BBM

BBM

 I'm often asked by friends who have an Iphone what is so great about BBM, the instant messaging service available exclusively to BlackBerry users.   They always ask what makes it any different than normal SMS texts and I've always had a hard time explaining it.   It basically comes down to me trying to convince them that it's just better but after putting some thought to it I've come up with the following reasons that BBM is a far greater experience.

-          Unlike SMS there is no cost for sending or receiving a BBM message.   This doesn't seem like it's a big deal because we all have bundled text-packages where you get some all-you-can-eat combination of 2500 messages but if you could pair down to only needing  1000 SMS messages that would save you a couple of bucks

-          Regardless of the cost of standard SMS which is maybe not all that important but when you are sending a message to somebody overseas there is also no cost. If anybody has ever travelled overseas and looked over their bill the next time they are home, they'll notice that outgoing SMS messages are easily $0.50 a piece

-          The fact that unlike SMS, the BBM is more 'conversation' like.   It's the difference between G-Chat and an email.   It just feels more interactive

-          No character limitation.   I haven't exactly checked but you can send 1000's of characters in a single message.

-          Free MMS.  Although most plans have unlimited or very high limited SMS options, MMS is still often limited or expensive.   BBM lets you send pictures (and other files) for free.

-          The ability to one conversation with multiple parties is nice.. especially when you are making plans or.   It's a bit like those wacky 1-900 party lines from 1988 but still handy.

-          The ability to mark yourself as being away or updating your status… actually this is annoying

-          Being able to see when somebody is replying to you with a small message which reads  "Righetti is typing a message' 

-          But most importantly is a very small item.. it's the S,D or R icon which appears next to every message on your BBM.   It lets you see if your message was sent (S), Delivered (D) and Read (R ).  It's a bit big-brother but handy never-the-less.  

 

 

So if Steve Jobs is listening.. there are only a few things to fix to completely supplant BBM in my mind… 

-          Put together some kind of BBM like program and have it installed on each Iphone with the next software update..

-          Find a way to figures out that "Can't Undo Cancel" message I get 10 times per day

-          Figure out a way to shrink my fat thumbs so I can actually type on your piece-of-crap device