BlackBerry, as promised earlier, will be rolling out BBM Voice and BBM Channel features for its BBM for Android and iPhone over the course of next month, the company has revealed.
BlackBerry will be introducing the free voice call feature on its cross-platform messing app through a global update, which will also see users surfing and creating BBM channels, sharing content as well as geographical locations too.
Senior director, channel marketing in Asia Pacific for Blackberry, Krishnadeep Baruah, confirmed the news to members of the press in India that the update to BBM for Android and iPhone will roll out ‘within a few weeks’. He also added that with this update BBM will come in direct competition with leading instant messenger apps including Viber and WeChat.
In addition the company also has plans of launching BBM for Windows platform in the future. Windows, at present, is the only operating system which does not support BBM. Baruah said that “We’re constantly evaluating and hopefully at the right time we will be able to launch on newer platforms.”
BBM Voice allows users to make voice calls anywhere in the world for free over Wi-Fi. While on a BBM Voice call, users can indulge in various things like scrolling through BBM messages, checking mails and access other apps as well. Check out a few BBM for Android beta screenshots here.
BBM Channels on the other hand allows users to share their experiences beyond their friends and acquaintances. Channels created by users can be joined by unlimited number of followers. At present, users can have access to more than 250,000 channels globally.
In an attempt to revive back the company’s market presence, BlackBerry has recently tied up with Micromax, which will see the company’s Canvas series handsets come preloaded with the BlackBerry Messenger.
