Thumbs up: Rogers launches My Account app for BlackBerry

By: Rogers_Richard

May 5th, 2010 a 9:50am

In baseball, they call it a four-bagger.

Our popular My Account app is now being rolled out available for the BlackBerry smartphone – giving you secure access to your Wireless accounts to view balance and make payments as well as check airtime, messaging and data usage.

According to our research of the world’s largest wireless carriers, Rogers customers are now the only ones in the world that have access to this type of account-management app through four separate platforms: mobile browser, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

To date, hundreds of thousands of Rogers customers have already downloaded the iPhone and Android versions.

Account management on your schedule
We created the My Account family of apps after you told us you wanted the ability to manage your accounts on your schedule, anywhere on the Rogers network.

As with the My Account apps on other devices, it is free to download and use, the data is current up to 4 hours and it resets automatically on your bill date. And, similar to our iPhone and Android versions, the app is not accessible for our corporate or pre-paid customers. (Hang tight corporate customers, a version of the app for you will be available later this year).

Over the next few days, the new app will be rolled out to BlackBerry models 8220, 8520, 8900, 9000 and 9700. Customers with other BlackBerry smartphones may continue to open up a web-page on their mobile browser to access the data when they click the My Account icon.

How to get it

If you already have a My Account icon on your device, select it and follow the prompts to install the app.
If you do not have a My Account icon, you can power cycle your device by removing the battery, then putting it back in and powering it up. The icon should now appear on your smartphone.
Or, you can follow these steps:
- Go to Options
- Select Advanced Options
- Select Host Routing Table
- Click Menu button
- Select Register Now
- Wait for the device to register (typically less than 60 seconds).
- Once the My Account icon appears (it might be in your Downloads folder), click on it, and follow the prompts to install.

iPhone, Android and mobile browser

iPhone customers can download the app from the iTunes App Store or over the air via the App Store on the device. From your device, go to http://bit.ly/7bF4my for Rogers or http://bit.ly/6jKWGq for Fido.
Android users can head to the Android Market and search “Rogers My Account” and follow the steps to install.
To access the My Account data via the web, visit www.rogers.mobi/myaccount through your device’s mobile browser.

What do you think about the My Account app? Will you use it?

Richard Bloom is a regular contributor to RedBoard

Rating: 3.0/5 (26 votes cast)

Categories:

Customer experience, news, Wireless

Tags:

android, app, blackberry, Customer experience, iphone, mobile browser, My Account, Wireless

48 Comments

Graham says: May 5th, 2010 a 10:03am

I use the My Account app on my Android phone. It’s pretty good, but it would be even better if I could use it when I’m on WiFi.
- Rogers_Richard says: May 5th, 2010 a 10:27am
  
  Hi Graham,
  Thanks for your comment!
  I understand your concern, however, all My Account applications currently require a Rogers data network connection for authentication reasons.
  Cheers,
  Richard.
Andrew says: May 5th, 2010 a 10:39am

While I don’t care much about accessing this over Wifi, it would be excellent if Rogers had a ‘my account’ mobile site, so if we don’t have Rogers mobile devices we can still check on the status and information of our other services (Cable, internet, etc.)
danny says: May 5th, 2010 a 10:45am

Wow its awesome nice work…
Blahzay says: May 5th, 2010 a 10:50am

I see the link to install the app when I click the “My Account” icon on my blackberry, but I just get an error saying “The asset is unavailable”
- Rogers_Richard says: May 5th, 2010 a 11:57am
  
  Hi Blahzay,
  
  I’ve reached out to you directly via email to learn some more about the issues you’re experiencing and work to resolve with the My Account team
  
  Thanks!
  Richard.
Mark says: May 5th, 2010 a 11:04am

Really would want the Corporate version of this so i can manage and track all my iPhones (4 of them) on my account. And the ability to add or remove features from the voice or data plans…
Lewis says: May 5th, 2010 a 1:00pm

I’ve had this on my Bold for about a month (or more).

The voice tab gives a total for all the phones on my family plan, but not individual use.

Whereas the messages and data tabs provide individual use only.

Scrolling around the app up & down or left & right through the tabs is a bit tricky at times.

Quite often, I receive a “service unavailable from 2 am to 6 am” (or some other early morning time), even though I am attempting to access during the day.

There is no option to manage MY5 from the app, though this is available through the mobile site.

There is also no on-device management of CallManager (which is restricted to specific browsers on specific desktop OS).

This app is a good idea, but less reliable and less robust than using the WAP browser and the mobile site.
- Rogers_Richard says: May 5th, 2010 a 4:00pm
  
  Hi Lewis,
  Thanks for letting us know your thoughts on the app!
  The great thing about this blog is that it’s a real-time account of customer thoughts and opinions. Our My Account team is checking in here regularly and we’ll take your feedback into account for future versions.
  Thanks again!
  Richard.
Simon Sage says: May 5th, 2010 a 1:32pm

Are there any significant updates to the beta that was released in March?
- Rogers_Richard says: May 5th, 2010 a 4:18pm
  
  Hi Simon.
  
  Functionality is similar to the beta version. However, as with most beta releases we used that period to iron out any issues.
  
  Another key difference is the number of BlackBerry devices able to use the app. In beta, it wasn’t available to the number of handsets it is now.
  
  Thanks!
  Richard.
Inocencio Yang says: May 5th, 2010 a 7:51pm

Um…

So on my desktop (XP SP3 with firefox 3.6.3) I go to the link in this blog labelled ‘My Account App’ , and then click on ‘blackberry’, and then I scroll through thew whole list of apps available … but no MyAccount app is in the list. I’m not logged in (and don’t want to) – I’m just browsing anon.

(Richard, did you test the link to see if it was going to do what you said it would?)

But maybe my expectations are off.

Maybe in spite of you saying “is NOW available for the BlackBerry smartphone” (but then later “Over the next few days, the new app WILL BE rolled out”) I thought I should go to the link provided. Maybe. Or not, we’re not sure.

Maybe it’d be helpful if you blogged once the app was available for the majority, if not all, devices so that right when re read we can then go and download it?

There’s one other thing I don’t understand. Since everyone can access their account info using the phone’s web browser what is the point of the app? The thing I’d really like to know is what are all the EXACT differences between the web access and the app access.

Nice to see rogers putting stuff out but it seems the ‘deployment’ is a little bumpy.

I’ll say too though, that Rogers “pushing” apps & icons to my device any time I battery pull is really, REALLY unwelcome.

I did try getting the app from the blackberry app store too ya know – I searched for Rogers and get a msg from rim saying ” Unknown Error – An unknown error has occured”. Not Rogers fault, but still
#morefail
- Rogers_Richard says: May 5th, 2010 a 10:05pm
  
  Hi Inocencio
  
  Thanks for your comment and interest in the app.
  
  We know our readers want to know about new apps and services as soon as they become available so that’s why we decided to publish the post at the beginning of the roll out. However, I see your point on the possible misunderstanding and have updated the post accordingly.
  
  thanks for the feedback!
  Richard.
@intrpd04 says: May 5th, 2010 a 10:08pm

It’s nice, but really not useful to me. I need to check my wife’s and kids usage more than my own. Therefore, I still have to use a 3rd party app (that I had to pay extra for) to get something that really should be included! All 4 lines are under the same account.
Bhanu Chawla says: May 6th, 2010 a 12:14am

I wish there was an app similar to this for my Vodafone in India too. :(
Nathan says: May 6th, 2010 a 12:44am

The only “app” that I have is the online one – the same one I’ve had for the last few months. Am I missing something? I’ve done the steps listed in the “How to get it” section but still don’t have it.
- Rogers_Richard says: May 6th, 2010 a 10:32am
  
  Hi Nathan,
  
  Just checking to see you’re using one of the following BlackBerry models: 8220, 8520, 8900, 9000 and 9700.
  
  I’ll email you directly to learn more as well.
  
  Cheers,
  Richard.
savysmith says: May 6th, 2010 a 2:28am

I installed this app and have deleted the 3rd party app I had before. It is nice and I will continue to use it but it is lacking a few features the 3rd party app had:

- email alerts when customizable data-usage thresholds were crossed.
- ability to identify how much data other apps are using individually.
- ability to track data usage from tethering. I tested it by tethering for about 20 mb and then checking this app about 6 hours later and the 20 mb were not counted. I also spoke with a Rogers rep about this one.
- I understand the need to authenticate on the rogers data network, so it would be nice if this app could force the blackberry to use the Rogers network even if wifi is available. There are other apps (Bolt browser, 680News) that allow a user-defined option to use wifi or not.

So, the reason I’m not still using the 3rd party app is that it reported my data usage for the month at 230 mb when My Account reported it at only 120. So obviously the 3rd party app was inaccurate and accuracy is probably the most important aspect of a data usage tracking tool.
Miguel says: May 6th, 2010 a 10:32am

Yes! Its much faster than the web based one.
Marc says: May 6th, 2010 a 11:22am

How does this apply to corporate users? I have about 35 BB users on a BES in our company, most of which would like to be able to keep track of their minutes and data use. Can they use this app?
- Rogers_Richard says: May 6th, 2010 a 2:57pm
  
  Hi Marc,
  
  This app isn’t available for corporate users right now but we plan to have a version for you later this year.
  
  Cheers,
  Richard.
Shan says: May 6th, 2010 a 11:23am

Hi,

What is the current version of this app?
I have installed and using the the beta version from mid April up to now. Love it !!

Every time I try to do the “Check for Updates” from the menu, it seems to be not doing anything. No messages about any updates or no updates (may be because it is a beta version??).

If the final version is already rolled out… how do I get the latest version. Do I have to delete my beta version and do what you have suggested above?

Oh… one more thing… there is no ‘About’ option on the menu… it will be nice to have so that we know from the app itself what version we are using.

Thank you.
- Rogers_Richard says: May 6th, 2010 a 3:10pm
  
  Hi Shan,
  
  The version of the app you have installed is the latest one. No need to check for updates.
  
  And thanks for the suggestion on the “About” option. I’ll pass your idea on to my colleagues on the apps team.
  
  Cheers,
  Richard.
Martin says: May 6th, 2010 a 11:47am

Very useful app! Although, it would be great if it had the ability to view and change my5. Maybe in a future version?
- Rogers_Richard says: May 6th, 2010 a 3:12pm
  
  Hi Martin,
  
  Glad you like it!
  
  We plan to offer that functionality later this year via the app. However, you can manage your My5 via the mobile-browser version of My Account and through My Rogers at http://www.rogers.com/myrogers.
  
  Richard.
bbuser extraordinaire says: May 6th, 2010 a 3:56pm

I purchased an unlocked 8520 (I travel overseas a lot) to use with my Rogers plan…because I didn’t buy the device in store, does that mean that this app will not get pushed to my phone?
- Rogers_Richard says: May 7th, 2010 a 10:47am
  
  Hi bbuser,
  
  As long as you have a Rogers SIM card inside, you should receive it. We are doing a staged roll out, so please continue to try to power cycle your device.
  
  Cheers,
  Richard.
Maxpayne79 says: May 8th, 2010 a 4:43am

hey Richard, great post btw. :)

I have kind of a strange question. im using a BB bold 9000 (waiting for the fantastic looking 9800 slider), and i want this app on my phone cause i’m a heavy data user. Unfortunately i am on fido. Now from my understanding, as long as i get a rogers sim with a bb data account attached to it, it should theoretically download onto my unlocked bold once i place the sim into the phone and power up. My question more specifically is; will the app work with a fido account? or am i just wasting a tremendous amount of my time looking for this app all over the net and harassing my local rogers sales people for their BB sim cards, lol. Im looking 4ward to ur answer.

thanx Richard.

:)
max
- Rogers_Richard says: May 11th, 2010 a 9:37am
  
  Hi Maxpayne79
  
  At this time, the app is not available for Fido accounts.
  
  Cheers,
  Richard.
Sean says: May 8th, 2010 a 3:25pm

I have a BlackBerry Storm 2 from Verizon that is unlocked and I can’t seem to get the My Account app? I use the phone with my Rogers SIM card so will it come still?
- Rogers_Richard says: May 11th, 2010 a 9:35am
  
  Hi Sean,
  
  As long as you have a Rogers SIM card inside, you should receive and be able to use it.
  Richard.
- Rogers_Richard says: May 13th, 2010 a 10:01am
  
  Hi Sean,
  My apologies for the error. Unfortunately, this app won’t work on the BlackBerry Storm 2. It is only available for BlackBerry models 8220, 8520, 8900, 9000 and 9700.
Trevor Wenham says: May 10th, 2010 a 12:57pm

will it be avaliable for O/S 4.5 for 8310. I would like to have app instead of login to rogers.mobi/myaccount.
- Rogers_Richard says: May 11th, 2010 a 9:34am
  
  Hi Trevor,
  At this time, it’s only available for BlackBerry models 8220, 8520, 8900, 9000 and 9700,
  Unfortunately, we can’t comment right now on apps that may be in the works by our product-development teams.
  Richard.