Question about Gtalk vs BBM

[teknomedic]

OK I'm a smart phone newb. I've never had a Blackberry, but a large portion of my co-workers do so I've seen and played with their Blackberries (or is it Blackberrys) several times.

Anyway, I'm on the market for a new phone and I'm between getting a Blackberry Storm 2 or a Droid... in general I'm leaning towards the Droid due to the "open source" side of things and some recent news of them working on "fixing" the 256mb app limit. However, the Blackberry is getting nod due to the BBM that so many of my co-workers use... and love of course.

So here's my question (finally, lol). With BBM I know you can have several conversations open at the same time and each conversation will continue to grow (ie; be saved) until I delete it or I run out of the space.

Can this be done with Gtalk as well?... can I have several "IM conversations" running at the same time in their own "windows" and have the conversations save for as long as I want (like chat, close the window and a few days later chat with that person again and still have the previous conversation loaded)... or will all the conversations be merged into one complicated conversation window and the converstaions be lost when I close the window or shutdown the phone????

Also, how easy is it for Blackberry users to install/use Gtalk on their phones so that maybe I can use IM with them, but just not have the "BBM service"??

Thanks for any info,
TK.

 

[phonejunky]

as far as gtalk you can carry on more then one conversation at a time, its just like a yahoo client on your phone if you have ever used yahoo messenger and yes you can also install the gtalk onto a blackberry device and chat with your co-workers it is very easy to install on a bb and free.

 

[JohnMcClane#AC]

I have used the Storm 2 and Droid since they came out... I would recommend watching this podcast first:

YouTube - Droid Vs Storm 2

Then using them both yourself... Now, you are going to get a lot of Droid fanboys on here...and BB fanboys on crackberry....

Biggest thing is if you havent had the BB yet, the software and OS will not be stale to you (a big knock on the s2)

IMO, that video covers everything perfect... only thing I would add is the fact that it is much easier and responsive to type on the S2.

Furthermore, I think BBM is the best product/app anyone could have on a phone and I will always have a BB for that reason... Droid is much better for browsing and video watching...

 

[Adiliyo]

yes, you can have multiple conversations, and there is an option to save them (it will save them in a labeled folder in gmail)

there is an app for gtalk for blackberry so it's just a matter of getting your friends to install it.

the nice thing about gtalk is it can run pretty much anywhere so you can communicate with people even if they're not near their phone, but are on a computer. ie, a classroom or an office.

personally, i found it much easier to type on the droid's soft keyboard compared to the S1 or S2, and while you will probably make far more typing errors, the auto-correction is MUCH MUCH better than it was on the storm1 (maybe they made it better in the storm2, but somehow i doubt this) so while you type the wrong letters, if you just keep going, 95% of the time when you look at your sentence, it's all spelled right.

 

[zeiroe]

I'd like to add to your question as well. I think I read somewhere that "GTalk" is called "Talk" on the droid but back to my question. Is "Talk" something that you can have running on your droid 24/7? Does the droid eat away at your battery if you keep the data connection on and open?

 

[French]

I have been keeping "Talk" open on the Droid and it seems fine. However on the bb it seemed to kick me out/log me out.

 

[Adiliyo]

you don't have to have it running (the app anyways, the notifications are probably handled through a service that's generally running anyways)
it is called talk on the droid
the data connection is designed to be on all the time.

 

[Jbhx]

Separate question, but definitively relevant.. With BBM you are about to have "Group Chats" From what I have read is this is possible with google talk, through gmail on a computer, but not possible on the DROID. Can someone please shed some light on this? IMO BBM with group chat is far superior to 'Talk'.

 

[Adiliyo]

it seems like you can add people to a conversation, which is similar to a group chat i'd guess. (i never used the group chat so i don't know if it could do anything more than that)

but there isn't a way to group people from what i've been able to see, so you would have to do it manually every time.

 

[CrackberryMike]

it seems like you can add people to a conversation, which is similar to a group chat i'd guess. (i never used the group chat so i don't know if it could do anything more than that)

but there isn't a way to group people from what i've been able to see, so you would have to do it manually every time.

On the BBM groups you are always active as a group member to chat: you dont have to keep being added.

 

[largeselection]

Yea I just installed gtalk on my friend's bb and we've been using that. She said she notices no difference between it and BBM.

 

[teknomedic]

thanks for all the great replies. I figured I'd have fan boys in either crackberry or androidcentral, but I wanted to target those that used to have a Blackberry and switched to Droid vs people that "tried a Droid" and then kept their Blackberry.

I'm not worried about the group chat feature so much, but it sounds like on the very rare need it can be done with Gtalk so that seems to be wash for me.

Mostly what I want to ensure is the following:
that running Gtalk or BBM won't kill the battery...
that when the device is in "standby" or whatever, I can still get a notice that I have a new IM...
that my entire conversations can be saved for as long as I like...
and that each person has their very own chat window.

I sounds like Gtalk will keep the conversations on the Gmail servers so does that mean I have nearly unlimited storage???... vs what I would assume would be 256mb limit on a Blackberry (minus any other apps installed of course).

Also, if Gtalk does save those conversations on the Gmail servers... can the phone access those conversations in the same chat window, or will I need to open a web browser, log in and then view them??

I'll be heading to the store sometime next week to test out how each device feels to me, but my biggest question was how to get that same type of BBM service on the Droid.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[Adiliyo]

the phone will keep the conversations (i don't know how far back it will go in the talk app) but they can also be accessed through the browser (or the gmail app) by looking in the proper label.

from what it seems, it will keep the chats in the app for longer than most people would need to go back.

the gtalk app can be closed, it keeps a service running that will allow notifications for a new message to show regardless of weather or not the app is on. the service uses very little battery in the grand scheme of things.

what's nice about talk, is if your device is off or you are not signed in, you can still have messages sent to you and you will receive them when you log back in

each person does have their own chat thread (window)

as for the bbm being limited to the ram on the blackberry, that isn't true anymore with bbm5, the conversations can be set to save to the SD card.

but it is nice having it stored in the cloud with (nearly) limitless amounts of space. even though since they are simple text conversations, they really don't take up much space at all.

 

[zeiroe]

@ Adiliyo

Thank you so much for your input. Your answers on how android handles its data connection with "Talk" answered so much more. Thanks again. I see a droid in my very near future

off topic ... I see there's a reputation gauge below our post counts ... Wheres the rep button so I can give Adiliyo some rep =D

 

[zeiroe]

ahh ... nevermind ... had to url hack it to give Adiliyo some rep luvin ... thanks again!

 

[Adiliyo]

no problem, glad to be of help!

 

[teknomedic]

thanks Adiliyo, another good reply.

It seems that Gtalk and BBM are a wash then with features and storage... the only downside to Gtalk is that I'd have to break some friends of BBM and have them use Gtalk to chat with me... of course then there's the upside of being able to use Gtalk anywhere with or without my phone.

There a few more things between them I'm wondering about and could use some more info on as well...

Web Browser:
I've seen/heard that the Droid browser is pretty fast and that the BB is a bit slower, but I also heard that BB is going to release a "Web kit" browser that's like the Droid/iPhone... is this true or just a rumor and if it is true, when would that be released and would it really work just as fast as the Droid???

256MB Apps Limit:
I'm not sure how confirmed it is, but I've read that they're working on allowing the Droid to access the SD card to install apps eliminating the 256MB limit. Is there any word or even a chance that the Storm will have a simlar "fix"??

Email Speed:
It sounds like Blackberries in general kill the Droid in email. Is this web email like "gmail" or more the POP3/SMTP business type? Also, could they fix this issue with the Droid?

PDF Files:
One thing I've seen my co-workers have issue with on BBs is that lack of PDF support unless you buy a special program. Is it easy and free to view PDF files on the Droid???


Thanks again for taking all these questions from the "smart phone newb", lol.

 

[JNsince1985]

How is Gtalk on Android 2.0 on the Droid? Is it better or different in any way than it is on 1.6 android devices? I hate that the Gtalk app is actually better on a Blackberry than it is on a phone "with Google". It doesnt really make that much sense. They're able to send and receive files while we can't? Thats kinda backwards.

 

[Adiliyo]

thanks Adiliyo, another good reply.

It seems that Gtalk and BBM are a wash then with features and storage... the only downside to Gtalk is that I'd have to break some friends of BBM and have them use Gtalk to chat with me... of course then there's the upside of being able to use Gtalk anywhere with or without my phone.

There a few more things between them I'm wondering about and could use some more info on as well...

Web Browser:
I've seen/heard that the Droid browser is pretty fast and that the BB is a bit slower, but I also heard that BB is going to release a "Web kit" browser that's like the Droid/iPhone... is this true or just a rumor and if it is true, when would that be released and would it really work just as fast as the Droid???

256MB Apps Limit:
I'm not sure how confirmed it is, but I've read that they're working on allowing the Droid to access the SD card to install apps eliminating the 256MB limit. Is there any word or even a chance that the Storm will have a simlar "fix"??

Email Speed:
It sounds like Blackberries in general kill the Droid in email. Is this web email like "gmail" or more the POP3/SMTP business type? Also, could they fix this issue with the Droid?

PDF Files:
One thing I've seen my co-workers have issue with on BBs is that lack of PDF support unless you buy a special program. Is it easy and free to view PDF files on the Droid???


Thanks again for taking all these questions from the "smart phone newb", lol.

web browser:
the web browser in the droid is YEARS beyond anything the blackberry has to offer. both in speed, rendering, and general useability. it is the closest a mobile browser has come to being equal with safari, which is basically the best browsing experience on a smartphone. once they add the pinch to zoom functionality into it, it'll be just awesome.

rim acquired torch mobile this year so they should have a webkit based browser i'd guess mid 2010 since that's when a lot of the new features they recently announced will go live.

as far as speed, to say the droid's browser is pretty fast compared to a bb, is like saying light is pretty fast compared to well, anything else you can look up a droid vs storm2 browser test (i think there's one on phandroid) and see for yourself. the issue is partly because blackberry's route their information through BIS servers, which add a layer of extra stuff, whereas the droid's browser can just go onto the internet. that and the bb's browser has always been a pile of horse dung when it came to the web experience.

App limit:
yes, i've heard the rumor as well, and hopefully it happens soon and the app limit becomes moot. as far as blackberry goes, i don't know if they would do it anytime soon, until they have a phone that has some real graphical power behind it so that devs would want to make any kind of complex game, i don't see bb apps getting very large. so a 256mb "limit" on the bb platform is actually quite large. on my tour i had more apps than i really used regularly, and i still had somewhere around 110mb free.

Email Speed:
the blackberry is the best email device out there, and probably to some point always will be. BUT if you use gmail, then the difference is negligible as gmail is pushed to the device and will get it at pretty much the same time. i did a test and it takes about 5 seconds from "sent" to the new mail notification.

POP mail is pulled and has an interval. but you could get around this by having your pop mail forwarded to your gmail. (you could attach a label automatically to keep your inbox clean and organized too)

i don't have any exchange mail so i can't comment on that.

PDF Files:
if you are emailed a pdf file, you can preview it through there as it will load up. i had a book i emailed myself earlier and looked up the message, works great, you can zoom and it showed me all 180 some pages. i don't have any on my device, and i can try it out later for you if noone else comments on that, but i do know there's apps as well, some might be free.

How is Gtalk on Android 2.0 on the Droid? Is it better or different in any way than it is on 1.6 android devices? I hate that the Gtalk app is actually better on a Blackberry than it is on a phone "with Google". It doesnt really make that much sense. They're able to send and receive files while we can't? Thats kinda backwards.

you can't send and receive on this one either. i agree it sucks. i think it has to do with android not shipping with a file manager built in.

 

[JNsince1985]

you can't send and receive on this one either. i agree it sucks. i think it has to do with android not shipping with a file manager built in.

Oh ok. Thanks for the reply. Hopefully some of the new android devices like the HTC Dragon/Passion (if it ever comes to the US) will fix this issue. We NEED a service like BBM on android. Blackberry's are great smart phones and all, but thats one the main reason every1 that I know jumped on the RIM bandwagon.