Want to communicate from a BB to an iPhone and vice versa? Here's how!

I've mentioned quite often in this blog, that I carry around 2 phones all day- my Blackberry and my iPhone. I tried to side with either device and OS, and in the end just realized I was fighting a losing battle. My inner Geek was always going to mourn the loss of whichever device it was that didn't get picked, and I'd constantly be looking over at the fence, thinking fondly of the grass I was missing on the other side. One of the things I love best about my Blackberry has got to me my BB Messenger. It allows me to chat with my friends whenever I want, without having a tedious software I have to log into before I can receive messages, or send them. That was one of the things I missed most when I had first abandoned my BB for the iPhone.

A few days back my friends introduced me to the wonders of an application called "WhatsApp." I had it on my iPhone already and knew it supported iPhone to iPhone chat, but had no clue it let me communicate with a Blackberry too! All users need to do is have WhatsApp downloaded on their devices (Blackberry users have to download it too) and it automatically goes through your existing phone book and shows up all the users who have the app (across platforms) and instantly adds them on your list of "Favourites." If you choose to not have people on your list, you can then go ahead and block them, but the way it recognizes new additions is pretty neat. One by one everyone on the table went around adding WhatsApp, and it individually kept popping up automatically on my list. Also, thanks to push notification on the iPhone, you don't need to be logged in to the software to get new messages either, and just like the BB, it allows you to put up status messages. The only advantage that BBM still has over this is that with my global unlimited plan, I can keep in touch with my friends anywhere in the world and not have to worry about exorbitant roaming rates. Due to this unfortunately, I can expect my status to be "Travelling.. Unreachable!" for quite a big chunk out of the year.

Learn more about WhatsApp on their website here
They also have an Android and Nokia Symbian version coming out soon, so be on the lookout for that!