Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

To my former BBM users...

whoathere

whoathere

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 8, 2006
356
3
Rockford, IL
What messaging apps are you guys using to replace BBM?

I've got 5 close friends all on corporate blackberry accts and they do not sms unless absolutely necessary. BBM was our way of keeping in touch all day without anyone knowing.

What's the solution now that some of us have iPhones?
 
Any IM application that can log you out is not the same thing as BBM. Yahoo & AIM are not solutions. Your options are:

Whatsapp
Kik - although I believe it was removed from the Blackberry app store b/c it was too close to BBM with the read & delivered receipts.
Beluga
Pingchat
SMS
Email
 
I've found that the Skype client works incredibly well for instant messaging on the iPhone, to the point that I've started using it exclusively to talk to a few of my friends from my phone.

Since it's a VoIP app, it gets a pass on staying background logged in. This means that when someone messages you on Skype you get the message instantly and not through a push notification.

So give it a try. :)
 
whoathere said:
What messaging apps are you guys using to replace BBM?

I've got 5 close friends all on corporate blackberry accts and they do not sms unless absolutely necessary. BBM was our way of keeping in touch all day without anyone knowing.

What's the solution now that some of us have iPhones?
Click to expand...

I use Pingchat.com

It works exactly like BBM.. the other party must have this app as well.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_6 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E200 Safari/6533.18.5)

I'll add a vote to beluga

Amazing messaging app
 
zorinlynx said:
I've found that the Skype client works incredibly well for instant messaging on the iPhone, to the point that I've started using it exclusively to talk to a few of my friends from my phone.

Since it's a VoIP app, it gets a pass on staying background logged in. This means that when someone messages you on Skype you get the message instantly and not through a push notification.

So give it a try. :)
Click to expand...

Skype here as well. Works perfectly.
 
Literally everyone in The Netherlands has Whatsapp on their phone (if available ofcourse), I don't know this is in other countries but I think Whatsapp is your best bet.

A bit offtopic, but I think it's also funny that Blackberries are mainly used by kids here (age 15-20), in contrast to the US where BB's are mainly used by business people.
 
whoathere said:
What messaging apps are you guys using to replace BBM?

I've got 5 close friends all on corporate blackberry accts and they do not sms unless absolutely necessary. BBM was our way of keeping in touch all day without anyone knowing.

What's the solution now that some of us have iPhones?
Click to expand...

kind of a bad idea posting here.

people who have never used bbm will tell you a chat client (yahoo, msn, etc) or email is the same thing, blah blah blah :rolleyes:

use whatsapp, it's the best and it will tell you what contacts have whatsapp installed. no PIN, or adding contacts is necessary. if they're in your phone book, you'll see them in your whatsapp contacts
 
acfusion29 said:
kind of a bad idea posting here.

people who have never used bbm will tell you a chat client (yahoo, msn, etc) or email is the same thing, blah blah blah :rolleyes:

use whatsapp, it's the best and it will tell you what contacts have whatsapp installed. no PIN, or adding contacts is necessary. if they're in your phone book, you'll see them in your whatsapp contacts
Click to expand...

I agree with everything you just said.

Whatsapp was one of the best $.99 app i bought. Definitely get that, i talk with all my BlackBerry, Android and iPhones friends with it.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_6 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E200 Safari/6533.18.5)

Already have whatsapp installed and running. So far so good

Thanks for the recomendations.
 
jw nyc said:
Any IM application that can log you out is not the same thing as BBM. Yahoo & AIM are not solutions.
Click to expand...

AIM stays logged in even when you quit the application (unless you set it otherwise). You can even send SMS messages through it and use facebook chat.
 
JRoDDz said:
AIM stays logged in even when you quit the application (unless you set it otherwise). You can even send SMS messages through it and use facebook chat.
Click to expand...

What you're not understanding is that while YOU may remain logged in, your friends won't. They will log in and out all day every day and you will have to check to see if they are online. Then if they're online you won't know if they're logged in on their computer or their phone and if they left their computer on you won't know why they're not responding. If they're not online then you have to go back and send an SMS or use another form of communication.

BBM is ALWAYS logged in and ONLY on your mobile device (which most people have on them at all times). If you know your contact has it, you know you can reach them via that method and it's usually the BEST method to reach them b/c it confirms their device received the message and ALSO confirms when they READ the message.

Anyone who compares AIM or any other desktop application to BBM, simply hasn't used BBM. They're not comparable...AT ALL.
 
PingChat! is the best I have seen for free. You can tell when you message is sent and when it has been read. The only missing piece are emoticons. They have updated the app quite a few times and always seem to add something else to make it better and better each time.

You also cannot log off from PingChat. It is always on.
 
jw nyc said:
What you're not understanding is that while YOU may remain logged in, your friends won't. They will log in and out all day every day and you will have to check to see if they are online. Then if they're online you won't know if they're logged in on their computer or their phone and if they left their computer on you won't know why they're not responding. If they're not online then you have to go back and send an SMS or use another form of communication.

BBM is ALWAYS logged in and ONLY on your mobile device (which most people have on them at all times). If you know your contact has it, you know you can reach them via that method and it's usually the BEST method to reach them b/c it confirms their device received the message and ALSO confirms when they READ the message.

Anyone who compares AIM or any other desktop application to BBM, simply hasn't used BBM. They're not comparable...AT ALL.
Click to expand...


I'm not sure about the AIM standalone messenger as I don't use it, but other standalone messengers I use like MSN & Yahoo messengers do let people know your on mobile instead of desktop. Also the BeeJiveIM client does so as well which I use all my messenging accounts on. I have people messenging me all the time knowing I'm logged on from my iPhone.
 
LIVEFRMNYC said:
I'm not sure about the AIM standalone messenger as I don't use it, but other standalone messengers I use like MSN & Yahoo messengers do let people know your on mobile instead of desktop. Also the BeeJiveIM client does so as well which I use all my messenging accounts on. I have people messenging me all the time knowing I'm logged on from my iPhone.
Click to expand...

You're completely missing the point. Most people are not logged in to any of those services all the time. That fact alone prevents it from being a primary source of communication. All the other factors I mentioned are other reasons that desktop IM clients (even if used on a phone) cannot be compared to BBM. They're not the same. They never will be the same. They need to stop being compared by people who have never used BBM.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back