Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Version History
Version History · Oct 14, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min

BlackBerry Messenger: Texting set free

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. Let us know what you think: 866-VERGE-11 or vergecast@theverge.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

0:00-1:01:25
Play in

transcript

No transcript — this publisher did not publish one.

show notes

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.

Let us know what you think: 866-VERGE-11 or vergecast@theverge.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

links1

more episodes

All episodes