After my transition from BlackBerry to Android, my wife and I have been missing BlackBerry Messenger a LOT. BBM was great for sending photos quickly between the two of us (she still has a BlackBerry). For IM’ing, we’ve taken to Google Talk, and while it works, it’s just not there in terms of functionality if you really need something that can perform the additional things that BBM is just so darned good at.
Why I miss BlackBerry Messenger:
- Send photos, voice notes easily to chat recipient
- Send broadcasted messages to multiple recipients
- Create groups and interact in group chats with multiple recipients
- For others (I didn’t use this), group chat calendar and picture repository
Full disclosure: At the time of this writing, the BlackBerry client is in beta.
Currently at version 2.0 (BB beta notwithstanding), PingChat! is a client that has some compelling features to make it, in some ways, a viable alternative to BBM if you and your friends/spouse have mixed devices. Currently PingChat! supports Android, BlackBerry, iPhone and iPod TouchSo, I installed PingChat! on my wife’s BlackBerry Tour 9630 and on my Droid Incredible. The first thing I noticed right away is that the initial setup screen isn’t quite consistent (at least between these two platforms). For example:
- When signing up on the Android phone, PingChat asked if I would like to use my mobile number as my id or create a new id using PingChat!’s system. On the BlackBerry, it asked you to create an account, but no option for using the mobile number.
- On the Android, I could easily link my wife’s ad hoc contact to my address book. On the BlackBerry, it was a bit difficult noticing when the ‘link to contact’ option was highlighted to click on. There was no menu option either (its just good interface design to include a menu option for any major onscreen function)...
- Sending a photo is easy enough on the Android…just click the attachment icon, then browse for your photos via the built-in photo browser. This is NOT the case on the BlackBerry, and is a major shortcoming in my opinion. On the Tour, we had to browse the folder structure of her SD card in order to find the photo to send, and to top it off, there are no thumbnails, so unless you’ve named your pics something useful, good luck finding the right one….
Also, it appeared as though I could add a contact and just start chatting away, even though I don't recall seeing a prompt to accept the contact...
Multimedia files, pics, vids (yes!) and voicenotes were received easily from device to device, and over the WiFi, response was great.
A not-so-serious and very serious concern:
I like the fact that PingChat! will allow my Android device to create an account with my mobile number, but I’m curious as to what happens if I decide to change my number? Do my contacts get updated on their side, or will the person who eventually gets my number have the potential to login and receive chats destined for me?
One huge concern for me is that you don't get a confirmation for a new chat buddy. If someone knows your mobile number or userid, they can just start chatting it up with you. With the lack of a 'friends-only' feature or block capability, this has the potential to cause some serious mental harm to people. Think of it - bad break ups? Stalkers? Sure, you can delete the conversation, but if they keep messaging you...well, then PingChat! isn't the app for you (at this point).
So, some requests:
- Themes - Minor
- Make ‘Link to contact’ a menu option – Minor
- On the BlackBerry, when sending a file through PingChat!, show a dialog for ‘Photo, Video and Audio’ like on the Android - Medium
- Example taken from Android: ‘Share’ menu option to easily transfer a pic or other media file from the picture/media viewer via PingChat! Note that this is different than sharing a picture from the PingChat! application itself – Medium
- Tell us how the chat infrastructure works – some people might want to pay for an enterprise version of this for their workforce, and would likely want to know how secure the chat is - Medium
- Give us an option to buy the application to remove the ads - Medium
- Grant the ability to create a group from the main window (i.e. like a new contact) where you can quickly assign multiple contacts - Major
- On the BlackBerry, add a link from the ‘Send/Share’ menu option while in the media application, akin to sharing via Twitter/Facebook, etc. The current way is not user friendly at all (tweet from @PingChat! states that this will be better in OS 6.0, what about 5.0?) – Major
- DESKTOP CHAT client – this would be a HUGE benefit over BBM – Major
- Block a contact. If you have no way of confirming a new chat buddy, then certainly, a 'block' function would be very useful - Major
- Add a verification prompt for the other user when adding a new contact. This seems rather unsafe, especially if people decide to start harassing or stalking you, coupled with the lack of 'block' feature...you get the idea - Major
Summary:
There are some pretty glaring shortcomings after being held to the very high standard that BlackBerry Messenger has now achieved...namely, the inability to block a contact, no confirmations for chat buddies to be added to other's contact lists, and no way to create a group for later (please prove me wrong on this point - anyone?) makes for some good fodder for Enflick's programmers to work on.
With all that said - don’t get me wrong, I love the thing that PingChat! has going on here. This is a niche that NEEDS to be filled as sending/sharing media via IM is not easy over multiple platforms. If you can make this easy to use for all platforms and make a DESKTOP CLIENT, you will own BlackBerry Messenger.
--- update 10:40pm 8/12/2010 ---
The latest BB build fixes the 'link to contact' oddity I expressed above. Good news!
Install:
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