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Dear RIM,
We, the generation that was raised on the sweet nectar of constant connectivity, love BBM. In fact, it is the reason that most of us came to BlackBerry, and the reason that most of us won't leave.
So, if it is known that we thrive (and thus you thrive) on the ease and rapidity of this connection, why not focus on making it easier to use and therefore more addicting? One improvement that comes to mind has to do with the first stage of communicating via BBM: adding the contact.
I can't count how many times I have had to explain the laborious, complicated, and difficult-to-remember process of adding a BBM contact. And they must be taught two processes, both as the "pin sending" and the "pin receiving" party!!
As the "pin sending" party you must:
1. Open a text message to the person you want to add
2. Type in "mypin" WITHOUT A SPACE
3. Remember to put a space (AutoText is not a function that is intuitively understood, yet)
4. Send it
5. Wait
As the "pin receiving" party you must:
1. Open the received text
2. Copy the Pin number
3. Exit and go to AddressBook
4. Find the correct contact and select
5. Paste the Pin number in the correct field
6. Save
7. With the cursor over the desired contact, hit menu
8. Select Invite to Messenger
This is difficult for my peers. For the parents and otherwise savvy business-minded adults I've tried to teach it to--forget it. It is really just funny to watch them struggle to learn but you know that you're going to get a few phone calls (if they even remember that there is such a process) before they eventually give up and have you do all of it for them.
There even seems to be this new "Invite Contact" option on the BBM menu, but it's never proved to be a successful method for adding contacts. Maybe I could figure it out if I looked online or called tech support, but it shouldn't have to be like that. And the barcode scaning way of adding people? Its interesting, but just to people who spend a lot of time playing BrickBreaker. Most people will never learn or end up utilizing that function.
I recommend that when a pin has been BBMed to us, we can use the menu to select which contact it applies to, and the the BlackBerry sends an invite immediately. I mean come on, its not like we are going to go through all of the trouble of putting them in our AddressBook if we're not going to add them. Though it does add to the exclusivity appeal of BBM, but we can find a less obtrusive way of fitting that in. The bottom line is this: RIM, many of us have hundreds of BBM contacts--please make the process of connecting to all of our best friends a little easier.
Sincerely,
Tara Raffi
Instant-Connectivity Enthusiast
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