BlackBerry Messenger Steps Up to Voice Service on BlackBerry OS 5

There's no denying that BlackBerry has seen a lot of changes in recent weeks. Changes in service, in design, even in name have marked the company's fight to recover the kinds of sales and public perception seen in its glory days. But to that end, BlackBerry has a something extra to roll out for BlackBerry Messenger, one of the biggest facets of life with BlackBerry.

BlackBerry, on its blog earlier today, revealed that BlackBerry Messenger was getting a bit of change on BlackBerry OS 5 devices: the addition of BBM Voice support.

For those not already familiar with BBM Voice, the program essentially allows for voice calls to be placed over a Wi-Fi signal between two users of BlackBerry Messenger, at no charge, making the whole picture almost like a Skype for BlackBerry users. While many BlackBerry users have been able to enjoy BBM Voice for some time, the service has now expanded outward to other users, thus increasing the pool of total users who can make contact with each other via the BlackBerry service.

Better yet, those who find themselves now able to use BBM Voice will be able to do so without sacrificing any of the other features involved, like being able to send pictures and other files while engaging in a voice chat. The newest version of BlackBerry Messenger, 7.0.1, is reportedly now available for download.

But if it doesn't appear in the BlackBerry World storefront, stay calm; there have reportedly been occasional lags lasting up to 24 hours between the official release of an app or update and its inclusion in the storefront.

BlackBerry frankly needs some help on this front. Recent news has been littered with stories of BlackBerry losing contracts with governments and businesses – Home Depot, the Mall of America, and New Zealand for starters – and the individual consumer has been migrating to Android and iOS devices for years now. BlackBerry is still a force to be reckoned with, sure enough, but these are not BlackBerry's glory days.

There's a lot more competition – stiffer, too – backed by big names: Samsung, Apple and Google.

BlackBerry needs to reassert its value proposition, and in a big way. The firm must offer services and applications and technologies that other systems cannot, or will not, and it needs those items to be so compelling that they’re impossible to ignore. BlackBerry needs the equivalent of a Siri, but for something different. Of course, it could also likely use a Siri just to keep up with Apple, but the concept remains.

For BlackBerry to come back to prominence, it needs to be the force it once was.

How can BlackBerry recover? That remains to be seen. Offering the current array of services to a wider pool of users is an excellent start, but it's really only a start. BlackBerry needs to reassert itself as the next big thing, and before it's ultimately too late.