I’m working with a bunch of BBerry users (BAH!) and what I really want is to tap into their Blackberry Messenger (BBM) system using my iPhone.
Although not exactly what I want, in my search I came across Group Texting services. I already had a few of the apps installed but never really used them. I never really paid attention to how they work or which devices they worked on, so I started tweeting about my requirements, which is that it needs to work with iPhone and Blackberry and probably non-smartphones for good measure, needs to be dead easy, free would be best.
After playing around for a bit, I’m going to go with GroupMe. Of course, I can choose it all I want, but if I can’t get the group of people I’m working with to use it then it’s of no use to me. Ultimately I want to tap into the BBM world. Any chance of that happening???
Here are the apps that people tweeted to me (NOTE – I took a quick glance at the sites so I may have got something wrong. Feel free to correct me):
- I had this one installed and played around with it a bit. I have a few friends that work(ed) there and prefer to use this service.
- As I’m unsure how BBerry users can manage anything without app support, I can’t use this.
- @dalai replied to me “android and iphone users can download the textPlus app (no bberry yet). However, groups can include any phone number via sms.”
- App support for iPhone, Android, BBerry, Nokia
- Only supports data plan, not SMS
- @helloerica “A lot of folks I know on BBerries use WhatsApp now, which is available on iPhones too. whatsapp.com”
- @bradbarrish “I like whatsapp”
- @briane “whatsapp works great for me”
GroupMe - WINNER (for now)
- App support for iPhone, Android, BBerry, Nokia
- One number to group text. Also seems you can voice conference with same # but I haven’t confirmed that yet
- Supports data plan or SMS
- @har0ld mentioned it
- @spangley “We used GroupMe for my bachelorette weekend & it worked splendidly.”
- @keithprime “My group of friends ended up picking @groupme as well. @LiveProfile seems promising, but they didn’t have group chat feature.”
- @GroupMe “Thanks for the post! Looks like you’ve got it. #) (And yes, you can have a conference call by calling the same number).”
- Appears to work only with iPhone and Android. Doesn’t fit requirement of BBerry
- Facebook has acquired Beluga…usually that means support is going to suck until integration and assimilation is complete
- @missrftch “I have used Beluga on two occasions and it worked fine on Android/iPhone. Not sure about BBerry tho.”
- @armst mentioned it
- Appears to work only with iPhone and Android. Doesn’t fit requirement of BBerry
- One number to chat with group. Makes me think it will work with any phone, but if you need an app to manage, then non-starter
- @armst mentioned it
- @fastsociety “The new Fast Society lets you share video, along with a bunch of other awesome features! Let me know if you have any questions”
- @fastsociety “BB users can participate via SMS, either by being added to a team or launching one from the web (just visit fastsociety.com on the BB)”
