Difference between WhatsApp and BBM – A closer look

WhatsApp and BBM are two competing messengers. While BBM was the first mover, WhatsApp caught up and became more popular due to its ease of making friends and cross-platform compatibility. With BBM launching on iOS and Android, the scenario becomes very interesting – lets see the difference!

1. WhatsApp ties to the phone number of the user whereas BBM has a unique BBM PIN (Personal Identification Number): While this is debatable on which is better… WhatsApp is simpler to set up and finding other WhatsApp users is very easy using your own phonebook. Hence, you can get connected and start messaging instantly.

On the other hand BBM assigns each user a unique BBM PIN which is used to add a new user. While it is more secure than giving out your phone number, but it takes time to build your BBM friends list and may get cumbersome if you have many friends.

2. BBM has a “Message Read” indicator whereas WhatsApp only has message delivered symbol (2 checkmarks): Well this one is the main difference between the two… the BBM is more precise on when the user reads the message (on top of that, it also shows if the message has been delivered). The BBM has a Blue ‘D’ symbol for delivery and a Green ‘R’ symbol indicating the message has been read.

WhatsApp on the other hand shows 1 checkmark if the message is sent to the WhatsApp server and 2 checkmarks if the message has been delivered to the recipient.

3. Web Access – WhatsApp vs BBM:

WhatsApp has launched web.whatsapp.com  and it allows to connect your phone and access all messages on your computer via Chrome Browser.

BlackBerry has a software called “BlackBerry Blend”, which helps access emails, BBM messages, and calendar entries on your PC, Android tablet and iPads. This was launched with the release of the BlackBerry Passport phone.

According to an article published by a website called “The Gadgetmasters” –

Skype Provides Only Mono AudioAudio on Facetime Described As Garbled”

and BBM Video Provides Stereo and Wide-Band Audio”  Link to the full article HERE

4. BBM has “BBM Channels” – BBM Channels is a micro social network where the users with similar interests come together. Its almost like a Facebook Fan Page but is more intuitive and tightly integrated with BBM. BBM channels will be coming in early 2014 to cross platform devices (Android and Apple) and is currently limited to BlackBerry Devices. Blackberry had acquired a company called ScrOOn to improve BBM services.

One thought on “Difference between WhatsApp and BBM – A closer look

  1. hiii…this is Rahul… im frequent user of Watsapp… can you pls. help me how to get information of all group members and numbers in a single page ?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.