BlackBerry has rolled out an update to BBM Enterprise for Android, iOS, macOS, Windows 10 and UEM-Based Enterprise Management for BBM Enterprise platforms.
MPOP has received an enhancement across the board and the maximum number of supported active devices has increased from 3 to 5.
BBM Enterprise for iOS
BBM Enterprise for iOS brings improvements to Notifications.  All splats, message counts, and notifications are synced across all active devices and the chat list now shows the number of unread messages for each individual chat.
Chat Actions have also been improved. Retract Chat can now be directly accessed from a dedicated menu option and Delete Group can now be directly accessed from a dedicated menu option. In-chat notifications will be shown when a chat participant has turned on screen recording.
In the File Gallery, users can now view non-image files shared in 1:1 and group chats and easily delete files to free up device storage space and the iOS app is now updated to align with native iOS US guidelines.
Group chats can now be designated as ‘High Priority’ such that each incoming message will raise a high priority notification. This setting will only apply to the client that it is enabled on.
Finally, BBM Enterprise for iOS now fully supports iOS 11.
BBM Enterprise for Android
BBM Enterprise for Android also brings improvements to Notifications. All splats, message counts, and notifications are synced across all active devices. Badge on the BBM Enterprise icon shows the count of unread messages, bulletins, and contact invitations and a new ‘badge icon widget’ shows a count of unread items, replacing the ‘splat icon widget.’. Notifications now show sender name and group subject in group notification and Image is now displayed in notification when receiving a picture message.
Chat Actions have also been improved in the Android app. Retract Chat can now be directly accessed from a dedicated menu option and Delete Group can now be directly accessed from a dedicated menu option.
In the File Gallery, users can now view non-image files shared in 1:1 and group chats and easily delete files to free up device storage space. Group chats can now be designated as ‘High Priority’ such that each incoming message will raise a high priority notification. This setting will only apply to the client that it is enabled on.
BBM Enterprise for macOS
Users can now Share their full desktop screen or all windows of an app, in a BBM-E chat. All BBM-E apps, including the Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS clients, must be updated to the latest version to view a desktop screen share.
BBM Enterprise for macOS also brings improvements to Notifications. All splats, message counts, and notifications are synced across all active devices, Chat list now shows the number of unread messages for each individual chat, Sender’s avatar is now shown in message notifications, Unread message count now shown on BBM-E icon and support has beeen added for quick reply on message notification.
Retract Chat can now be directly accessed from a dedicated menu option and Delete Group can now be directly accessed from a dedicated menu option. In the File Gallery users can view non-image files shared in 1:1 and group chats and easily delete files to free up device storage space.
BBM Enterprise for Windows 10
You can now share your full desktop screen or all windows of an app, in a BBM-E chat. All BBM-E apps, including the Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS clients, must be updated to the latest version to view a desktop screen share.
Windows also receives some Notification Improvements. All splats, message counts, and notifications are synced across all active devices, Chat list now shows the number of unread messages for each individual chat and Sender’s avatar is now shown in message notifications.
BBM Enterprise for Windows 10 also brings Improved Chat Actions. Retract Chat can now be directly accessed from a dedicated menu option and Delete Group can now be directly accessed from a dedicated menu option.
Windows Desktop Proxy brings support for sending communications through an HTTP Forward Proxy. Autodetection is performed for the availability of a proxy. The Desktop UI provides the ability to view and edit the proxy configuration. Note: Voice and Video calls not supported when proxy is required.
UEM-Based Enterprise Management for BBM Enterprise
You can now use the BBM Enterprise UEM Snap-in as an alternative to the EID console for both user and policy management. Only on-premise UEM is supported in this release.
User and device management has been improved and you can now Manage BBM Enterprise users and their devices in one console. BBM Enterprise and EMM can share the same UEM users’ group or be managed as a separate group on the same tenant. If a user is deactivated, all the user’s active devices will be removed from the BBM Enterprise infrastructure and locally wiped (provided they are reachable)
BBM Enterprise activation can be done individually, with an XLS import, or based on an Active Directory group.
There is now an improved activation flow and the dependency on BlackBerry ID has been replaced with a one-time activation password. This activation password is generated by the IT Admin and is set to expire after a specified time period. Additionally, an activation password can be set to expire after first use. For existing BBM Enterprise users migrating from EID to UEM-based management, all contacts and chats are migrated. However, note that the migration path is one way (i.e. users cannot migrate back from EID to UEM).
BBM Enterprise cloud directory service management has also been improved. The cloud directory can be directly updated by entering or importing user details. Users are also automatically imported to the cloud directory upon entitlement to BBM Enterprise and automatically removed from the cloud directory when their entitlement is removed.
BBM Enterprise for Android is available now and iOS, Win & Mac versions will be available later this week.
BBMÂ Enterprise allows employees to take advantage of the speed, reliability and privacy of BBM for faster communication, collaboration and decision making while providing security conscious organizations enhanced security over corporate data.
BBM Enterprise uses a FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic library, allowing for an enterprise grade layer of encryption. Messages, attachments, voice and video calls between users on BBM Enterprise are encrypted using a PGP like model. The sender and the recipient have unique public/ private encryption and signing keys. These keys are generated on the device, by the FIPS 140-2 certified cryptographic library, and are held by the enterprise.
BBM Enterprise and Blackberry are not involved in the brokering of the key exchanges, and (unlike other solutions) no servers are involved in managing or storing users’ keys. Furthermore, each message uses a new random symmetric key for message encryption. Additionally, each voice and video call also utilizes a new random symmetric key for each call direction.
BBM Enterprise can provide end-to-end encryption for messages, voice calls, and video calls that are sent between BBM Enterprise users in your organization and other BBM Enterprise users, inside or outside of your organization.
If your organization doesn’t use Protected Plus, default BBM encryption is used for messages that you exchange with contacts using BBM. Protected Plus can provide end-to-end encryption for all BBM chats, BBM voice calls, and BBM video calls that are sent or received by BBM Enterprise users in your organization, even if the recipient is not a BBM Enterprise user.
