Back in January when BlackBerry launched its newly re-designed, re-booted OS, BlackBerry 10, it made a lot of changes. One of those changes was how BlackBerry Messenger or BBM works. One of the most important adjustments made to BBM was the ability to have a BBM video chat and the ability to screen share between the connected devices.
BBM has been one of BlackBerry’s most popular proprietary features. Until now it has been just that, a feature. Adding the video chat and screen share functionality in BB 10 pumped it up. Now four months later at the BlackBerry Live event in Orlando, Fla., BlackBerry has unveiled more upgrades and changes to BBM.
Of all the major announcements concerning BBM, the most significant one has to be the fact that BlackBerry is going to support both the Android (Ice Cream Sandwich version and up) and iOS (6 or higher) platforms. If downloading BBM to these platforms is not enough for you, how about being able to do it for free? That’s right; if you have an iPhone or Android device you can now download the latest version of BBM for free beginning this summer.
BlackBerry CEO, Thorsten Heins said, “We will make BBM available as the premiere multi-platform IM solution all around the globe. Even better, it’s free!” At the keynote address, Heins mentioned that BBM has more than 60 million users and they are sending out over 10 billion messages every day.
Making BBM available cross platform shows that BlackBerry is forging ahead. Heins stated that the reason the company is doing this now is “it’s a statement of confidence. The BlackBerry 10 platform is so strong and support has been so good that the time is right for BBM to become an independent messaging solution.”
It will take a little while for all of the features to make it to the other platforms. Initially, Android and iPhone users will be able to send chats and join BBM groups. Soon though, they will also have the options of video chat and screen sharing.
Another announcement for BBM was that it was introducing Channels. This is more or less a social media platform that is currently in beta mode, but is expected to be available this summer. Any user can create a Channel. Once it is set up, others can then “follow” the Channel.
BBM Channels seems to be geared more towards brands and possibly celebrities. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, anyone reading the post can “like” or respond and leave comments. The person who created the Channel can also initiate a private conversation. This is an option that will be available soon.
According to BlackBerry, some of the key features are:
Channel Profile- View personalized channel profiles for each BBM Channel including additional content helping to bring the channel to life such as welcome messages, images, maps and more.
Receive Posts - Stay up-to-date on the things that matter to you with instant updates from your subscribed channels. Receive notification when new posts are available and chose whether you would like to be notified.
Engagement options - Get involved in conversations with your favorite communities by commenting on and liking posts from the Channels to which you have subscribed or share interesting posts with your BBM contacts.
How will giving BBM away for free still make BlackBerry profitable? As stated by Andrew Bocking who is executive vice president of Software Product Management at BlackBerry, "By opening it up to other platforms we're really listening to what our users have asked for. They want to be able to talk and communicate with their friends, family and colleagues ... regardless of what mobile device they use."
Bocking said that that his company is expecting profits to come from the BBM Channels platform. By making BBM available cross platform and having more people use it, more users will be drawn into using Channels.
"Hyper local mobile offers is really where we think the marketing and advertising business is going." Bocking said. “But direct marketing has its setbacks as BBM could risk launching its new service and turning it into a glorified junk mail folder for people who like to sign up for special offers, but rarely use them. BlackBerry will be careful to place a wall between a BBM user's personal space and their other brand communication interests.”
You can see that BlackBerry put a lot of thought into these new features. It has really taken what was once just a feature of the old BlackBerry OS and made it into its own platform. Towards this end, BBM will be downward compatible. You will be able to download a version that will work on BlackBerry OS 5.
Edited by
Jamie Epstein
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