BBM for Android and iPhone is here | Hacker News Reader

BBM for Android and iPhone is here

global.blackberry.com

28 pointsvaljavec48 comments

A few years ago this would have been a killer app. Now I don't know a single person that owns a Blackberry (outside of a few that have them as work phones - and so, I won't BBM them)

Came here to say this - it could have been something like WhatsApp if it was done early enough.

Blackberry once again produces too little too late.

Don't ask me why, but young women for some reason have them. I can't get a straight answer out of them either.

BBs are cheap and easy to text on.

Further to your point about cheap, traditionally BBMs wouldn't incur text message fees. These days though it seems like carriers offer plans with a sufficient number of text messages for most people... which isn't a surprise given the huge markup that they've always had.

Low cost device paired with BBM, with the major feature being BBM PINs are essentially anonymous and decoupled from the ph#

Maybe full keyboards are easier to type on with long nails?

I heard this all the time when I worked at a Verizon. Girls with nails can type at 60+ wpm on the blackberry keyboards, it's unbelievable.

Downloaded, installed, and opened App hoping to see a modern Blackberry. And here's what I got:

    Due to the incredible demand there is a line-up to start using BBM.

Incredible demand? You just launched it and there's not even a review on App Store yet. Not sure if this is part of their marketing or something, but now I feel bothered and not expecting at all. Btw, the UI of the "line-up" screen really needs some refinement IMHO.

It seems like they're trying to stoke artificial demand (similar to the Mailbox.app roll out). Except I doubt there is a real technical problem backing said slow rollout.

BBM alledgedly had load issues because of a leaked android version maybe a month ago....

You don't even need to wait for it. I just clicked through the waiting screen and logged in.

This doesn't work for me (on an iPhone).

I'm gonna download this and try to use it on my iOS device. Not because I care about BlackBerry, but because I highly support the fact it's available on iOS, Android, and BlackBerry.

I really really want iMessage to be available on other platforms too, so I can use it to contact people without iOS.

So I'm doing this to send a message and show my support.

Or just download WhatsApp. You can even get that on Symbian phones.

iMessage depresses me. It's great. It integrates with the OS on a level that Apple is never going to allow anyone else to do. And they're not going to let anyone else use the iMessage network, either.

I don't get why Blackberry would do this. Quite a large number of my students have Blackberry devices (its fairly popular with under 16s still), and when I ask them why, they inevitable lament the awful phone but say they need it as their friends use BBM. Now they have exactly zero reasons to purchase new Blackberrys.

They are trying to stay relevant.

At some point, those folks aren't going to tolerate shitty hardware for BBM, especially as their friends give up on it. Relying on BBM as the sole selling point for hardware is doomed to failure.

I agree. And yet, and yet... at the moment, it's pretty much all they've got, and they're giving it away.

I think they were inspired by the fact that Skype was sold for more money than Nokia.

Nobody wants a BB device. Our workplace has been trying to push these devices on users for free, and they would rather purchase $750.00 iPhone.

Myself, I love the BlackBerry 10 OS but it is rough around the edges, lack of ecosystem, apps, and hardware isn't the greatest. I think what they are trying to do with BBM is get some brand recognition back and then hopefully sway people over to buy their next gen devices in the future. Even BBM as a service could be enticing, enterprise cloud by BB. Also, BBM will help sell enterprise customers on BB devices because they are able to communicate with their friends on other platforms.

Edit: Anyone else lamenting the fact BBM should have been available 5-years ago should start looking at iMessage in the same terms. At that point it didn't make sense to lose their hardware advantage now they have to throw everything and hope something sticks.

The Android app is atrocious. I guess I didn't expect much more out of Blackberry.

Why is it atrocious? Other reviewers are ranking it close to 4.5/5. (source:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bbm&hl=en)

I sampled a few of the reviews and the regularity of text patterns is just plainly obvious. I don't believe these are real reviews.

At this point I don't know why they even bother releasing new products that are doomed to fail. Releasing products that are DOA will only cause their stock price/company value to plummet even further and ultimately make the company less attractive to potential buyers while eroding the potential sale price of the company at the shareholders's expense.

Their application is poor. They're trying to build up hype using the same technique as Mailbox. Only, their app is poorly designed — the smiley for instance doesn't seem to be retina — and they've missed out a crucial element which built up further hype with Mailbox, the counter.

I will happily replace any third party messenger I currently use with one that sends notifications to all my devices (like iMessage does). I haven't tried this with BBM yet but does anyone know of a third party service that would send messages to all my devices with the app installed?

Google Hangouts

+1, Google Hangout does a great job on this + archiving the conversations in your mail inbox.

Another one is Facebook, where you do not have to request a messaging connection to the other party.

Wow this app just feels so.... crappy. The UI just feels very amateurish. The whole smiley face logo thing or whatever it is makes me feel like I'm using AIM circa 1999.

It is not there yet. When you install it it says "There is a line for this app, you will have to wait". (or something like that).

I'm so sorry for the engineers who worked on this. Working on a Dead-Before-Arrival project must be depressing.

It's interesting that they have a waiting list. I guess it could just be for marketing purposes, but you'd think that BB probably has the most experience of any company building scalable messaging infrastructure. I can't imagine their system would buckle under the load of a couple million users.

They tried to release it a few weeks ago and it didn't work under the stress. So I'm guessing this is to let it build up a little slower.

I'm sure you're right. I just don't understand how this is a problem that Blackberry could have. They've been doing high volume messaging for longer than anyone. This is a terrible analogy, but it would be like McDonalds having a waiting list for Big Macs at some random new low volume location because they don't know how to make them fast enough. I say low volume because the additional BBM users they're getting from Android and iOS (I would imagine low to mid single digit millions in the short term) can't possibly compare to the number of existing users they have on Blackberry devices.

As much as I love(d) Blackberries, the messaging experience and the BBM—this page looks like pure irony.

5 years ago, yes, this would be massive and had the potential to get bigger than any other messenger. But now, where tons of messengers are avail with Whatsapp leading the way, no chance.

This is so sad.

The iPhone login process is so broken it's sad. We can read about BlackBerry's grand strategic errors, but maybe it's simpler: they just forgot how to execute.

"This item cannot be installed in your device's country."

I wouldn't mind having something akin to Blackberry Hub on my Android, yet I'm not sure I need another messenger.

Google Play shows this as incompatible with both of my tablets (Nexus 7 and 10), so apparently this is only installable on phone models.

Was expecting it to be available on my Palm Pre...

As a never-time Blackberry user, I cannot think of one single reason I would want to install this on my iPhone.

Hurray! Now I can send a message via BBM to my one friend (soon to be buying an iPhone) with a Blackberry!

Searching for BBM on the iOS App Store shows BBM only after flipping through 7-8 apps

they are soo late! Sorry BB!

Blackberry? What's that?

I wonder what the BlackBerry Babes will have to say about this. Is an Android running BBM as desirable as a BlackBerry? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lDJGHCX2wA

I'm curious why an on-topic link to a popular TV show (yes, popular culture exists outside the US) is being so downvoted.

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