP. I'm currently sorting out a trip for 10 friends to watch the world Cup in the summer and we are constantly changing hotels and flights etc, of the 10 4 have iPhones 4have Android, 1 a BB and 1 has WP.... We use WhatsApp because it has WP covered...

4 years ago 8 of us went and at that point there was 6 or 7 blackberries and maybe 1 or 2 iPhones....

Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

WP version is coming soon.

[chrizrun30]

well .. 19b $ for whatsapp..i guess enough to find out which is better !!

$19b to let Facebook peeks at your whole contacts... hmm , now we know which is better.

[Charlie Sansom]

I think a few people actually missed the point of my OP. I was basically stating that WhatsApp is a better app for contacts.

To the poster who asked me to give out my number so he/she could spam me:

Who says I value my BBM more/less than my number. If I gave my BBM out to someone whom I didn't trust with my number should I really be giving them my PIN in the first place?

As far as control goes for contacts on BBM - I can quite easily block numbers from contacting me like many people can with their phone or a downloadable app.



Posted via CB10

[bungaboy]

I'm confused. OP reads the posts here every day. Never ever saw a Whatsapp thread here. Reads everyday but doesn't know hoe to search threads.

First post starts thread and all posts are in this thread.

Hard for me to broaden my take this. Figger dat out, willya?

[raino]

To the poster who asked me to give out my number so he/she could spam me:

Who says I value my BBM more/less than my number. If I gave my BBM out to someone whom I didn't trust with my number should I really be giving them my PIN in the first place?

A PIN is more disposable than a phone number. Regardless, you block them, you don't hear from them again.

As far as control goes for contacts on BBM - I can quite easily block numbers from contacting me like many people can with their phone or a downloadable app.

Except with Whatsapp, even if you block them, they have your phone number.

[BergerKing]

Another rehash? Use the one that you like and stop bashing the others. It's freedom of choice, they're both good apps. A quick search netted at least 20 WhatsApp vs BBM threads just on the first page, so another is just another.