BBM On Android - The 1-Day Review

Alright, BBM is official and it's running on Android. It's not without tons of problems and hick-ups.  Basically, my marketing instinct considered BlackBerry is running a PR nightmare.

Here is my review for the 1-day experience with BBM.

Interface

It's cold and stiff. Even with the new design based on BB10 OS, BBM is too plain. Of course there are rooms for improvements:
- improve touch response
- inconsistent touch gesture access
- background customization
- less repetitive buttons
- larger emoticon (currently sooooo tiny)
- logical hidden menu
- cross apps sharing
- personalized status home page
- no tablet interface

The first thing I noticed was the hidden menu are repeating everywhere, such Invite button appears in 3 places despite 2 being hidden. So unnecessary, but it does hide the lack of additional features of BBM at first glance.

Fun factors when using the BBM is sorely missed. My wife is not tech savvy, but she immediately said she didn't like BBM within the first 2 minutes. Sure, BBM made Voice Note and Picture Sharing famous, but those are previous age features. Nowadays, messaging apps compete on video calls, video sharing, stickers, personalization, etc. The fun factors of messaging which make them "fun" to use.

And NO, BBM is designed for business is NOT a good reason for not including those features. It's like having a wedding cake without decorations, just the cake.

Network Communication

The legendary BlackBerry encryption and secure network is probably the only asset that BlackBerry has, which won't mean anything now with Samsung Knox and others producing similar security.  In fact, the communication slowed down by the process of cross network transfers.

A strange, if not a bug, anomaly is that BBM doesn't appear to have 'First In-First Out' traffic control over the messages typed in. Meaning if 1 message failed to be sent (maybe bad signal or interference), it will be sent later, much later than the next input you have typed in. This makes the conversation confusing to users and can cause misunderstandings. Business people won't like it. Even worse, those in romantic relationship will scream.

The Launch (Marketing Commentary)

Imagine you are launching a rocket to the moon, you will prepare everything and calculate every risk that can occur.  BlackBerry (previously RIM) should know that they don't have the infrastructure to contain to flood of users wanting to either use or try BBM, especially on Android environment.  Yet, the preparation was not well calculated. Disaster occured and they missed the launch event.

The second launch, they knew what to expect, again they failed to manage the risk. Instead of letting potential customers know ahead of tome there will be a line of waiting list for the pin registration, they just took it as it came to them. This mishap caused them loss of users. They should have more than 10 millions users within the first 10 hours if they managed it the right way from the beginning.  Blackberry is happy with nearly 5 millions users in 8 hours.  Even McDonald's gives us counters of how many burgers they served which is great PR for the Golden Arc brand.

Conclusion

BBM launch is a catastrophy and BBM is a major disappointment.  It's like witnessing an Ape Man walking in New York City.  BBM is still admiring the city, forgetting that they should have been the awe of competitors and users.

Will BBM survive the new messaging age?  If they are quick to improve BBM, maybe.  If their headstrong tradition dictates BBM is good enough, well, like I said before, we are witnessing history in the making. This is the 'do or die' time for BlackBerry.  Either we, the users, will attend a funeral soon or a celebration of success.

First Impression: BBM on Android - Official - Part 4

Finally, after false start, frozen server, damaged network, BlackBerry sold, re-announcement. It's here, BBM the official app for Android.

Here is the Playstore link: "BBM" - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bbm

It's free and still so many fake apps, so follow the link, you will be okay.

The Impression

Well, similar to the beta with minor revisions. Obviously, Smoother than the beta. However, with layer of network communication required for BBM to get connections, the app messaging is a tad slower.

The menu is simple. Swipe left to right for main messaging menu, right to left for specifically parts menu (like chat, groups, etc).







As for initial registration, for those who has registered, you can just login with your email and password.

For those who has not registered, follow the registration process.

If you want to change email registration, please delete the old one.

The process doesn't take long, compared to the previous version. Once you registered, you will receive your pin.



Use your pin to get added or add others with their pin. As for the precious and addictive groups, scan the group barcode to gain access to the group.

Turning on and off the annoying notification is also easy, by opening the group or person chat, Swipe the menu right to left or access it with the 3 dot menu button on left bottom corner. The toggle of notification can be found there.

Sending voice note and pictures are also smooth, without a hitch.

As mentioned, the only problem that I can notice, or you will soon notice, is the sending and receiving is not as fast as other messaging apps due to the multi-layers network connectivity: BBM App to Internet then to BBM network.

It's not an impressive app, but simple to run and you can get BBM connection.

It's a good beginning though, not major nor impressive, but BlackBerry has finally reopen the BBM to Android. That means BlackBerry, at least, did what they promised. So go ahead and use BBM, the original yet not the best.