The excellent BlackBerry Messenger is one of the features of RIM’s brand of smartphones that has prevented it from being engulfed in the market by iOS and Android devices. Hugely popular with users and highly respected by technology and mobile phones experts, BlackBerry are committed to offering excellence to BBM users. The latest move by BlackBerry to keep their devices as the ultimate chat smartphones is to launch BBM 6. The latest version of BlackBerry’s instant messaging application will allow users to chat within games and applications, enabling them to instantly tell their friends about their favourite apps and even challenge them to a tournament of their favourite game.
From the offset, the new version of BBM will be built into various apps including Foursquare, the Huffington Post, Wikitude and various games. This is the first time that BBM chats will appear within the apps themselves, allowing users to carry on a conversation with their friends without interrupting what they were doing.
New features appearing in BBM 6 include status updates appearing on users’ BBM profiles informing their friends when they are using BBM-connected apps. High scores, achievements, Foursquare badges and more will also feature on a special section of users’ profiles. Users can also post which apps they are using to their profile so their friends can download them too.
This move by Blackberry is showing that they recognise the importance of social networking when it comes to selling apps. Despite the millions of BlackBerry users around the world, their flagging App World has struggled to compete with the Android Market and Apple’s App Store, and sales have suffered as a result. Integrating their applications with BBM, allowing for world-of-mouth sharing and recommendation of apps, could be the boost that the smartphone brand needs.
