Gadgetory

hello again ladies and gentlemen I'm Joe handy the Android authority app guy and black brain messenger has finally made it to Android in this video we're going to do a full review of the application your time is valuable so is mine so let's get started the first thing we'll talk about is the design initially the design was somewhat controversial since bbm follows the BlackBerry OS standard of design and not Android believe it or not it's a change you won't notice all that much the left side slide-out menu is still present but there is a second menu on the right side that slides out as well generally speaking the left side menu acts as a sitemap of sorts you use it to navigate around the app the right side menu changes depending on what you're doing inside of the app so if you're in the group section the options will be different than in the contacts section general movement and chats look about how you expect you open the chat and there are chat bubbles the action bar is a little taller than other messaging apps but usually doesn't get in the way too much there are icons for when messages are delivered and received the chat section looks like the good old fashioned Google Talk interface while the contacts and group tabs use more of a tile layout the last thing we'd like to mention are the settings you can remove that obnoxious notification icon if you want to bbm for Android warns that if you do messages may not send or be received so that's a risk reward situation you'll have to work out on your own you can also tap on your own picture at any time to view your bbm pin change your profile picture or update your status okay so here's how this app actually works there are a few ways to get contacts invited to your list you can send your pin via email SMS and other typical services if you're actually with the person you can create a barcode that the other person can scan this may seem outdated but it actually works for all major platforms at bbm supports so you can use this method to swap contact info with say an iPhone or a blackberry owner lastly and my personal favorite you can use NFC to swap contact details just tap the phone together and then tap the screen and things are done from here you can do a lot of stuff there is emoji support similar to hangouts there is group chat support but we'll talk more about that here in a minute obviously one on one conversations work fairly well you can send voice notes and photos as attachments along with regular text messages there are no video chats yet but we assume that's coming eventually general speaking all of these functions work perfectly fine you can also do a lot of smaller things like send broadcast messages out to multiple contacts ping people which shows up as a separate notification from regular messages and even copy the entire chat if you need to log it somewhere ok let's circle back and talk about groups using this you can create a group add people and interact with them all at once this is similar to having a hangouts with a lot of people in a certain circle differences bbm for Android goes more in depth with it you can upload pictures to create galleries that everyone in the group can see you can create lists which then can be assigned to contacts as tasks you can even set events that everyone in the group can see if used properly this can be a very powerful real-time way to manage and communicate effectively with people in a business environment this is admittedly far more than you can get with competitor apps the first thing that jumped out at us was the ease-of-use there are at least three different ways to add contacts you can do the conventional method if you wish or you can use the NFC tap or the barcode scan to add people the chat contacting grouped tabs are all pretty much self-explanatory and no one should have any problems figuring out how things work after you get used to the dual menus nothing in this app is hard to find or master another thing we found particularly wonderful were the groups the task lists the group gallery the group events and the group chat put together create a comprehensive group experience unlike anything else you'll find in the messaging space it can be used for things as simple as keeping in contact with all of your friends at once but the tools provided can be useful in pretty much any group atmosphere be it business or pleasure so here's what we didn't like the design is functional but not all that good-looking when I went through this app the first time it was the features that impressed me and not the interface since the design is functional it's hard to denounce it entirely however there were little things the action bar is pretty tall the menu buttons cover more real estate on the screen than the contacts groups and conversations tabs combined the design itself is functional but it's not striking to look at it's not bad but you won't find anyone singing praises about it either the only other thing we could find were inconsistencies in the interface you can slide open the left side menu but you can't slide open the right side menu you can't swipe between tabs turning off the notification icon makes the app not work sometimes none of these are reason enough to complain on their own but put together the great somewhat confusing experience when you get right down to the brass tacks bbm for Android is definitely good enough to compete on most levels with other messaging services you can send text voice MMS and eventually video content using this app the group's function is simply amazing the interface isn't perfect but it isn't awful either the NFC contact sharing is a nice touch the app doesn't look amazing but it's functional which is all you can really ask for there is still a lot of work left to do for blackberry and unfortunately several issues will probably never be fixed the notification icon is likely here to stay forever and several design flaws will likely stick around for the long haul once the launch date kinks are worked out we see no reason why bbm for Android can't be successful for once blackberry did something that was more right than wrong once again I'm Joe Hendy the Android authority app guy feel free to subscribe to our YouTube channel and if you like this review check out some of our other ones you can find the written companion to this video in the video description along with our social media links thank you for watching and have a wonderful day