Does anyone use this? We are looking for something more secure than slack/a way to move phone calls into an app.

(Essentially, we need to protect downtime, more, which means moving phone calls to emergency only situations.)

Can you elaborate?
It's been a while but I used to support BB systems for a client.

We still use older (pre-android) blackberry devices.

It’s supposed to be a more modern system. They sent me a trial link to BB UEM, and I got out of my depth, and the tech fellow didn’t know much about it.

The messenger service seems secure, HIPAA compliant, etc - and is $5/year, and doesn’t require a phone number. (I cannot figure out why Signal insists on everyone’s number)

The UEM seems more like what we should use - I think it controls company email, contacts, etc, but might be a bit much for us to administer.

No.

The consumer version (BBM) is no longer available as of May 31, 2019.

As for the enterprise version, I work in corporate tech. I haven't seen BlackBerry Messenger in half a decade. The iPhone with a mobile device manager has taken over as the corporate "secure" device. Skype, Teams, and Slack are the IM systems most organizations use. I think BBMe is available as an app for those companies using BES/UEM 12.x but they're an also-ran in that space behind big players such as InTune, AirWatch, Maas360, and MobileIron. Even in places where it's available I can't imagine a lot of companies use it over something more popular.

I could give you a pretty good history about the rise and fall of BlackBerry because I was a heavy BlackBerry user about 15 years ago. They made an excellent, managed corporate email device that completely missed the boat on extensibility or interaction with anything outside their ecosystem. It's sad how cocky they got and had they partnered with Microsoft they could have made a big play for the enterprise space.

Probably the most secure corporate messaging system today is MS Teams paired with a Mobile Device Manager, a good set of policies, and deployed on an iPhone. If you need a backup system I would suggest pairing it with iMessage which uses both IP and SMS protocols. The biggest limitation with iMessage is a limited group chat size of 35 users so we limit it to just the corporate leadership team. If you need a mass, one-way notification system there are plenty of options out there such as Everbridge or AlertMedia. MDM systems also tend to have some sort of mobile notification system for enrolled devices. It all depends on your use case and audience size.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
(I cannot figure out why Signal insists on everyone’s number)

How would you suggest Signal Private Messenger verify you? I suppose they could use email, but how would that be any better than a phone number?

The phone number is only used to confirm your identity. It's never sent to anybody. It's never shared with anybody. Ever. Signal's privacy policy is clear and unambiguous:

quote:

Privacy of user data. Signal does not sell, rent or monetize your personal data or content in any way – ever.

Regarding your HIPPA compliance requirements:

quote:

Terms of Service
...
Keeping Your Account Secure. Signal embraces privacy by design and does not have the ability to access your messages. ...

Privacy Policy
...
Messages. Signal cannot decrypt or otherwise access the content of your messages or calls.
...

Ref: Signal Terms & Privacy Policy

IANAL, but that seems to me to meet HIPPA requirements.

TBH: If there's a more private, secure messaging platform currently available, I'd like to hear about it

I think part of it, which doesn’t matter to us, is that larger companies have to preserve messages. I’ll see how well Signal does.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
I think part of it, which doesn’t matter to us, is that larger companies have to preserve messages.

Hmmm... That gets into a tricky area. There are requirements under the FRCP for discoverability. Where that gets tricky is when there is no storage or archiving mechanism under Corporate control. Now the Corp is dependent upon employees not transgressing. Not a good place for a Corp to be.

I do not recall that company size had any bearing on the requirements under the FRCP.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
I’ll see how well Signal does.

I think that'll at least partly depend upon what you need it to do

Had a Zoom meeting with the BB fellow, yesterday. Seems like it should work - very professional, etc. (Its still BB, IOW.)

If a person wants to have a personal account, they can get one, and use it to communicate w. a company for $5/year, etc.

We will see how it works out, but it seems like it might be a good thing for us.

And good point about size and maintaining communications.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I work for Zoom.

Another vote for Zoom. Zoom now has a full featured Phone service. Unlimited USA/Canada calling for $14 a month without all the "hidden" fees that other carriers offer. SMS is included for USA and Canada. International SMS coming soon.

IM is secured by TLS 1.2 and AES-256 encryption and is included in both basic (free) and paid accounts. Reach out to me directly if you want to talk more.