BlackBerry is not unduly worried about competition from instant messenger WhatsApp saying that BlackBerry Messenger engaged its users more than the app despite having fewer users.
Both BlackBerry Messanger and WhatsApp users exchange 10 billion messages a day on each platform at least according to a study by BlackBerry a month ago. However, BBM has a fifth of the users of WhatsApp at 85 million.
Blackberry Messenger is preferred to other apps as they are more private and personal; the app doesn’t publish details like “last seen at”, one cannot pull out saved contacts of a mobile handset and add it to the chat and finally one has to exchange a PIN number to be added into the group. It is a closed chat app while other instant messengers are open and are more vocal in nature with group chats exchanging jokes and others.
BBM has a unique feature that tells the user that a message sent has been read by the intended person the feature of security to it makes it an official communication tool. With the option of video chat and voice calls in its messaging app makes a difference compared to others.
“Our enterprise users know it is secure to chat on BBM. The chat cannot be copied and sent like in others. Added to that, the log of conversation can be audited and retrieved on the enterprise version of BBM, which cannot be done on any other platform,” said managing director, Sunil Lalvani