BlackBerry: The battle BBM Channels will face

It was one of those spooky things: Just 10 minutes before I called him to talk about it, Wes Wotford was doing the thing BlackBerry hopes all its users will do, which is update their BBM messaging app to get its new BBM Channels social media service.

Wotford is the president of Motek Mobile, a development firm located not far from BlackBerry’s headquarters in Waterloo, Ont., and he’s been a longtime supporter of the company and its products. Although he hasn’t yet used BBM Channels to attract a following or to follow other people or brands, he’s at least optimistic about what the latest features could mean.

“What’s always been unique about BBM is the engagement. People are really responsive to BBMs,” he said. “Brands are probably looking to feed into that same environment.”

You better believe it. It’s more like a footnote amid the story about Hockey Night in Canada broadcasting rights, but the fact Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment will be among BlackBerry’s first partners on BBM channels suggests there is finally a monetization strategy in the works here. At the moment, though, BBM Channels is purely for users of BlackBerry devices, which is kind of like playing hockey in a melting, rapidly shrinking arena.

“BBM Channels being restricted to just one platform is limiting,” Wotford admitted. “We need to see what happens when it’s ubiquitous across iOS and Android.”

In the meantime, a recent report from London-based Portico Research suggests BlackBerry may be on the right track. While over-the-top (OTT) messaging apps like WhatsApp and BBM were once seen as the death knell for traditional short message services (SMS), Portico’s Karl Whitfield said the two will coexist, though usage patterns are changing.

“When economic conditions are bright, consumers are very happy using lots of SMS, and OTT messaging, AND social networking, all side-by-side,” he wrote. “The lines between OTT messaging apps and social networks are blurring.”

They’re also blurring with gaming. In fact, BlackBerry continues to face strong competition from neighbours like Kik Interactive, which has been partnering with mobile developers to integrate mobile games directly into its service. Given that messaging app users tend to come back multiple times a day, they may be more likely to spend more time on turn-based mobile games with their friends, boosting the games’ engagement and possibly increasing the value they get from Kik itself.

Last month BlackBerry settled its longtime legal battles with Kik, which was born from former RIM employees who were dissatisfied with how the company was growing BBM. Now the contrast between the two firm’s messaging strategies shows how complex the competitive landscape here will become.

BlackBerry wants to become more popular by connecting brands with its audience. Kik wants to become more popular by giving its audience something else to do besides text. These don’t have to be either-or tactics. BlackBerry should add a little more Kik to BBM Channels with games, and Kik should think about how it could bring something like the BBM Channels social experience to its platform. This broader feature set is inevitable. In the long term, at least on smartphones, there will be no such thing as idle chatting.