BBM for Android coming

[azdmelani]

I'm surprised no one posted this here yet:


Exclusive: BlackBerry Messenger will launch on Android and iOS | BGR

 

[lornaevo]

I hope this is true.

 

[Ronindan]

I will be really surprised if this comes true. I am former BB user and I can's see my self pay for a watered down version of BBM; so that I can chat with my friends who still use blackberries.

 

[Xopher]

With all the free options, I doubt that RIM will charge for this, especially if it is a watered down version.

 

[eze036]

i wonder what features the water down verison wont have?? any ideas???

 

[Ronindan]

i wonder what features the water down verison wont have?? any ideas???

BGR stated that you can't sent pics or any other media.

 

[DNicolasL]

This will definitely bring some people to Android from RIM.

Sent from my HTC EVO 4G

 

[giograves]

Wow, this is the death of the BB in the consumer area. LOL

Seriously, I can name 50 friends who refuse to give up their berry just because "I'll lose my BBM"

BBM is a phenom in the NYC area to say the least.

 

[tbizzy1985]

I've never really gotten the big deal with BBM, I had a BB for 2 years and I used it a handful of times. If you have unlimited texts it's useless.

 

[Xopher]

BBM does a lot more than just text. On the chat side, you can send pics and voice messages. The confirmations come in very handy. My wife works at a hospital. I would send her a BBM and I could see when she read the message. It might take a while if she was with a patient. Plus, you can set your status to let people know you are busy, unavailable and so on.

Add to the texting side, there is BBM Groups. This made it very easy to link up with people who have similar interests, share photos with the group, and other information.

We actually had a BBM Group for our family. The group calendar let us add family events to the calendar that everyone would need to know about. School events, works events, and so on. One person adds it, it shows up on everyone's BlackBerry.

We did the same with a list for groceries. Anyone could add to the list and the items would show up on everyone's BB. Whoever went to the grocery store would check things off and it would update for everyone.

Now that we moved over to Android, we use Google calendars, GroceryIQ, and LiveProfile/Kik to pretty much replace BBM. I haven't found a good replacement yet for group chats, but there are different apps that can do some group stuff.

I think the big thing is that with any platform, you have to have the same app installed on everyone's device. Sure, there is GT and SMS, but neither of those have the confirmations. So you have to use something like Kik (not allowed on BB), LiveProfile (should be on BB later this week), PingChat, or WhatsApp ($) to get similar BBM chat experience. Plus, if you want some of the other features, like calendar and list sharing, you have another set of apps to make sure everyone has installed.

BBM was just convenient on BB since it was already installed, and had all those things integrated already. Even if it is chat-only, BBM on Android would probably be a welcome addition.

 

[giograves]

I've never really gotten the big deal with BBM, I had a BB for 2 years and I used it a handful of times. If you have unlimited texts it's useless.

In addition to post above..dont forget the ability to BBM family internationally. Hit up my cousins in Trinidad all the time. With the high rate of immigration in NY, I might have answered my own question why its so popular here *shrug*

 

[Alex949]

Wow, this is the death of the BB in the consumer area. LOL

Seriously, I can name 50 friends who refuse to give up their berry just because "I'll lose my BBM"

BBM is a phenom in the NYC area to say the least.

Agreed. BB users that I know are 100% committed to their BBM

 

[Tre Lawrence]

Pointless... I think RIM should keep it exclusive at this point... major selling point or the time being.

 

[imompero#AC]

I think this is a good idea, cross platform apps are the way things are going....BBM might be able to lure people in by giving them a taste of what they have to offer.

 

[THE DLO]

heres the link to the article on this Exclusive: BlackBerry Messenger will launch on Android and iOS | BGR

im hope this happens. i switched to android by force lol last monday i dropped my Bold into a slush puddle while shoveling...took me a good minute to realize..fml. a friend gave me his aria with a cracked screen (works perfectly fine and its not really in the way) so ive been goin through bbm/bbm groups withdrawal big time...how ever this sheer awesomeness of android is slowly warming me over... i was playing with the idea of getting another line through my job just to have both the blackberry and my HTC...i still may do this if the release takes TOO long.

 

[Android-Geek]

Bait and Switch?

I see this as RIM testing the waters. There have been a number of apps released that have provided pseudo connectivity to BBM. RIM has shut them all down.

The question is, when they are talking about allowing BBM to run on the other platforms, what do they mean by watered down?

Could it be that these new apps will not be real BBM clients but simply RIM branded pseudo clients that really only give you dressed up SMS with few or none of the cool BBM functionality?

 

[Dunbar42]

Agreed. BB users that I know are 100% committed to their BBM

Yes, but more and more people are leaving BB for other platforms. What good is BBM if you can't chat with all of your friends/family? Maybe allowing cross platform BBM chat is a reason for loyal BB users to stay with RIM. "Well I was going to leave BB but I can talk to all of friends on BBM once again."

 

[Guamguy]

RIM is responding to the rise of group messenger apps everywhere. These GM apps like WhatsApp, Kik, Beluga, LiveProfile are all crossplatform, letting you chat with friends on PC, iPhone, Android, Blackberry and even to Symbian phones. Because of that, BBM is getting isolated and increasingly irrelevant. RIM is already suing Kik, but that's not going to stop the rush, and even Facebook acknowledges this potential by buying out Beluga, which is founded by 3 ex-Googlers.

The sudden explosion of Android in Korea, and helped by Korean Androids from Samsung, LG and Pantech, and the rise of the iPhone there, made this group messenger, the top free on the Android Market right now --- KakaoTalk. It's popularity is extending quickly out of Korea into the rest of the world. In fact, KakaoTalk is so popular, for months, its consistently among the top 20 downloaded free apps from the Android Market and is only behind GMail in the Communication section of the Android Market.

When I gave my Galaxy S i9000 (Froyo updated) to my daughter, Kakaotalk was one of the apps she quickly downloaded. i only heard about this app from the Android Market, but she was the first in the family to use it. Young'uns know something older folk don't.

If BBM isn't spread out and made cross platform or platfomr agnostic, it risks losing relevancy.

The truth is that if an app is to succeed, it has to be platform agnostic (should not play favorites with platforms). And likewise for a platform to succeed, it has to be app agnostic (should not play favorites for apps).

 

[eric6052]

I had BBM when I had my Tour but I only new 3 other people who had BB so I didn't have a huge investment in BBM but we did use it a few times to test it out. It works well but I wont be downloading it for Android when it comes out. All 3 people I knew who had BB have joined me and switched to Android so we use Gtalk now.

 

[tony bag o donuts]

They tried this on windows for like 24 hrs years ago and it bombed.

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