07 February 2011

BBM vs WhatsApp

So it's become evidently clear that text messaging is the preferred way of communicating. Even though people like myself who are old fashioned and still believe in actual voice calling, we have to admit that sometimes text messaging presents an easier and sometimes more direct approach. Besides the most common method of text messaging (sms), other methods have somewhat become more popular of late like Instant Messaging (IM). I remember a time years ago when IM applications like IRC were very popular and others like Skype, MSN, Yahoo and ICQ dominated the market. The downside to this was that to chat with a contact both you and the contact needed to be online via a desktop computer or laptop and also needed to be connected to the internet. As we know many things have changed since then, IM has become possible via mobile phones and there are hundreds of applications that allow for conectivity. Not to say that applications like Skype, MSN, ICQ and the rest have become obsolete but mobile phone users seem to lean more to other mobile phone specific IM applications like Blackberry's Messenger (BBM), WhatsApp, Mxit and many others.

BBM has been a favourite in the market of mobile IM applications for sometime now. BBM is an IM application specific to Blackberry users and allows for many features like unlimited character length, group chats, push notifications, sharing of pictures and videos and many more. WhatsApp on the other hand is a cross platform IM application, meaning it works with iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia, Android and other smartphone handsets. Its features are very similar to BBM and is fast becoming a popular application. Some of WhatsApp's features in addition to sending text messages are sending Multimedia (audio, photo, video) as well as Map locations. WhatsApp will also automatically scan your contact list on your phone to find friends already using the service to add to your contact list.

Below i've added a Pro's and Con's list of the two applications.

Blackberry Messenger (BBM)
Pros:
Threaded text messaging
Group chat
Custom avatars
Set status
Emoticons/Smileys
Take a picture of your friend's bar code to instantly add them to BBM
New interface design
Ability to backup contacts list remotely or locally

Cons:
Voice Notes sometimes fail to send, if not, very slow transfer rate
Pictures sometimes fail to send, if not, very slow transfer rate
Pictures must be saved to your Device Memory or Media card first before viewing
Status updates is limited to two lines

WhatsApp 
Pros:
Cross platform (works on all smartphones including Blackberry)
Automatically scans your phone's contacts to find friends using the service
Can send all multimedia (videos, photos, audio) and map locations
Includes delivered and sent items in thread
Clean interface
Set status

Cons:
No group chat
Free only for the first year, thereafter $1,99 

At the risk of sounding biased, I will have to admit that a cross platform application definitely trumps the limitation of being able to only text to contacts using the same make of handset. I myself use Whatsapp and have contacts using various smartphones. Having said that, BBM has been around for some time longer than WhatsApp thus being more popular and who knows, the developers might just add a cross platform feature. Anyways, this topic kinda stuck in my head all weekend, hence this post, so I hope you enjoyed it! 

Posted on 14th February 2011
Note: As of February the 10th, WhatsApp now allows for Group Chat.

32 comments:

  1. Great post!! I'm looking forward to get an Iphone and I'm looking for a cross platform to chat with my girlfriend (blackberry user). I think you have set up perfectly the pros and cons of both!

    Thanks for the info!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Oscar, Thank you for the comment. My girfriend has a BB as well and chatting with her from my iPhone is great and most importantly it works! Enjoy :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Update: Whatsapp now has a groupchat though it's now limited to 11 users only.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Danu: Thank you for your comment. I am aware of the group chat feature. It was made available a few days after this post. I added a note at the bottom of the post regarding this. Thanks once again for visiting my site, do come again :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Where does MXit feature in all this hoopla? It's the widest cross platform support for any IM product and over 20 million registered users in this country alone.

    ReplyDelete
  7. thank you for the insight, as much as bbm is good, its limited and needs work, ill be sticking to whatsapp as it is cross-platform!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hey Diki: Apple has released a competitor to Blackberry's BBM, called iMessage. However, even though it allows for instant messaging across all iOS devices like the iPad, iPhone and iPod, it still shares the same limitation that BBM does. That being product loyalty. WhatsApp in my opinion still provides the best cross-platform instant messaging experience.

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    ReplyDelete
  9. BBM will never become cross-platform because people will then stop purchasing BlackBerry phones. Most of my friends and brothers friends at school have bought a Blackberry so the can so-called "BBM" with each others. If What's APP was free after 1 year... I'm sure it will take charge. MXit is slowly losing popularity.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am thinking of developing a similar application... If somebody wants to do this with me... email me!

    ReplyDelete
  11. THERE IS GROUP CHAT ON WHATSAPP !!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Whatsapp rule

    ReplyDelete
  13. Group Chat is already being enabled on WhatsApp and I'm sure soon other features which the BBM has will soon be in WhatsApp as well. ;-)
    Go WhatsApp go!!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Group Chat is already being enabled on WhatsApp and I'm sure soon other features which the BBM has will soon be in WhatsApp as well. ;-)
    Go WhatsApp go!!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Does whatsapp show when someone is typing? If not, that's a con for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  16. 07032179156 add me up on whats app one love

    ReplyDelete
  17. Whatsapp does show when a user is typing, as well as you can now set a profile picture and groups can have up to 20 participants.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Whatsapp show when user is typing, set and share wallpaper,.. I know that Bbm is good but let face it.. BlackBerry phones has stuck in the pass.. would you buy a smartphone just to chat? Or use those cool super phones out there that do everything and chat with every platform? That's the point, I use android, my wife use iPhone, my sister and my son use Nokia, some of my friends use bb.. why limit yourself?

    ReplyDelete
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