BlackBerry Messenger vs Apple iMessage (ios 5)

By Paul Briden - Published on Oct 14, 2011

We take a look at Apple's new iMessage service from iOS 5 and see how it compares to RIM's well-entrenched BlackBerry Messenger

RIM's BlackBerry Messenger pioneered the whole 'integrated messaging' service, which Apple – in true Apple-style – has now imitated with iMessage on iOS 5.

The premise is fairly simple, you can send messages through your phone’s Wi-Fi or 3G data connectivity rather than through your carrier’s network, meaning you save the cost of the text message.

You’re still using data of course, but if you connect through Wi-Fi or have a 3G connection plan which includes a certain amount of free data then what you’re getting is a completely free messaging service.

It goes further than basic cost-savings though, as in each case the messaging is instantaneous, it’s rather similar to conventional computer-based instant-messaging programs such as MSN Messenger, Google Talk or Facebook Chat, except through your phone.

First, let’s take a look at the features in the original phone messaging service: BlackBerry Messenger.

By now, BlackBerry Messenger (also known as BBM) is much more advanced than when it started and is, in many ways, more akin to an integrated social network on your phone, in the vein of Facebook or other computer based social networks.

You have a couple of options for adding contacts on BBM, either through a user’s email address or via the BlackBerry PIN (personal identification number).

Another newer option is by using a BlackBerry phone’s in-built barcode scanner to scan someone’s personal BlackBerry barcode.

Just like Facebook, users can create groups, complete with a group name, icon, description and various settings for admins, invite options and so on.

Pushing a message out to a group sends it to all members so you can organise events and the like, such as the London Riots.

Again taking cues from social networking, you can add status updates to your profile, as well as a profile picture, and there’s an option to display what music you’re listening to in real-time.

Message features include feedback when a sent message has been read and an indicator for when a contact is typing a response.

Another useful tool is the ‘Ping Contact’ option, which when activated will cause your chosen contact’s BlackBerry handset to vibrate. Think of it as a Facebook poke or an instant messaging ‘nudge’.

Of course, contacts can also do this to you, you can however toggle Ping Contact off on your phone which will mean even if someone tries to ping you it won’t vibrate.

There are also status settings you can change, if set to ‘available’ you will receive alerts from your phone when someone messages you but if you prefer not to be disturbed you can choose a different setting.

BBM also updates your status itself intuitively depending on what you’re doing, for example if you’re using your handset’s track wheel, received a recent notification or haven’t yet responded to a pending message, BBM will display your status as ‘busy’.

If your network connectivity drops out or you’re on the phone it’ll switch to ‘unreachable’ and if you see a contact in this mode you can set BBM to alert you when they become available again.

BBM supports multi-tasking and will run in the background, you can also switch between multiple simultaneous conversations.

There’s support for non BBM contacts who you can message from within BBM and it’ll convert into an SMS text message.

Picture, video and voice multimedia messages can also be sent, up to 6MB in size and BBM supports integration with other social networking platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, amongst others.

Now we’ll look at Apple’s iMessage service. Apple does of course have the advantage of coming second to the party as it presumably saw during development all the things which made BBM appealing.

Consequently there’s a lot in iMessage which will sound remarkably similar to what we’ve just described for BBM, all given an Apple twist of course.

One of the more striking differences is that where BBM is a separate service from normal text messaging (even though it has some integration as we mentioned), iMessage is actually completely integrated into the existing Apple Messages app.

Going into the Messages app allows you to turn iMessage on and to toggle ‘Read Receipts’ on or off.

Read Receipts will notify you when a message has been received and when it has been read, just like on BBM. iMessage also shows when someone is typing a response.

The other option in iMessage lets you toggle SMS messaging on or off – this means one of two things, firstly if iMessage is unavailable between Apple devices it’ll send the message as a text instead, the other is that if you’re sending to a non-Apple device it will automatically convert to SMS format.

Here you can also set whether to show a message preview in an alert and whether or not to repeat alerts.

The last setting you can tweak allows you to add multiple email accounts to also receive notification when you are sent a message through iMessage.

Once you’ve set these options up you actually access iMessage directly through the Social Folder and the ‘Messages’ app contained therein.

iMessage supports group messaging but it’s a far more ad hoc affair than BlackBerry’s social network style groups, you can simply add multiple contacts to a message you want to send and continue the conversation with them.

You can also come back to the conversation thread later, so although it is in a sense a semi-permanent group it’s not so solid as BBM’s.

Multimedia attachments and location coordinates are supported just like in BBM, there are also integrated options for sending photos you take with the camera and you have complete control over viewing conversation history, selecting messages and options to delete or forward them to other contacts.

Our conclusion is that BBM has aged rather well, it feels like a deeper and more mature take on phone-based instant messaging with more options to play with.

Having said that, Apple certainly has the right idea with iMessage, it is more intuitive to use and we can see it being developed upon and enhanced into a much more complete offering.

We do like that iMessage is integrated with SMS messaging but we wish it was in a way where you have more direct control over exactly which format you send in.

It’s more or less a draw, both have distinct plus and minus points but both certainly get the job done and are very adept at the task.

BBM depth with an Apple level of presentation and control would be the holy grail really.

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