BBMe: There is a beginning in every end!

Originally written in German by Paulelmar and translated to English by "DeepL," re-posted with permission.

Hello Community! 

The BBM is dead, long live the BBMe. Almost three weeks have passed since the BBM was switched off. At that time it was definitely not yet clear where the BBM's old users are heading and what alternatives are available. Our team also used the whole of May to test the various messenger alternatives. Of course, we would have liked to have had a clone of the BBM, with individual and group chat functions, a working feed and best of all a channel function. Just a BBM.  

But we hadn't found it. We had tried Threema, Signal, Telegram and also the BBMe, whereby the latter also met with massive resistance in the team, because a) only available for money and b) equipped with supposedly fewer functions than the other messengers. In addition, the BBMe c) had to struggle with the fact that it came from BlackBerry Ltd. We had already voted internally and opted for Threema, when Discord was unexpectedly proposed as another service, which is now our internal team platform. 

Personally, I expected to continue using the BBMe, but it would be more of a side-effect with a handful or two of contacts on my smartphone and PC. But then something surprising happened: There were group invitations trickling in, which aimed at a "revival" or the "support" of the messenger. Then you noticed that some of them didn't want to say goodbye to their old BBM(e) without any noise. I also had the impression that on a worldwide scale quite a few users wanted to close the ranks and hide in the common trenches. Anyway, the number of members in the groups is developing positively, meanwhile there is also a BlackBerryBase BBMe group.  

The start of the BBMe within the worldwide BlackBerry community was/is not without difficulties. On CrackBerry, for example, there are two popular and communicative protagonists who have left no stone unturned in the last three weeks to make the BBMe bad. With arguments based on guesswork and conjecture and above all with two aims: 

- The BBMe is not as secure as other messengers and offers fewer features. - It is not financially worthwhile for BlackBerry Ltd. to support it because the BBMe will never reach significant user numbers. 

The above-mentioned support group, which is made up of around 40 members from all over the world (Base is of course also represented there), has taken up these two lines of argumentation, on the one hand in terms of content and on the other in terms of communication. And he was very diligent. The content work concerns the search for weak points and possibilities for improvement. The huge advantage is that there is also an employee from BlackBerry Ltd. in the group who is actually responsible for the support of the BBMe and listens very carefully. Therefore, the suggestions developed have also been incorporated into the two updates of the app that have already been carried out in the meantime.  

Yesterday, for example, the last update arrived, which has the following changes on board:  - You can mark messages as favorites in order to refer to them later or edit them. - More message types can now be forwarded as attachments in a post - Videos can now be recorded and sent directly in a chat 

- Most importantly, the encryption keys used can now be verified manually to additionally secure the chats. 

This makes the security problem with encryption, which allegedly still exists, even more untrustworthy. 

At the same time, the group also reviewed the argument that BBMe offered less than the free Messenger versions and created a folder comparing the different Messengers. And, lo and behold, this argument doesn't really stand out either. The folder was finished yesterday, you can download it here. It is (still) in English, but will be translated soon. The creation of this information would actually have been the task of the marketing department of BlackBerry Ltd., but you know: BlackBerry and marketing, that doesn't fit! 

And that brings us to the communicative part of the Supporter Group's work. We also try to present the BBMe with its features and advantages in the various forums and to defend it against the obvious writing of a broken letter. There are arguments, such as ... - the one-year limited offer to use the BBMe free of charge would be a fig leaf from BlackBerry Ltd. to keep customers in business after the abrupt end of the BBM.  - the argument that with the BBMe would BlackBerry itself  

And that brings us to the communicative part of the Supporter Group's work. We also try to present the BBMe with its features and advantages in the various forums and to defend it against the obvious writing of broken documents. There are arguments, such as ... - the one-year limited offer to use the BBMe for free would be a fig leaf from BlackBerry Ltd. to keep customers in business after the abrupt end of the BBM.  - the argument that the BBMe would cause BlackBerry itself financial losses with the subscription fee of €5.60, since the companies would have to pay €50 and more for the right BBMe and thus each subscriber would damage the shareholders by at least €45. - and generally, nobody would be interested in such a bad product anyway. 

We are all convinced that dear Chen, who by the way confirmed his support in his blog post, is a pure figures person and does not let himself be guided by such altruistic motives of customer loyalty, if he did not have a plan. Above all, he wouldn't invest a single cent in updates and support (yes, there is!) to keep a few consumers in the game.  

And the argument that the BBMe wouldn't lure anyone out behind the stove has also been refuted. The download numbers in the Play Store show this. Although the numbers are still marginal compared to WhatsApp and Co. (in the three weeks between 600,000 and 1,000,000 downloads), the BBMe should not and cannot become a mass app. It's different, it's safe, it's good.  

So please take a look at the BBMe and put it through its paces yourself. If you have only few direct contacts, join the various groups. Form your own opinion as to whether the equivalent of two cappuccinos for the BBMe is not a sensible investment.  

It's worth it! Promised! 

If you want to download the app, you can do it here! 

Greetings Paulelmar 

BBMe Desktop, First Impressions Gone Loopy Great...

Communicating while sharing screens

I invited a friend to install BBMe for a test run and just the simple barrier of convincing this friend that the $5 a year subscription after a year free trail is worth it was overcome once this friend saw what both the phone App and desktop BBMe can do.

After our test today, this friend is going to share his experiences he had with me today with others. And so I am doing a little of my part in letting others know what a great solid and responsive communication tool that BBMe has become in it's short history.

You will not see any emojis or layering of dragons over your face. What you will find is a robust set of features and tools for both text and voice/video communications with screen and app view sharing that goes both ways.

I will go through each screen shot as to illuminate a discovered feature or function.

1. Screen sharing from the other end:

I am able to view the other ends screen, with the option to view anything they are viewing.

2. Dual sharing on both ends of the communication of screens.

Here we are able to share both our screens with each other and easy access for any of us to disable the sharing with a quick click on the top middle of screen.

3. Communicated elsewhere on BBMe Desktop while on a call sharing screens:

Here I am communicating on the BBMe Support Group in BBMe and talking and sharing screens with my friend at the same time.

4. Sharing desktop audio (music):

Here my friend increases volume of the app playing music and now I am able to hear that music.

5. My sharing audio to my friend:

I increase the volume of my music (Piano Bar) to share with my friend.

6. Either I can share view of my full screen or a specific app I have loaded.

7.  What another screen app looks like if you share only one app view.

For your privacy, if you share screen of only one app then any other apps will be grayed out.

Any PDF files or other files are stored locally on each machine of everyone in the share (ie as in a group) and will have the file on their computer when they connect. And as such the file opens locally from your computer.

I hope that this short documented experience will give you an idea if you would like to use BBMe on your Desktop and or Phone. This article may be updated as I discover and begin to use new features on the Desktop application.

Regards,

Jason Page

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BBMe to replace BBM (BlackBerry Messenger)...

If you have been using BBM for years you probably have received the "goodbye" message, stating that on May 31st, BBM services will be withdrawn and anything hosting on the service will cease to exist.

It was to little service to users to let them know that BlackBerry would be offering their corporate messaging services to consumers for a small fee of $5 a year (first year is free.) You can find this service in your Android and iOS app store under "BBMe" and the 'e' is for enterprise.

It offers the no thrills services you depend on for secure messaging, only all hosted and provided for by BlackBerry, as it should.

BBMe offers the following privacy features: authentication via PIN, timed messages, retractable messages, and private chats. It's also usable cross-platform so you can even access BBM on your desktop computer.

The problem with BBM is it tried to attract the mainstream crowd of users and offered a bunch of unnecessary features such as stickers and emojis that served no purpose to the more important use of secure messaging.

They failed to compete with everyone else when BBM should have just stayed where they where at. In a way they have, with the offerings of BlackBerry Messenger Enterprise to consumers.

Signup today and enjoy secure calls over wifi and secure messaging with secure features. BlackBerry prides themselves on not selling your information to third parties which they claim their competitors do in order to offer their service as free.

As the saying goes, you can't get anything free. Somewhere a bill is being paid to supply your service. So duly support BlackBerry in their effort to offer you their service for secure messaging. One BBMe member, "Andy" responded to me:

"Hopefully it will get some momentum. I think the small fee is worth it to use a stable and privacy focused messenger with no adverts that doesn’t trade off your personal data."

Some quotes from BBMe users:

"Some consumers are using encrypted messaging powered by companies like Google, Facebook, or their carriers, all of whom aggregate, monetize (and therefore risk compromise of) personal information." - bb10adopter111, Crackberry Forums

"For a $5 a year, you get a securely encrypted collaboration tool that does not require a phone number, that works cross-platform, supports individual and groups messaging, timed messages and retraction, protects against screenshots, does not collect user data for monetization purposes, has clear audio and video, screen sharing and can be used on multiple devices simultaneously." - Matt J, Crackberry Forums

"The messenger deserves to be tried. It's miles better than the old BBM and also better and safer than many other messengers. It fits well with the security philosophy of a BlackBerry smartphone, and that's another fact." - Paulelmar18, Crackberry Forums

For more information on BBMe visit [https://www.blackberry.com/us/en/products/messaging/bbm-enterprise/overview]

Sincerely,
Jason S. Page
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