blackberry sms

[upup]

How does the "free " sms work.

It 2 persons got a BB, must you sms to the blackberry number??
If I want to sms a person, must I ask him if his phone is a blackberry, in order to sms free.
If you rx a sms from another bb, can you forward it to any phone and vice versa.

thank you

 

[HapticSimian]

Normal SMSs are charged exactly the same on Blackberrys as on any other cellphone. What you're referring to is known as Blackberry Messenger, or shortened to BBM. Much the same as SMSs, but it is a dedicated BB application. To answer your questions:

1. You don't send a BBM to a number, but rather to a contact on a separate contact list. Each Blackberry device has a unique number (known as a PIN) and you can add people to your contact list if you know their PIN.
2. SMSs and BBMs are independent.
3. You could forward a BBM as an SMS, but you'd then pay for it.

 

[ebendl]

What enigma said is correct. You can also install WhatsApp (on most phones these days - include older Nokias):
1. Similar to BBM, you get a list of contacts to which you can send messages. However, WhatsApp pulls your whole contact list from your phone, send it to their servers and matches any other users that use the service and adds them to your contact list automatically. So in essence, it is using a phone number to send the message.
2. SMSes and BBMs and WhatsApp messages are independent.
3. On a BB running WhatsApp you won't be charged for the messages as it uses the free BB data. On another phone, you will pay data costs for the message to be sent.

 

[upup]

Is that also the same 150 character thing.

So say I want to sms you, it means I must ask you, do you have a berry, and then add this pin on my phone. only then for 3.

 

[ebendl]

No character limits on BBMs (that I know off) or WhatsApp.

Yep, you are correct in that you will typically ask somebody for his PIN and add him/her to your BB messenger list. You request to be a BBM contact with somebody and they receive a notification which they must approve or ignore. Only when approved can you chat as much as you like.

You can also add BBM contacts using the e-mail address associated with the user, or by scanning a special BBM barcode (by taking a photo of the other phone's screen).

 

[rifqah]

Use whatsapp or bbm... theres no free sms's from BB to BB