[THBW]

Have you ever worked on a software project? Even if these ideas were anywhere near the BBM team's priority list, there's no chance it would be built, tested and deployed in four months. The reality is that the BBM team has a well established priority list dozens of items long that rank higher than group chart picture sharing and emoticon size. Personally I value the BBM voice chart, channels, and multi-device support far more than anything Whatsapp offers.

Posted via CB10

I agree. The added ease at which you can send any sort of file, view location, glympse, sync dropbox just blows Whatsapp away in terms of functionality. These are the sort of things I need not want.

I gave Whatsapp a try 3 months ago but the service was brutally slow and unreliable. As a family, we went back to BBM and have never looked backed.

The big problem for whatsapp is the future. Using phone numbers as you identifylier are a real problem moving forward. A universal HUB that moves easily among your multiple electronic devices is the future of communications. Not some dinky IM messaging system with no security features.

Posted via CB10

[Thesmartmale]

95% of the time (based on my own personal experience) whatsapp works;its not perfect but thus far, in my experience it works vastly better than BBM in its current iteration. My original response was to a poster that implied that my claims were ridiculous based on the fact that he never experienced or knew anyone that experienced issues with BBM message delivery and thus denied that they even existed.

I never said they didn't exist, I just said I never experienced them with anyone I know, but you saying it takes a week to receive a message on BBM from your friend on Android is a joke!

Posted via CB10

[red_devil_fan_1999]

I never said they didn't exist, I just said I never experienced them with anyone I know, but you saying it takes a week to receive a message on BBM from your friend on Android is a joke!

Posted via CB10

the joke is getting a message on whatsapp asking why haven't i responded to the bbm message...

[red_devil_fan_1999]

This is called Exaggeration...never heard of getting messages from BBM to android after a week. There is something wrong with your connection and your phone...

Posted via CB10

No exaggeration here man, again why is it because one person has never heard of it, it doesn't exist? Unless of course you're all knowing and all seeing then forgive my error

[Tank1978]

My friends like the flow of convo in whatsapp better cause of the picture charing in the group convo, but like bbm better as a one on one chat

Posted via CB10

[Brandon Orr]

So true, I had like 10 friends join BBM for groups to replace our whatsapp group, but we eventually all started using whatsapp again for group messaging and like 7/10 kept BBM for personal messaging.

The main reason was no in-chat pictures and videos. SO dumb having to tell people to leave the chat to see an image.

The other main issue is reliability. Not so much with Android users, but iPhone users hardly ever get the D, for whatever reason Whatsapp does get the double delivered checkmark so I can't imagine it being impossible.

- Developer of PinGuin

[tmf06]

No exaggeration here man, again why is it because one person has never heard of it, it doesn't exist? Unless of course you're all knowing and all seeing then forgive my error

If I was waiting a week for messages, then I wouldn't use bbm either, however I have read a lot of these threads and this is not typical.

It's apparent that you are passionate about whatsapp and happy with the service. You have found something you like and should stick with it.

Personally, I have had much better luck with bbm, and most my contacts have had the same experience. Like anything else, I'm sure it is dependent on phone, carrier, network, your expectations, and how you use the services.

Posted via CB10

[Brandon Orr]

FYI I mentioned this to numerous people at BlackBerry as well as the Beta Zone and in a convo with Alex Kinsella back when he was part of BBM.

I think it'll eventually come. It's obvious they're focus is mainly on adding the main features like voice and video. But the most recent update increased the group size so maybe we're in store for smaller incremental improvements to groups. I think it'll be spearheaded by enterprise needs though.

- Developer of PinGuin

[ggastaris]

They don't know how to use it

Posted via CB10

[rhon3g]

No exaggeration here man, again why is it because one person has never heard of it, it doesn't exist? Unless of course you're all knowing and all seeing then forgive my error

If bbm and whatsapp their problem, why not get BlackBerry 10? I'm 100% sure that they will never complain about this 1 week undelivered on their devices plus they can enjoy all the new features of BBM on BlackBerry 10. Just so simple as that.

Posted via CB10

[Thesmartmale]

So true, I had like 10 friends join BBM for groups to replace our whatsapp group, but we eventually all started using whatsapp again for group messaging and like 7/10 kept BBM for personal messaging.

The main reason was no in-chat pictures and videos. SO dumb having to tell people to leave the chat to see an image.

The other main issue is reliability. Not so much with Android users, but iPhone users hardly ever get the D, for whatever reason Whatsapp does get the double delivered checkmark so I can't imagine it being impossible.

- Developer of PinGuin

If the app is open in the background then you will get a D within seconds, Whatsapp acts the same way, it's an IOS limitation that BBM will never get around except if they make a deal or something with Apple.

Posted via CB10

[The Big Picture]

There are two reasons my friends have NOT given up on WhatsAPP. These are such basic/simple reasons to address and I have emailed BlackBerry countless times about these things. They replied that they agreed with my suggestions (4+ months ago) and yet they haven't implemented them.

Reason 1 # Easy sharing of pictures, videos, files in Group Chat (and/or Multi Person Chat).
In WhatsApp, if you are in a group chat, you can send picture, video etc. It appears as thumbnail in the chat window itself.

But in BBM group chat, you've to EXIT chat, go to Groups, go to Albums and upload picture. You can't upload videos at all.

Now, I LIKE this separation of group alubms and I like that people are able to comment on each picture separately etc. But come on, how hard is it to add a SHORTCUT in group-chat window menu? "Send Picture" or "Send Video". That short-cut should automatically upload picture to Group Album and show a thumbnail in the Chat-Window. Why force user to EXIT the group chat in the first place?

Reason 2 # For some reason, BBM Cross-Platform's message delivery is still not as reliable as WhatsApps. WhatsApp was also VERY VERY unreliable (delayed delivery etc) first year or so of its existence but it has become very reliable. When I send message to my BBM friends on IOS/Android, sometimes my message doesn't get delivered. So, I send it via WhatsApp and it's instantly delivered. WhatsAPP had same problems initially but they figured out a way to fix this to an extent that it is a rare occurrence now. BBM needs to fix it ASAP too.

There are other small reasons (like BBM emoticons are too small, they should be slightly bigger, some ios/Android user claim that BBM app is laggy, Inviting contacts to BBM is not as intuitive as it is in WhatsApp which basically auto-adds all contacts etc.). But those are minor reasons and can be fixed with under-the-hood performance improvements. But as far as features go - these are the TWO top reasons my friends are still using WhatsApp and BlackBerry has so far refused to fix them even after acknowledging that they agree and will work on them.

I have had conversation with Senior folks at BBM group (Product Manager, Director etc) via email, they have responded via email. I sent detailed feedback with screenshot and suggested work-flow. They agreed. And yet, 4 months later BBM 2.0 lacks these features.

NOTE - If you work for BlackBerry, I'd appreciate if you could forward this feedback (yet again) to BBM Product Manager, Director, Enterprise VP and even John CHEN. . Please.

BlackBerry, you are literally giving away market you could OWN! Wake up, whomsoever is responsible for BBM, and get it done. You can own this market in no time. Don't wake up too late! Wake up now!!

Yeap same feelings here

Q10SQN100-3/10.2.1.2141, Z30, Z10, iP5, SGS3

[masterful]

Very nice ideas

Posted via CB10

[chrysaurora]

One thing about BBm for Android that really irritates me is that you can only put in one emoji at one time when trying to send multiple emojis . When you go into the emoji selection menu, after picking one, it reverts to the keyboard after which if you want to send another emoji along with the first one, you would have to press the emoji button, enter the emoji selection menu and then pick another emoji. It is very cumbersome and relatively time consuming. Whatsapp allows you to enter multiple emoji at once without ever exiting the selection menu

+1 for pointing this out. Another friend of mine complained about this too. But I think these are relatively minor annoyances. The biggest two are:
- in-ability to share pictures/videos directly from group-chat window and multiperson chat window
- delayed message deliveries on IOS/Android. IOS more often than Android.

Hope the new BlackBerry under John Chen is paying attention to this feedback here.

[chrysaurora]

Oh boy! WhatsApp announced that they'll introduce Voice-Calling in next 2-4 months.

Damn!

I hope BBM manages to enhance group chats/multiperson chats < 1 month. BBM is coming to Windows Phone - that's awesome. Love that. But damn, BBM, enhance your group-chats and multi-person chats AND enhance your reliability (delayed message deliveries to some ios/android BBMs) so everyone can have BETTER experience than WhatsApp. DO IT NOW.

[ggastaris]

Oh boy! WhatsApp announced that they'll introduce Voice-Calling in next 2-4 months.

Damn!

I hope BBM manages to enhance group chats/multiperson chats < 1 month. BBM is coming to Windows Phone - that's awesome. Love that. But damn, BBM, enhance your group-chats and multi-person chats AND enhance your reliability (delayed message deliveries to some ios/android BBMs) so everyone can have BETTER experience than WhatsApp. DO IT NOW.

They aren't delayed, they aren't delivered until they open the app if that is the way they have it set up.

Posted via CB10

[crackberry_geek]

They aren't delayed, they aren't delivered until they open the app if that is the way they have it set up.

Posted via CB10

Not true... the issue you note is true, but additionally there are often delays even with app open on both ends with iOS and Android.

Posted with Z10 via CB10

[chrysaurora]

And regardless - the point is because there are so many reports of delayed delivery of messages etc - BlackBerry should setup a team to investigate and FIX this!

Even if 5% of ios/Android customers have this issue, it's enough to keep them on WhatsApp (instead of bbm). If these 5% users have 10 friends each that they talk to on bbm, and they face delayed-delivery problems, then these 5% are going to use WhatsApp to talk to these 10 friends

So, 1 person (with BBM delivery issues) can easily keep other 10 friends (with no BBM message delivery issues) hooked on to WhatsApp!



Posted via CB10

[crackberry_geek]

And regardless - the point is because there are so many reports of delayed delivery of messages etc - BlackBerry should setup a team to investigate and FIX this!

Even if 5% of ios/Android customers have this issue, it's enough to keep them on WhatsApp (instead of bbm). If these 5% users have 10 friends each that they talk to on bbm, and they face delayed-delivery problems, then these 5% are going to use WhatsApp to talk to these 10 friends

So, 1 person (with BBM delivery issues) can easily keep other 10 friends (with no BBM message delivery issues) hooked on to WhatsApp!



Posted via CB10

You are correct, but sadly (and it doesn't make me happy to say this), BlackBerry is now definitely a "has been".

They have demonstrated time and time again that they can no longer implement successfully... and there is very little chance they will fix these issues.

Posted with Z10 via CB10

[chrysaurora]

You are correct, but sadly (and it doesn't make me happy to say this), BlackBerry is now definitely a "has been".

They have demonstrated time and time again that they can no longer implement successfully... and there is very little chance they will fix these issues.

Posted with Z10 via CB10

Yeah, there is some credibility gap. But they are not that bad either. I suspect that for some reason or the other, their priority list of features is not in synch with priorities of their end-users.

That said, they seem to be getting better at implementing (better than last 2-3 years). So, I am really hopeful (and optimistic) that this new BlackBerry company will actually implement stuff that's important.

[Mai Dvices]

The passion of chat is so deep here.

It made me almost forgot that the name of the device we use to chat is a "phone".
So in my good sense, if something was not delivered on time and considered urgent, then i would simply "dial".

When I need to keep a record of conversation between two or more people, i would use group chat. And i would also use chat if details need to be put on record ie; step by step instructions.

But whenever I feel at somepoint communication becomes unreliable on on a platform/app, i simply copy the chat and send thru another app. We have som many choices out there so it should be a no brainer to find alternatives.

Don't get bogged down or break a sweat just because bbm isn't 100% yet. If OP is an example of a passionate bb user who wants their app to improve, can u imagine all the other equally passionate users out there that is also giving feedback in their own language and expressions and then imagine being on the dev team receiving all those feedbacks almost simultaneously. It's a pain to reconcile.

With me, whatsapp is a love n hate relationship. I love it for it's ease of use but i hate it for being privacy killer.
The minute you agree o whatsapps terms and condition, thats when you willingly handover your entire phonebook to a single company.

Imagine that, 450 million users willingly give their phonebook contacts and even paying whatsapp 90c.

This is what I would call DATA MINING at it's best. And now Facebook wants a piece of the action. 16 billion sure buys a huge chunk.

Thats my ten cents for now...

Posted via the Android CrackBerry App! on my Oppo Find Way S

[chrysaurora]

The passion of chat is so deep here.

It made me almost forgot that the name of the device we use to chat is a "phone".
So in my good sense, if something was not delivered on time and considered urgent, then i would simply "dial".

When I need to keep a record of conversation between two or more people, i would use group chat. And i would also use chat if details need to be put on record ie; step by step instructions.

But whenever I feel at somepoint communication becomes unreliable on on a platform/app, i simply copy the chat and send thru another app. We have som many choices out there so it should be a no brainer to find alternatives.

Yes, of course, you can use alternatives. WhatsApp is an alternative and that's what I am talking about.

The whole point is we want BBM to become # 1 messaging app. The primary messaging app. The indisputable leader.

And I have pointed out two deficiencies that is preventing BBM from reaching that # 1 spot. From getting that crown.

I'd hound all my friends and get them to delete or stop using WhatsApp if BBM addressed those two concerns right away.

1. Allow people to share pictures/videos/files from within group-chat window/multiperson chat window.
(like WhatsApp)

2. Fix message delivery issues that some ios/android bbm users are facing. Even if a small minority of people are having, it's enough to keep people using WhatsApp.


Posted via CB10

[marksthespot60]

When bridged to the PlayBook, for texting, BlackBerry put the required button in the middle of the bottom tool bar so none of your thumbs, right or left, could ever reach it unless your Shack. Their thought given to UX seems minimal, at best.

Posted via CB10

[chrysaurora]

Jeff Gadway has tweeted that sharing of pictures directly in multiperson-chat window is coming to BBM.
Not sure if we'd be able to share videos, audios and other files also though.
Also, not sure if we'd be able to select multiple pictures at the same time (for eg, in whatsapp, you just go to pictures, select a bunch of pictures, and share-> whatsapp group) and all pictures are sent in that group in one click.
But they are working on sharing-pictures directly in multiperson chats so that's GREAT news!

Thanks, Jeff Gadway, if you are reading this!

[xtremesniper]

That is great news. I saw the tweet too. Glad to see they're paying attention to these threads.