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Back when text messages cost 10 cents each, BlackBerry came up with a better way: BlackBerry Messenger, commonly known as BBM. It was the first new idea about messaging in a long time, and it was a huge hit… for a while. Nilay Patel and Joanna Stern join David Pierce to talk about a messaging service that was years ahead of WhatsApp and iMessage, but ultimately fizzled. #VersionHistory #Podcast #Technology
0:00 The Rise of Text Messaging Costs in 2005
00:31 Introduction to BBM: A Game Changer
00:58 The Nostalgia of Early 2000s Phones
01:30 The Blackberry Era: A Cultural Phenomenon
02:01 The Birth of BBM: Revolutionizing Messaging
05:06 The Instant Messaging Boom of 2005
10:34 The Technical Backbone of Blackberry
12:53 BBM's Unique Features and Rapid Growth
26:41 The Decline of Blackberry and Rise of Competitors
30:25 BBM's Last Stand: Attempts to Save Blackberry
31:10 The Rise and Fall of BBM's Super App Vision
32:30 The Stickiness of Messaging Apps and the iPhone's Impact
33:49 WhatsApp's Emergence and BBM's Missed Opportunities
36:22 The 2011 BBM Outage and Its Aftermath
37:25 BBM's Last Stand and the 2013 Spin-Off Attempt
39:10 The Decline of BBM and the Rise of WhatsApp
41:13 Reflecting on BBM's Legacy and Missed Potential
42:27 Version History Questions: BBM's Best and Worst Features
49:08 Could BBM Have Been Saved?
58:24 Final Thoughts and Conclusion
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2025/10/12
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