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BBM Coming To iOS and Android
grub writes writes with news that BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins has announced that BBM (BlackBerry Messenger, one of the favorite features of BlackBerry device-owners) will soon be coming to rival mobile operating systems. Devices running iOS 6 and Android ICS or later will be supported, pending approval with the App Store and Google Play.
"BBM uses carrier data networks to pass secure messages back and forth through its servers to other BlackBerry users. The service recently gained the ability to make phone calls, conduct video chats and even share screen tops with other BBM users (requires BlackBerry 10). Normal chat and group chats will be the first features to hit the Android and iOS BBM apps, followed by the others (including voice and video) during the course of the year. BBM for Android and iOS will be free."
The company also unveiled a new smartphone today: the Q5. It's a budget device intended for emerging markets.
is it supposed to make me buy a new blackberry?
It was inevitable, BBM was too important to fade away with the handset business. I wonder if this had anything to do with approving iOS and Android for use by certain governmental agencies (DoD, etc).
Now I can use this supremely user-friendly chat system that assigns me a random 8-digit hex string as an ID on my iPhone!
--Joakim Ziegler
Can you say too little too late?
No. But I can BBM it.
It was only inevitable, now that the company has come to its senses "Whatsapp" and Apple's "Messages" might hit hard, can't say in terms of sales for respective brand's devices though.
The service recently gained the ability to make phone calls, conduct video chats and even share screen tops with other BBM users
So this new service will allow me to make phone calls. With my phone.
So what does this do that I can't already do with Android or iPhone? I mean other than share screen tops. I don't I can do that with my current phone, as I have no idea what that is.
But send messages, send pictures, make phone calls. Things I already do, and I've never owned a Blackberry or used BBM.
According to the article this phone will not be available in North America. That's a shame, the Q5 looks to match my preferences. It's got a physical keyboard, it has the new BB10 operating system and it's less expensive than the Q10. Sounds perfect for me.... shame it won't be offered where I live.
black-i-droid
They'll make their money off the back end servers.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
They still have to finish BB10 for playbooks, they still have many bugs to solve on the Z10 and Q5, so why are they planning a new software project, get the old stuff finished, then start a new project. Blackberry takes all the ideals of Agile development and talks a big game but never delivers.
Oooh, encryption, encryption which they'll open up for governments to look at upon demand. I would feel absolutely confident in using encryption which can be bypassed like it wasn't there.
I mean, if it's encrypted it must be secure and good, right?
No, because since they can (and do) bypass it, their encryption is utterly useless. They've already demonstrated they can and will obviate your encryption.
So, I ask again, why is BBM so important? Because your argument for encryption is garbage when they can step around that.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
To have all my activity, my searches for sideboob, my stops at the paraphernalia shop, all automatically reported to all the contacts on my phone. It will be better than Facebook!
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
You can set up your own BES and be the sole holder of the encryption key. I suppose some kind of government intrusion is possible (key loggers, cameras pointed at your phone, whatever), but if the government is motivated enough to go that far, you probably shouldn't be using a cell phone to make your secret plans. For the rest of us, it's plenty fine.
Oooh, encryption, encryption which they'll open up for governments to look at upon demand. I would feel absolutely confident in using encryption which can be bypassed like it wasn't there.
I mean, if it's encrypted it must be secure and good, right?
No, because since they can (and do) bypass it, their encryption is utterly useless. They've already demonstrated they can and will obviate your encryption.
So, I ask again, why is BBM so important? Because your argument for encryption is garbage when they can step around that.
It depends on if these new apps can join a BES (blackberry enterprise server) BBM system. In that mode, the encryption is maintained privately on the server, not by BB, Inc. and therefore it is theoretically secure. I say theoretically since there is still no guarantee that there is not a backdoor present which allows for snooping of intercepted messages anyway...
They should of done this ages ago, now they are on a burning platform and they can't escape.
Thanks for the black eye, atleast there is agreement that droids come last socially, remember there is 'Skyamsn8' for those in the fast lane
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Global reach... Cellular carriers pay a ton of money to pass SMS between carriers when they don't have a peering agreement, which is why a lot of cellular providers all over the world either don't offer international SMS, or charge a lot for it.
That's changing though... the carrier I'm with has peering agreements with enough carriers around the world that they give me unlimited international MMS/SMS messaging included in the base plan (even the $25/mo entry level plan).
3 years ago, BBM on my Android device would have been huge. Today? I don't see the point. None of my friends still have Blackberry, and I can already communicate with people around the world using Google Talk or SMS. Google Talk also lets me make free international long distance phone calls, while still only has the same limitations that BBM does: it's effectively insecure and only works with other people who subscribe to it.
Therefore: lololol BB fail!
Finally, I'll be able to even share screen tops, so all those screen bottoms won't be lonely anymore!
...
Maybe the next version of BBM will let us share screen lefts, rights, fronts, and/or backs!
They're really creating a whole new market here. Most understated tech development of 2013, mark my words!
Wait, what?
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
Google Talk also lets me make free international long distance phone calls, while still only has the same limitations that BBM does: it's effectively insecure and only works with other people who subscribe to it.
Not entirely true. It works with anyone with a XMPP account.
BES is a closed source app running on a windows server, so your use of the word "theoretically" is extremely appropriate here. It might provide secure encryption, but it'll be pretty hard to tell for certain.
You mean, just like google voice, google chat, whatsapp, textfree, text+ viber, and the other 8000 chat apps I'm forgetting? They no longer enforce duplicate functionality and haven't for some time.
SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
I think RIM is seeing the success of WhatsApp and wants a piece of that pie.
They already have the infrastructure in place and only need to code client software. In the future they could charge users on non-Blackberry platforms a small subscription fee.
WhatsApp charges $1 a year. It's negligible, but when multiplied by hundreds of millions of users? Not so negligible anymore!
There are far too many proprietary im services out there...
Email was great, there are many different email services, and they all interoperate...
The telephone is great too, there are many different telcos and they all interoperate.
But since then...
First we had IRC, all these disparate unconnected networks but at least you could still use a client of your choice.
Then we got instant messaging... ICQ, AIM, Yahoo etc, all unconnected and each with its own client. Multi protocol IM clients made this slightly less intolerable but still, you need a bunch of accounts to talk to different people and you end up having to sign up new accounts because one friend of yours happens to use a service you haven't used before.
And today it just gets worse and worse, services are increasingly proprietary and there are more and more of them every week. It's absolute madness!
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
SMS is encrypted over the air on any modern GSM network...
Do you trust RIM more than your carrier? Both are still subject to government demands for lawful interception.
If you're really concerned about encryption, you should encrypt the data end to end where only you and who you're communicating with have the keys, not any third parties in between. BBM doesn't provide this.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
It'll send text messages, voice, video chat, etc. over your data plan to any other BBM user. That way it burns through your data allotment rather than your voice/text allotment.
It'll be particularly handy if you have, say, a 3G tablet that doesn't do voice, or if you have access to a cheap data plan but your voice calls and texts are relatively expensive.
BBM goes through their network, not via your BES...
Incidentally, pull the battery out of your blackberry... Now put it back in, power it up and watch what it does...
It boots, then starts talking to your BES and retrieving mail in the background *before* you have unlocked the device. Therefore:
The unlock requirement is enforced by the device itself.
The keys necessary to access your BES and the encrypted data on the device are stored on the device itself.
This is known as client side security, and i shouldn't have to explain why it's bad.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
"Google Talk [...] while still only has the same limitations that BBM does: it's effectively insecure and only works with other people who subscribe to it"
GTalk is XMPP which is both secure (OTR for end to end encryption and TLS for client/server communication) and open to the world (server2server/federation has been activated many years ago).
This is known as client side security, and i shouldn't have to explain why it's bad.
No. In this context it is a good thing.
A server relying on the client to validate inputs (aka "client side security") is a bad thing because a bogus client can provide harmful inputs which the server will foolishly trust.
However, with encrypted messages it is vital that the client is the only device that can decrypt them. If any other device (e.g. your messaging server) can decrypt messages then you have no way of knowing if the communications channel is still secure.
If the US/Canadian/NATO governments knew that the crypto could be broken, they wouldn't give RIM certifications:
And those governments are using the exact same server software that they'd sell to you or me?
Maybe BlackBerry is as secure as people claim them to be. I certainly hope so! But I absolutely would not take a proprietary encryption vendor's word for it.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
As Rene Ritchie points out, "every single one of Apple's major mobile competitors now makes apps for iOS."
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
1) I wonder why RIM would take one of the things people like about their platform and give it away free to competing platforms? It's not like BBM is a wasteland with no existing users.
2) If only Apple would open up iMessage, then this would be a real story. I can only dream of the day when I can iMessage from a PC using Pidgin.
I bet that once the MDM code for the BES10 Secure Work Spaces got done to talk to the SRP infrastructure, 90pc of the work to make BBM work on those platforms was done too.
Where's the protocol's formal specifiction? Where's the source for the reference client implemention? And the server one?
Without any of those, there's no way to prove that what you're saying is true.
Google Talk also lets me make free international long distance phone calls, while still only has the same limitations that BBM does: it's effectively insecure and only works with other people who subscribe to it.
Google Talk is a federated XMPP server. I chat with dozens of friends who use it, without having my own google account; I just use my own XMPP server.
XMPP has end-to-end encryption, both for chat and video (pidgin-gpg, jitsi, etc).