Channels And Voice Calling Coming To BBM

BBM, the software coming from the now failing BlackBerry, has been the only good thing coming from the company recently. BlackBerry Messenger launched on iOS and Android a few months ago, and now it is looking to add new features.

The current version available is entirely revolved around the simple chat feature. You can start a chat with a friend, or make a group message, and send text, pictures, and voice notes.

However, it sounds like the Canadian company is bringing some other new features to both the iOS and Android flavors of its mobile messenger, which includes features such as BBM Channels and Voice Calling. These features – just as BBM is now – will be free, and coming next year.

Channels lets users create groups, and then you can invite users into that group to talk about a certain topic. If you are interested in cars, for example, you could make a group with your friends and share pictures of cars that you see while out and about. It is the most recent feature to be introduced to BBM, and will be seeing iOS and Android adoption next year.

Voice Calling is exactly what you expect it to be. Users will be able to call other BBM users – for free – from their BBM compatible devices (which is any iPhone that can install BBM as well as any Android phone that runs BBM). A great part about this is it works overseas, so if you need to call someone in another country, you can do so as long as you both have a data connection.

Overall, it looks like BlackBerry is using BBM as its last lifeline. Releasing it on other platforms still seems like a strange move to me, seeing as that almost is like a suicide attempt.

BBM is [was] one of the only reasons left to buy a BlackBerry, so now there is virtually no reason to. Extra security? Government agencies are slowly but surely clearing the iPhone for government use, so I’m sure its secure enough for my needs. Nonetheless, I won’t complain about it bringing its software to my platform of choice.

What do you think? Are you excited for these new features? Are there any other BBM features you wish it’d bring to iOS and Android? Let us know in the comments

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