Just HALF of 10m iPhone, Android BlackBerry BBM app downloads activated

Ten million people have apparently downloaded the new BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) app for Android or iOS in just 24 hours. But with activations being metered out in half-million lumps it will be a while before they can all start chatting. The app, which brings BlackBerry Messenger to Android and iOS gadgets, was launched on …

[Anonymous Coward]

It took about 26 hours...

...for an activation email to appear (early Tuesday morning to 3 am today) in my case.

I suppose it could go either way, but the email I used for pre-registration worked immediately I had downloaded the app.

I find BBM pretty good, and on Android at least I can see that the incoming message isn't marked as read until I've touched the screen for the chat in question so it really can only be the fault of the reader when a message isn't heeded.

If only BB had launched the Z10/Q10 with BBOS 10.2 then it might have sold better, it's actually a very nice phone but in March it was still incomplete from an OS point of view.

[Shades]

Competition Lacking?

From the article:

"Even now BBM has group sending and confirmed delivery features, which are lacking from the competition."

Seriously, what competition have you been using? Probably time to get something a little newer than a 3310!

[JeffyPoooh]

Re: Competition Lacking?

Yeah, no other instant messaging platform provides Delivery and Read receipts.

So they think... LOL.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Competition Lacking?

A read receipt on group messaging is not in WhatsApp so it's a welcome addition for me.

[Gwalachmai]

Re: Competition Lacking?

Whatsapp's dirty little secret is it does NOT do read-receipts. A lot of people think the double-tick means it is read. It doesn't. Look it up.

[Shades]

Re: Competition Lacking?

"Whatsapp's dirty little secret is it does NOT do read-receipts. A lot of people think the double-tick means it is read. It doesn't. Look it up."

Wow, you little crack(berry)-heads are desperate to cling onto absolutely any last straw, aren't you? lol

Dirty little secret? I found what the double-tick means on the WhatsApp website in, ooooh, seconds!

How self-important do you have to think you are to have to know that somebody has read the message you've sent them? If I've sent someone a message, and I know its been delivered, but they haven't read it I couldn't care less. I've done what I needed to do, if they choose to not read it is none of my concern.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Competition Lacking?

I don't need to know that every message has been read but occasionally it can be very handy, especially if you need to change where you're meeting someone etc. BBM has less people on it but in my view its still the most reliable and timely system.

[Levente Szileszky]

Re: Competition Lacking?

"Wow, you little crack(berry)-heads are desperate to cling onto absolutely any last straw, aren't you? lol"

Well, some of us to earn our living do more than flipping burger in your corner joint, our messages also say more than 'lol' usually so yes, we prize our time and the importance of knowing when our message was delivered and when it was read etc - and I'm not even a Blakcberry user, I'm using Android since v1.6 (aka Donut) and I am really happy to have this functionality now.

"Dirty little secret? I found what the double-tick means on the WhatsApp website in, ooooh, seconds!"

In other words you didn't know until know - classic loudmouthed reply...

"How self-important do you have to think you are to have to know that somebody has read the message you've sent them?"

See my first comment above about our different lifestyles... their is a whole world outside of your bubble, pal, be brave and make the first step out...

"If I've sent someone a message, and I know its been delivered, but they haven't read it I couldn't care less. I've done what I needed to do, if they choose to not read it is none of my concern"

But that's just you, really - and that's exactly the attitude that landed you in the burger joint on your corner...

[Shades]

Re: Competition Lacking?

Thank you for making yourself the perfect example of exactly the kind of self important prick with a serious superiority complex I was alluding to.

[Levente Szileszky]

Re: Competition Lacking?

PS: Err, 'their' = there - pardon (clearly due to lack of proper amount of sleep/morning coffee...)

[eJ2095]

Oddly my phone went very weird battery drain.

Wondering then how can the networks in the uk not justify charging you extra for bbm messagner now this is out..

[Anonymous Coward]

BBM is free...

...what you are paying for is access to BIS email and web acceleration on BBOS 7 and older OSs.

BB10 doesn't do any of the BB special data tricks unless you use BES.

[Levente Szileszky]

Re: BBM is free...

"...what you are paying for is access to BIS email and web acceleration on BBOS 7 and older OSs."

Err no, there's no acceleration at all unless you live in some 3rd World country - and even there it's just an old fee, nowadays simply being tacked on as a legacy practice in those countries (also called "ripoff fee" if you prefer a more straightforward tone.)

"BB10 doesn't do any of the BB special data tricks unless you use BES."

As far as I can tell from my limited BES10 trial run there is no "data trick" especially for BBM - aside of being a very good MDM system all BES do is proper encryption but it only makes sense (vis-a-vis NSA et al) if it does NOT cross/end up on any public/commercial service (eg GSM/cell providers, Gmail etc) anywhere in transit.

[JeffyPoooh]

Tuesday's iOS 7.0.3 reportedly breaks it

Deletes a key font. Kinda funny.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Tuesday's iOS 7.0.3 reportedly breaks it

And couldn't possibly be deliberate, at all, oh no!

[Anonymous Coward]

Too little, too late.

They promised this three years ago. I moved from BB to Android and WhatsApp two years ago and will not be getting BBM. None of my friends have BB anymore.

RIM is too far behind the curve on this.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Too little, too late.

You might like to ask WhatsApp about their slightly broken encryption...

[Levente Szileszky]

Re: Too little, too late.

"You might like to ask WhatsApp about their slightly broken encryption..."

...that and their infinite retention of user data including messages - the two together is classic ripe target for a security breach (not to mention certain federal agencies' apparent interests in capturing and retaining your messages sent to your mistress, ahem.)

[JeffyPoooh]

Re: Too little, too late.

"RIM is too far behind the curve on this."

That statement is ironic in containing the phrase "behind the curve" and BlackBerry's *old* company name.

I agree with you, but I love pointing out ironical statements.

[Anonymous Coward]

Surely this just accelerates the end of hardware for Blackberry.

[itzman]

And that may be no bad thing. IBM started making hardware, found itself helping people how to use it, and in the end the software and services eclipsed the hardware almost completely.

This is probably the smartest thing RIM could do. Last years hardware and OS is not an asset: a pan global secure messaging system most certainly is.

I know people who conduct their entire business lives on Blackberries, legal contracts and all.

[Anonymous Coward]

2010 just messaged

and said they wanted their messaging app back.

They also muttered something about faking demand and paying for Android marketplace reviews...

[Trevor Marron]

Re: 2010 just messaged

I noticed the revues on Play, 70% of them say the same thing!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 2010 just messaged

Interesting, but what do the reviews say?

[Fihart]

Annoying

My every dealing with BB since getting one of their phones has left me irritated and wishing I could uncouple the hardware from their services, rather than the other way round.

As I don't think I need push email or BBM, the discovery that Blackberry rendered my SIM unusable for data in my spare Nokia phone was bloody annoying. I gather this doesn't happen with thelatest OS, but my phone runs an older one.

[Gwalachmai]

Re: Annoying

I dont know what your mobile company told you but my guess is they wanted to charge you for expensive other-phone bytes instead of cheap Blackberry bytes. I dont think that's Blackberry's fault.

[Fihart]

Re: Annoying @Gwalchmai

Your comment makes mistaken assumptions about my provider.

T Mobile actually offer a good deal on PAYG data (£20 for 6 months at 500mb a month). This is regardless of phone brand.

The problem for me is that sometimes I'd prefer to carry my old Nokia, which has good mapping and is lighter/slimmer than the Blackberry despite having a bigger battery.

The best explanation I had is that because a Blackberry uses Blackberry's pipes, the SIM is set to do that and won't work with T Mobile's.

I've tried tweeting Blackberry and T Mob for answers but the above explanation, which seems to make sense, came from local Carphone Warehouse branch staff.

To be fair, my greatest irritation (among others) with Blackberry is my phone's 3 minute+ cold boot time. Puzzled that got past the prototype stage.

[Andrew Jones 2]

"Even now BBM has group sending and confirmed delivery features, which are lacking from the competition."

Yes, because Google Hangouts doesn't have group messaging features or the ability to show you a) that a message has been read and b) who in the group has read up to which part of the conversation..... oh wait.... yes, yes it does..... it also works cross platform and on multiple devices at once....

[Mike S]

Hangouts has the same problem as BBM - nobody is using it.

Why is I message the only app that figured out fallback to SMS?

I've used both, I'll take BBM over Hangouts because its novel (to me) and the underdog.

[DJGM]

I'd like to try it, but it doesn't want to work over Wi-Fi on my Android phone!

[Fihart]

@DJGM

Yes, another charming aspect of Blackberry Internet Service -- can't use some apps via wireless, have to use 3G. I suspect the solution is to install non-BB browser (Opera ?) but this sort of corporate intrusiveness is annoying.

[Richard Kelly]

Installed and Dumped

I only installed the app because I was sick of not getting replies to SMS because people had no credit left (I have unlimited text which I never use so god knows what others are doing with texts, maybe eating them)

So after peeing about making an account and then begging my contacts to accept me, all I kept getting was stupid two letter messages and updates about what mp3 someone was listening to. Quite frankly, my nieces taste in music is her own affair and I don't need to know.

Then, the final straw was that my battery was draining so fast that I thought I had a case of amnesia and forgot to charge it that morning. Enough is enough, BBM has gone in the bin, as no doubt the company will be very soon.

[jason 7]

Re: Installed and Dumped

I have to say lack of credit aside, running SMS on a modern Smartphone is excellent.

Why use anything else really, it does the job perfectly.

[Tiny Iota]

Re: Installed and Dumped

Why use anything else really?

Cost - Not everyone has a contract with inclusive “free” SMS

International - Even with a contract, texting to international numbers can cost (if it works at all – in my personal experience I have had problems with international SMS)

International – Same deal when you yourself are abroad sending back home

Sending media - Even with a contract, sending a photo, for example (MMS) can cost

Group messages - SMS can send to multiple people at once but they all receive the message individually, I think.

Yes, there are things like email to get around these limitations, but an app that is free or has limited cost and can be used “free” (yes, you might be paying for the data connection/wifi) is much more appealing.

[jason 7]

Re: Installed and Dumped

Goodness how very 'third world'!"

Never been charged extra for texting to and from abroad.

Maybe a better choice of contract might help?

[BigAndos]

How does this make them money?

I'm curious as to what Blackberry's monetisation plan is for BBM now it is decoupled from the handsets (and associated enterprise products etc. I believe it is a free download and doesn't have advertising is that right? Seems a lot like the Pinterest article I read earlier, and time for an underpants gnome reference:

1) Spend money on developing service for other operating systems

2) Get big user community

3) Spend money maintaining services

4) ????

5) Profit!

[Steve Evans]

Re: How does this make them money?

Shhhhh! Keep quiet!

The whole tech industry relies on you not mentioning the king is naked!

[Jess]

So how secure is this from the NSA

Being Canadian, it won't be subject to American laws, so they will have to use back doors into the phone, rather than the service?

[Terry 6]

Seems to have vanished again

I downloaded it from the Play Store when it reappeared, so did my teenage daughter. I've activated it too.

BUT,

When my wife went to download it last night ( Weds), there it was....Gone.

Searching for BBM on Play Store just gives the usual piggy back spam downloads.

Have they Rim/Blackberry pulled it again?