Why BBM?

With the recent announcement that BBM will be going cross-platform, I am sure some of you guys who have never used BBM will be wondering why you should even download BBM for your Android or iOS smartphone. So today, I am going to try and explain why.


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Background:

I was kind of an early adopter for the first iPhone 3G that arrived in Singapore. I got WhatsApp when it was first released for free on iOS. It was a nifty little app since I can simply use data instead of the exorbitant SMS fees (especially to overseas).

I only got my first BlackBerry, a Bold 9000 more than 2-3 years after that. My first impression of BBM was that it was too restrictive, since I can only chat with people also on BlackBerry. I hardly use it initially. After adding a few friends on BBM, and chatting with them every now and then, I have no doubt in my mind that BBM is vastly superior both in terms of features, and experience compared to WhatsApp. With new features on BBM for BB10, the differences are just Heaven and Hell. I found myself loving BBM. Something I never could with WhatsApp or any other IM clients.

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Let me start with the basic features, messaging and groups. Both of which will be on iOS and Android first, before other features are added.

Messaging:


BBM messages are routed through BlackBerry’s servers, and are “scrambled” in a sense. To keep it simple, it is more secure than your typical SMS or WhatsApp. If we assume the same for iOS and Android devices, that is one advantage here.

When the message has been read by your recipient, the “D” (delivered), turns into a “R” (Read), on your device. This means that you will always know if your message has reached your desired recipient. Compared to WhatsApp, where you can only see if the message has been sent out to the recipient’s device, but not if they have read it. This translate to a more reliable delivery of messages. It is nice to know if your messages has been read or not.

The down side of course is that you can no longer use the excuse that you have missed the message, or “did not see it”. lol. (You still can ignore the notification though as long as you don’t go into that chat.)

There is an “Updates” tab in BBM as well, which includes the latest updates (status, changing profile pictures, posts, etc) from your contacts, and BBM Channels. Which is super useful for a quick updates from everyone, kind of like a newsfeed.

Groups:

Here comes the good part, “Groups”. If you look at the middle image above, that is a Group I have created with my sister, who is on BBM as well. You can see that it is separated into 4 sections. Chats, Pictures, Lists, and Events.

- ”Chats” are pretty self-explanatory, you can have a direct chat with any of the member easily as well.

- The “Pictures” frame contains all the images that you have shared within the group, with the latest shared image displayed on that frame. A quick way to view all previous images. Of course just like a normal chat which by default resizes the image to save data, if you want to get a Full resolution image, the recipient can send a “request” for it.

- With “Lists”, I can create a shopping list for a party for example, and all members can contribute to that list. Adding new items, or checking off items that have been bought already, so that no one else buys it again.

- With “Calendars”, I can create an event like “Mom’s Birthday” for example, and every member’s calendar will be updated with it. This is great for planning meetings, outings, etc.

BBM Groups is simply a much better experience than WhatsApp Group chat. It is a great tool that one can use to organise events, group projects, group discussions, etc. Something I have always found a PITA to do on WhatsApp.

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Now, we move on to the bells and whistles. Voice Chats, Video Chats, and Screen Sharing (ability to share what’s on your screen while in a video chat). While the initial version of BBM that will be release on iOS and Android will not have these features, BlackBerry have said that these will come eventually. Feature parity will eventually come.

I can assure you that Voice, Video and Screen Share all works wonderfully. I was unable to attend a recent media event for the BlackBerry Q10 in Singapore. So I used Video Chat with a friend that was there, and live streamed the event.

There was no lag or sluggishness. Both video and audio were remarkably clear, even with my friend only on cellular network (better than on Skype imo). Even while I was receiving high resolution images (each 1+mb) in our BBM chat, the video was smooth. After the presentation my friend even passed his phone to a few representatives there so I could ask them questions.

Why have a few apps to obtain these features when all you need is BBM?

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Now, the icing on the cake. BBM Channels.

As summarised by CrackBerry, "BBM Channels allows users to create channels for themselves, a brand, business or community and extend their social networking through BBM. You have the ability to create and share posts that can be shared with all of your channel subscribers."

It is currently in beta, and I have been using it for a couple of days only. I am following a bunch of Channels as well as maintaining my own channel. So far, first impressions are really good. It is still pretty bare bones since it is only a beta, but I am sure there will be more features added eventually.

My description would be a “Mobile First” micro blogging platform that is most similar to Tumblr, but combines the experience of twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as well. Add that with a BBM twist, since on each post, there is a “R” logo that will show how many have read that post. Kind of like how you have the “R” logo for Read in normal BBM chats.

I can create posts with an image, a title, and a message with 400 characters limit (which feels like a sweet spot between being too vague like twitter, or too long winded like this post that you are reading). In the previous paragraph I mentioned “Mobile First” because BBM Channels feels like it was made for mobile devices first and foremost. It is so easy to create a new post, share it with your subscribers, and read posts by others. In just 3 days, I already have 12 posts in my Channel. (Which you can follow by scanning the code below if you are on Channels as well.) :D

Since it is also tied into BBM, you can have direct conversations with your subscribers as well without needing to add them. The response you get from posts (if you are a well known brand, celebrity, etc) is also pretty amazing. Take CrackBerry, they did a test by creating a post on a live stream, and immediately there were a bunch of comments and likes almost instantly.

Another post they did just a few days ago asking “Z10 or Q10?”, has gotten more than 600 comments and 300 likes. Keep in mind BBM Channels is still in Beta, on BlackBerry only, and requires some work to acquire. The response is pretty amazing.

It still requires some work, and more features, but I seriously think it has lots of potential. Especially once BBM goes cross-platform.

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Lastly, the foundations.

BBM is a very reliable platform. Yes, they have their occasional outages, but those are far and a few. Especially when comparing to iMessage and WhatsApp. If you send a BBM, you KNOW that the message will arrive at its destination. With iMessage, its still a hit or miss. Quoting a tweet from Peter Cohen, one of the editor for iMore.com (Apple news/fan site):

Next, BBM is lovable. I am sure some of you might have heard the term BBM addict before. People who cannot live without BBM (to the extent of having a second phone just for BBM even after switching to another platform). But have you ever heard WhatsApp addict? I know I haven’t. People use WhatsApp because it works well enough for their needs. Their friends are all using it. But are people addicted to WhatsApp? Hell no.

According to a Press Release by BlackBerry,

“BBM has more than 60 million monthly active customers, with more than 51 million people using BBM an average of 90 minutes per day. BBM customers collectively send and receive more than 10 billion messages each day, nearly twice as many messages per user per day as compared to other mobile messaging apps. Almost half of BBM messages are read within 20 seconds of being received; indicating how truly engaged BBM customers are.”

I certainly know that is true for me. I tend to talk/respond to people on BBM more so than people on WhatsApp (now you know why I often take some time to reply WhatsApp messages, lol). BBM is a great messaging experience, the best in fact.

Comparing to WhatsApp, with latest reports from last month, has more than 200 million active users, processing 20 billion messages every day. It is a huge number, but keep in mind that BBM is only available on BlackBerry, while WhatsApp is on all major platforms (including even symbian). This works out to an average of around 100 messages per active user per day, compared to the average of 166 messages for BBM. Which might be an indication that people enjoy using BBM, thus spend more time chatting on it compared to WhatsApp.

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Now, I am not saying WhatsApp is a terrible app, it works well enough. But that is exactly it, it just manages to work well enough. Whereas BBM is as brilliant as they get.

If you have managed to read this far, all I am asking is to give it a shot when it launches. Ask your friends to give it a shot too, so you have more BBM contacts to chat with. Why settle for just good enough when you can have the best?