BBM for Android

F

Fireprufe15

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2011
Messages
150
Reaction score
1
A lot of my friends have Blackberries, and they mostly flat out refuse to get Whatsapp as well, because 1) BBM already takes up most of their time and 2) They don't want to hand their cell number out to everyone. Now firstly, I know RIM themselves will never make this happen, which is why I've been thinking of this idea.

Would it work if you got yourself an old blackberry phone, and linked it up to your home network. Then you make an app for android as well as the Blackberry. The Blackberry side of the app takes received BBM messages and forwards them to the Android side app, where you see it as if it actually was BBM on your phone. You then send the message with this app, and then the BB side of the app receives it and sends it through the BBM app to the contact you wish t o message. Now this whole system seems much more trouble than it's worth, but would such a thing even work? And don't say that in that case I could just as easily walk around with the phone, but to that I say no. I detest BB phones and would never be caught dead using one. What do you think of such a system?

Also, I would absolutely love to go up to one of my BB user friends and ask for his BBM pin. When he responds asking if I finally got a blackberry, I would smugly smile and say no. It would be the ultimate satisfaction for me.
 
Last edited:
Not a bad idea! Although I think it will be quite a mission to extract the BBM messages to forward them.
 
If RIM have any real hope of saving themselves, they will have to start marketing BBM to other vendors before it becomes extinct...
I don't think an app that isn't developed within RIM's space would work- given that BBM runs through their BIS infrastructure.

But personally- I think it would be a step downwards if my Android was able to receive BBM messages. RIM is so irrelevant now that I couldn't care less.
 
Third Blue From the Sun said:
If RIM have any real hope of saving themselves, they will have to start marketing BBM to other vendors before it becomes extinct...
I don't think an app that isn't developed within RIM's space would work- given that BBM runs through their BIS infrastructure.

But personally- I think it would be a step downwards if my Android was able to receive BBM messages. RIM is so irrelevant now that I couldn't care less.
Click to expand...

I know they're irrelevant in the bigger picture, but if you're in my environment you wouldn't say that. 8/10 people in my school have a BlackBerry. Some even believe (I laughed when I heard this one) that in a few years everyone will have a BlackBerry. Yeah I hear you I probably shouldn't even be friends with such people, but in my defense they didn't have BB's when I met them. I try my best to help them see the light. I thought about the difficulty of getting the messages from BBM, but I'm sure that in some way the messages must be stored somewhere on the phone, all you would have to do is find out where it is saved and somehow gain access to those folders (like rooting an Android).
 
Fireprufe15 said:
I know they're irrelevant in the bigger picture, but if you're in my environment you wouldn't say that. 8/10 people in my school have a BlackBerry. Some even believe (I laughed when I heard this one) that in a few years everyone will have a BlackBerry. Yeah I hear you I probably shouldn't even be friends with such people, but in my defense they didn't have BB's when I met them. I try my best to help them see the light. I thought about the difficulty of getting the messages from BBM, but I'm sure that in some way the messages must be stored somewhere on the phone, all you would have to do is find out where it is saved and somehow gain access to those folders (like rooting an Android).
Click to expand...

After a quick google, it doesn't look like the messages are stored on the phone, but on the RIM BIS servers. So to forward the messages, you would need to decrypt them. Which no one has been able to do.
 
Sysem said:
After a quick google, it doesn't look like the messages are stored on the phone, but on the RIM BIS servers. So to forward the messages, you would need to decrypt them. Which no one has been able to do.
Click to expand...

But when the phone is offline, you can still read (at least some of) your old messages. They need to be kept somewhere.
 
Fireprufe15 said:
A lot of my friends have Blackberries, and they mostly flat out refuse to get Whatsapp as well, because 1) BBM already takes up most of their time and 2) They don't want to hand their cell number out to everyone. Now firstly, I know RIM themselves will never make this happen, which is why I've been thinking of this idea.

Would it work if you got yourself an old blackberry phone, and linked it up to your home network. Then you make an app for android as well as the Blackberry. The Blackberry side of the app takes received BBM messages and forwards them to the Android side app, where you see it as if it actually was BBM on your phone. You then send the message with this app, and then the BB side of the app receives it and sends it through the BBM app to the contact you wish t o message. Now this whole system seems much more trouble than it's worth, but would such a thing even work? And don't say that in that case I could just as easily walk around with the phone, but to that I say no. I detest BB phones and would never be caught dead using one. What do you think of such a system?

Also, I would absolutely love to go up to one of my BB user friends and ask for his BBM pin. When he responds asking if I finally got a blackberry, I would smugly smile and say no. It would be the ultimate satisfaction for me.
Click to expand...

Make new friends.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Wow, you have lame friends :D
Click to expand...
My thoughts exactly. Me and my one friend keep telling them not to get BB's, but they still do. Some of them I can understand, because they were using up to R800 of airtime a month on feature phones, I don't think the picture of their data usage would be pretty on an Android.
 
marine1 said:
I think Samsung will buy BB ;)
Click to expand...

Think and hope... its a quality service.


Having whatsapp and BBM on your phone really does suck. The problem is that iPhoners will still have to get it... we all have a spread of friends that have either BBM, IOS or Droid
 
The messages are stored on your phone. Open your file explorer, then press your menu button, select the "show hidden folders" option. Open the "im" folder, and as you keep going further in you will find the conversations / messages, stored in .csv format, labelled by each BBM PIN code. Got rid of my BB a while back, so it is not a detailed description...

The messages are relayed via the RIM BIS servers, therefore the encryption. The mobile operators like Vodacom would have you believe that these are the so called bottlenecks with their slow BIS service here...
 
Nerfherder said:
Think and hope... its a quality service.


Having whatsapp and BBM on your phone really does suck. The problem is that iPhoners will still have to get it... we all have a spread of friends that have either BBM, IOS or Droid
Click to expand...

To be honest, Whatsapp only sucks on Blackberry. I have found it FAR better on Android than even BBM is on RIM's excuses for smartphones...
 
Third Blue From the Sun said:
The messages are stored on your phone. Open your file explorer, then press your menu button, select the "show hidden folders" option. Open the "im" folder, and as you keep going further in you will find the conversations / messages, stored in .csv format, labelled by each BBM PIN code. Got rid of my BB a while back, so it is not a detailed description...

The messages are relayed via the RIM BIS servers, therefore the encryption. The mobile operators like Vodacom would have you believe that these are the so called bottlenecks with their slow BIS service here...
Click to expand...

If they are stored there and on top of that even labeled by BBM Pin, this would be easier than I thought. Are the messages in those .csv files encrypted or already decrypted?
 
Fireprufe15 said:
If they are stored there and on top of that even labeled by BBM Pin, this would be easier than I thought. Are the messages in those .csv files encrypted or already decrypted?
Click to expand...

Not encrypted at all. You can copy them to your PC and open them in Excel.
 
Fireprufe15 said:
So when you receive a message it is written into those files completely readable? Then this kind of app wouldn't be nearly as hard as I thought it would be.
Click to expand...

Yes.

But remember- the app still needs to receive the messages from the BIS servers that relay these messages, and have to decryt the data before making it view-able / available to the phone.
 
Fireprufe15 said:
But when the phone is offline, you can still read (at least some of) your old messages. They need to be kept somewhere.
Click to expand...

Third Blue From the Sun said:
The messages are stored on your phone. Open your file explorer, then press your menu button, select the "show hidden folders" option. Open the "im" folder, and as you keep going further in you will find the conversations / messages, stored in .csv format, labelled by each BBM PIN code. Got rid of my BB a while back, so it is not a detailed description...

The messages are relayed via the RIM BIS servers, therefore the encryption. The mobile operators like Vodacom would have you believe that these are the so called bottlenecks with their slow BIS service here...
Click to expand...

I stand corrected! Seems easy then! Too easy...
 
Fireprufe15 said:
My thoughts exactly. Me and my one friend keep telling them not to get BB's, but they still do. Some of them I can understand, because they were using up to R800 of airtime a month on feature phones, I don't think the picture of their data usage would be pretty on an Android.
Click to expand...
Cell C just announced 15c per meg OOB data prices, no excuses for using BIS
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X