@film_girl I remember working at a startup based on making software for the first Blackberries (we were started when the Blackberry was pager sized - I remember my interview to become employee number 5 included an opening question of “have you ever heard of a BlackBerry?” - I hadn’t). As such, we all had them in the office.
It was a revelation to be able to send each other instant messages under the table during meetings with other companies. Akin to how everyone Slacks each other side commentary & coordination signals now during zoom meetings.
@film_girl I actually worked for a startup (LiveProfile) that got bought by RIM to bring BBM to iOS and Android.
I don’t really have any insider knowledge about that other than I was really confused why they would want to do that. A few months after the acquisition the new CEO came in and thought the same thing. Canned the project and just wrote off the entire acquisition. I was “unassigned” for about a year, pretty much just like big head in Silicon Valley.
@film_girl it was the default method of communication for two generations. Kids wanted Blackberries or they could t communicate. RIM came out with the cute small pearl one to meet the market. Then. Almost overnight poof. I loved the Blackberry movie but I guess they couldn't quite fit in this particular phenomena. Note, Joanna Stern was the last person I knew who left BBM
@film_girl I remember being able to type with T9 without looking at my phone but the kids who could type with the tiny qwerty keyboard without looking were next fucking level
@film_girl testing installing leaked versions that weren’t packaged correctly and had to reload the entire OS sometimes to fix. Was always fun having to reset my BES password to setup all my corp stuff again lol.
@film_girl I remember how powerful I felt with BBM in that sense of connectedness. I was so entrenched in blackberry at the time, I paid for a second device and line for my then girlfriend (now wife) so that I could use BBM to chat with her. Lost a community when I moved on to iphone.
@film_girl BBM first released during my junior year of high school. It was the first messaging service I can remember using that had read receipts, & my classmates would constantly call each other out for leaving each other "on read" before that was really a thing -- "I KNOW you saw my message! You'd better write me back!"
At the time, I really hated the idea of read receipts & wished I could turn them off, but they've become so ubiquitous since that it's hard to imagine messaging w/o them.
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