Lately, I feel like I have been bombarded with BBM commercials of really obscure groups of people using BBM. The only thing I could possibly relate to is when a woman around my age says, “I can see when they received the message!” <Insert evil laugh here> Thankfully, I am here dear readers, to inform you of deeper and more pertinent features of BBM.

Just when I thought I had exhausted the subject of blackberry messenger with my ever popular debate of “received” versus “delivered” messages and argument of BBM being a personal messaging tool, there is more.

Consider the following scenario: Adam has not replied to Sarah’s message for 3 days and she knows this because it’s “delivered” and not “received”. However, Sarah has a blackberry 8830 and Adam has a 9700. Why does this matter?

Let’s examine the 9700 a little closer:

Notice how the first line of the message can be viewed without answering it? You are able to read what the person is saying without actually answering the message, therefore the message remains delivered to the sender. Furthermore, you can click “back” on your Blackberry and the alert (whether it be the flashing red light or sound is disabled) allowing one to completely forget the about message except that the icon remains. Fortunately, older Blackberries allow you to disable the alert without answering the message yet do not allow the luxury of reading the first line in the way described above. Fortunately, there is a way around this for older users, let’s look at an 8830 Blackberry messenger screen:

If you get a message that you don’t want to answer, go to another active conversation, the incoming message will appear (at least the first line) at the bottom of your conversation, however this does not appear to work for the bold. For other blackberry versions, you can go to your “messaging” icon which collects all of your messages; the first line of the BBM message will show up there. Just be sure to checkmark or click yes in BBM options for “forward/show chats in message application”.

The new version of BBM is very sexy compared to the older versions as it includes options of showing a picture and little status message; it’s very ICQ-esque. Yet, as I argued in an earlier post – with these new features of picture and status changes – it becomes quite personal and borderline stalker city since there is no private settings for BBM – all your “friends” see you. The advantage is, although they can see you, they don’t have to know that you read their message. That, folks is how to be sneaky on BBM.

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