BBM Voice and BBM Channels Now Available for Android and iPhone Customers

BBM Voice and BBM Channels Now Available for Android and iPhone Customers

A new version of BBM will be available later today for Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry customers.

Android and iPhone customers will now be able to make free voice calls to BBM contacts over a Wi-Fi or data connection with BBM Voice*, as well as access BBM Channels. In addition, BBM customers on Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry** smartphones will have more to chat about with fast one-click sharing of photos, documents, voice notes and more. BBM customers will also be able to share their live location for a specified amount of time with other BBM contacts by using location sharing, powered by Glympse, and will have 100 new emoticons available.

BBM Channels:-

• Open, yet private. Channel owners control the conversation on their channels. Channel owners can choose to: allow subscribers to comment on posts freely or to approve them first; let subscribers chat with them directly anytime, or set chat hours; they can interact with subscribers without ever giving out personal details, or adding them as a personal BBM Contact. And with private channels, channel owners can keep in touch with closer circles on an invite-only basis.
• Channel reporting. Each channel has its own performance dashboard built right in. Channel owners can see stats on how subscribers are engaging with their channel, how many people have viewed each post and how the subscriber base is growing.
• It’s fast and easy. Start a channel right from a BlackBerry, iPhone or Android smartphone. It only takes a few minutes to set up a BBM Channel and once it is set up, posting to it is as simple as choosing a photo and adding a short message.

Dropbox Support

Built-in support for Dropbox makes it easy to send large files like presentations and videos. With Dropbox built in to BBM, you can send a file from your personal cloud directly to a BBM contact. On the receiving end, you can save the file directly to your smartphone or add it to your Dropbox account.

* BBM customers and their contacts will need to have BBM Voice, a data plan and Wi-Fi coverage to make calls to each other. Data charges may apply.
**The new version of BBM on BlackBerry (BBM v.10.3) will be available on BlackBerry 10. BlackBerry OS5 and above will also be updated but will not include location sharing or Dropbox integration.