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.